List of Terms Used For Germans

There are many alternative ways to describe the people of Germany, though in English the official designated nationality as well as the standard noun is German. (see also demonym). During the early Renaissance, "German" implied that the person spoke German as a native language. Until German unification, people living in what is now Germany were named for the region they lived in, examples include Bavarians, Brandenburgers and Hanoverians. Some other terms are humorous or derogatory slang, and used mainly by people from other countries, although they can be used in a self-deprecating way by German people themselves. Other terms are serious or tongue-in-cheek attempts to coin words as alternatives to the ambiguous standard terms.

Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, terms and/or germans:

    A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

    The only freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the freedom to do wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest terms to anyone who will take it of me.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)

    I think that both here and in England there are two schools of thought—those who would be altruistic in regard to the Germans, hoping that by loving kindness to make them Christian again—and those who would adopt a much tougher attitude. Most decidedly I belong to the latter school, for though I am not blood-thirsty, I want the Germans to know that this time at least they have definitely lost the war.
    Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)