Visigoth

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin Visigothus, from Gothic. According to Mallory & Adams, possibly a tribal name derived from Proto-Germanic *wesuz (reflected in personal names such as Old High German *wisu), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁wésus (“good, excellent”). If so, related to Proto-Celtic *wesus (found in personal names), the Italic goddess Vesuna, and Sanskrit वसु (vasu, “good, excellent”).

The term was coined by Cassiodorus under the misapprehension that it meant "west Goths".

Noun

Visigoth (plural Visigoths)

Any member of an ancient East Germanic tribe, one branch of the Goths (the Ostrogoths being the other), which participated in several wars with Rome and established a kingdom with Toulouse for its capital.

Derived terms

Visigothic

Related terms

Goth
Ostrogoth

Translations

member of an East Germanic tribe

Arabic: قُوطِيّ غَرْبِيّ‎ m (qūṭiyy ḡarbiyy)
Catalan: visigot m, visigoda f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 西哥特人 (Xī Gētè rén) (Mainland China), 西哥德人 (Xī Gēdé rén) (Taiwan)
Danish: vestgoter c
Esperanto: visigoto
French: wisigoth (fr) m, Wisigoth (fr) m
German: Westgote (de) m
Greek: Βησιγότθος (el) m (Visigótthos)
Hungarian: vizigót, nyugati gót
Irish: Viseagotach m
Italian: visigoto (it) m
Norwegian:
Bokmål: vestgoter m, visigoter m
Nynorsk: vestgotar m
Polish: Wizygot (pl) m, Wizygotka f
Portuguese: visigodo (pt) m
Russian: визиго́т m (vizigót), вестго́т (ru) (vestgót)
Spanish: visigodo (es) m
Swedish: västgot c
Tagalog: Bisigodo
Ukrainian: вестго́т m (vesthót), візіго́т m (vizihót)

References

Mallory & Adams (2006): The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World