[ad. late L. Visigoth-us, usually in pl. Visigothi (late Gr. Οὐισίγοτθοι); the contrast with Ostrogothi (OSTROGOTH) has suggested that the first element is to be taken as meaning ‘West.’]
1. A member of that branch of the Gothic race that entered Roman territory towards the end of the fourth century and subsequently established a kingdom in Spain, overthrown by the Moors in 711–2; a West-Goth. Chiefly in pl.
1647. Cotterell, Davila’s Hist. France, I. I. 4. The famous incursions of … the Visigoths,… and the Longbeards.
1763. Smollett, Trav., x. This amphitheatre [at Nismes] was fortified as a citadel by the Visigoths.
1780. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2), V. 3349/2. The Romans distinguished the Goths into two classes, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths…. The Visigoths settled in Spain in the time of the Emperor Honorius.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 106. The West Goths (Visigoths) … were followed across the Alps in 405 by a new army of the same nation.
1867. E. F. Bowden, trans. Fathers Desert, 258. Julian was by birth a Visigoth, and had fallen into slavery through the fortune of war.
1889. J. B. Bury, Hist. Later Rom. Emp., II. i. I. 64. The event which at length brought him into contact with Stilicho was the rising of the Visigoths.
2. transf. An uncivilized or barbarous person. Cf. GOTH 2.
1749. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 307. He … had entirely forgot what Visigoths his countrymen are.
1764. Foote, Patron, II. 47. Sir Thomas. She [a careless housemaid] merits impaling. Oh, the Hun! Dactyl. The Vandal! All. The Visigoth.
