[ad. L. Teuton-ēs, Teuton-i (rarely sing. Teuton, -us), ethnic name. For sense 2 see Note to TEUTONIC.]
1. In pl. (usually in L. form Teutones) applied to an ancient people of unknown race, said to have inhabited the Cimbric Chersonesus in Jutland c. 320 B.C., who, in company with the Cimbri, in 113–101 B.C. devastated Gaul and threatened the Roman republic.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Teutonic, belonging to the Teutons, an ancient people of Germany, inhabiting chiefly along the coasts of the German ocean.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIV. 420/2. The consul Manilius and the proconsul Cæpio were defeated by the Teutones and Cimbri in Gaul.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, v. 41. Both Teutons and Cimbri were Germans.
2. A German; in extended ethnic sense, any member of the races or peoples speaking a Germanic or Teutonic language; in Great Britain and its colonies, and the United States, often used like ‘Saxon’ in opposition to ‘Celt,’ and in avoidance of ‘German’ in its modern political sense.
1833. D. Macmillan, in Hughes, Mem., ii. (1883), 20. I am very glad that my mother is a Teuton.
1841. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 221. These isolated Teutons constituted under the Venetian government a sort of smuggling free state.
1900. A. Lang, in Blackw. Mag., April, 543/2. He is a partisan of the pure Teuton.
Hence Teutondom, the land or domain of the Teutons, Germany; the German people or state; Teutonesque a. [-ESQUE], of Teutonic character.
1870. Baring-Gould, Orig. Relig. Belief, I. xx. 497. Charlemagne was the Messiah of Mediæval *Teutondom.
1880. Stallybrass, trans. Grimm’s Teutonic Mythol., I. 103. Those divinities of whom there is least trace to be found in the rest of Teutondom.
1889. R. B. Anderson, trans. Rydberg’s Teutonic Mythol., 22. Did they look upon themselves as aborigines or as immigrants in Teutondom?
1839. Darley, Beaumont & Fletcher’s Wks., I. Introd. 38. A *Teutonesque consonantal language like ours, will, however polished, want sufficient melodiousness.
