Germanus

First used by Caesar and Tacitus to describe tribes as distinct from the Gauls and originally from the east of the Rhine. Of uncertain origin; several conjectures now deemed improbable have been put forward, such as:

• being from a Celtic/Gaulish word^[1] meaning "neighbor", from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“short”) (whence Irish gair (“neighbor”, literally “nearby”)),^[2]
• or being from a Celtic/Gaulish word meaning "noisy", from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeh₂r- (“to shout”) (whence Proto-Celtic *garman, Latin garriō),^[2]
• or being related to Old High German gēr (“spear”).^[2]

It may have originally been the name of a particular tribe.^[2]

Note: it is not to be confused with the word germānus (“of brothers or sisters”), which derives from germen (“sprout, bud”) and is thought to be unrelated.^[1]

More at Germani.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɡɛrˈmaː.nʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [d͡ʒerˈmaː.nus]
• Homophone: germānus

Germānus (feminine Germāna, neuter Germānum); first/second-declension adjective

1. Relating to the native peoples or tribes of ancient Germania
2. Germanic

First/second-declension adjective.

Germānus m (genitive Germānī); second declension

1. a Germanic person (male); member of a Germanic tribe

Second-declension noun.

• Germāna
• germānicus
• Germānia

• “Germanus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Germanus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.