Theodiscus is a Middle Latin adjective referring to the Germanic vernaculars of the Early Middle Ages, first attested in 786 as tam latine quam theodisce "both in Latin and in the vernacular". The Old High German language in Latin sources of the time is referred to as theodisca lingua. It is derived from Common Germanic *þeudiskaz. The stem of this word, *þeuda, meant "people" in Common Germanic, and *-isk was an adjective-forming suffix, of which -ish is the modern English form. The Old English form is þéodisc, the Old High German one diutisc (attested ca. 1090 in the Annolied). Ultimately, the word comes from PIE *teuta, meaning "tribe".[1] It has survived in the English word Dutch, the German word Deutsch, the Dutch words Diets and Duits, the Yiddish word taytsh, the Danish word tysk, the Swedish word Tyska, the Icelandic word þjóð "people, nation" and the modern Italian word tedesco "German".
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Notes
- ^ American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, New College Edition, Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, 1981. ISBN 0-395-20360-0. P. 1546, at teuta.
