Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of one of the Germanic peoples, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes, who settled in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries.
  • noun Any of the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, who were dominant in England until the Norman Conquest of 1066.
  • noun A person of English ancestry.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of Anglo-Saxons, their descendants, or their language or culture; English.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Literally, one of the Angle or ‘English’ Saxons; sometimes restricted to the Saxons who dwelt chiefly in the southern districts (Wessex, Essex, Sussex, Middlesex—names which contain a form of Saxon—and Kent) of the country which came to be known, from a kindred tribe, as the land of the Angles, Engla land, now England, but usually extended to the whole people or nation formed by the aggregation of the Angles, Saxons, and other early Teutonic settlers in Britain, or the whole people of England before the conquest.
  • noun plural The English race; all persons in Great Britain and Ireland, in the United States, and in their dependencies, who belong, actually or nominally, nearly or remotely, to the Teutonic stock of England; in the widest use, all English-speaking or English-appearing people.
  • noun [The adj. used absolutely.] The language of the Anglo-Saxons; Saxon; the earliest form of the English language, constituting, with Old Saxon, Old Friesic, and other dialects, the Old Low German group, belonging to the so-called West Germanic division of the Teutonic speech.
  • Of or pertaining to the Anglo-Saxons: as, the Anglo-Saxon kings; the Anglo-Saxon language.
  • Of or pertaining to the language of the Anglo-Saxons; belonging to, derived from, or having the form or spirit of that language: as, the Anglo-Saxon elements of modern English; the proportion of Anglo-Saxon words in the Bible or Shakspere; an Anglo-Saxon style, as contrasted with a Latin style.
  • Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Anglo-Saxons, or the English-speaking race: as, Anglo-Saxon enterprise; the political genius of the Anglo-Saxon race.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A Saxon of Britain, that is, an English Saxon, or one the Saxons who settled in England, as distinguished from a continental (or “Old”) Saxon.
  • noun The Teutonic people (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) of England, or the English people, collectively, before the Norman Conquest.
  • noun The language of the English people before the Norman conquest in 1066 (sometimes called Old English). See Saxon.
  • noun One of the race or people who claim descent from the Saxons, Angles, or other Teutonic tribes who settled in England; a person of English descent in its broadest sense.
  • noun a person of Anglo-Saxon (esp British) descent whose native tongue is English and whose culture is strongly influenced by English culture as in "WASP for `White Anglo-Saxon Protestant'"; "this Anglo-Saxon view of things".
  • adjective of or pertaining to the Anglo-Saxons or their language.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The inflected ancestor language of modern English, also called Old English, spoken in Britain from about 400 AD to 1100 AD.
  • noun Germanic peoples inhabiting medieval England.
  • noun US A person of English ethnic descent.
  • noun US, Mexican-American A light-skinned person presumably of British or other North European descent;
  • noun informal Profanity, especially words derived from Old English.
  • adjective Related to the Anglo-Saxon peoples or language.
  • adjective politics Favouring a liberal free market economy.
  • adjective US Descended from English or North European settlers.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun English prior to about 1100
  • noun a native or inhabitant of England prior to the Norman Conquest
  • adjective of or relating to the Anglo-Saxons or their language
  • noun a person of Anglo-Saxon (especially British) descent whose native tongue is English and whose culture is strongly influenced by English culture as in WASP for `White Anglo-Saxon Protestant'

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In Germany, for example, the term Anglo-Saxon is often bandied about as an epithet for political demagoguery to represent free market ideology.

    Edward Harrison: The recession is over but the depression has just begun 2009

  • So newspapers too often have to sell their editorial opinions, and the press has small influence in France, compared with the influence of the press in what we call the Anglo-Saxon countries.

    The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me William Allen White 1906

  • For all its popularity at home, Merkel's rejection of what she calls "Anglo-Saxon" solutions to the debt crisis carries global risks.

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2012

  • For all its popularity at home, Merkel's rejection of what she calls "Anglo-Saxon" solutions to the debt crisis carries global risks.

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News 2012

  • French banks and government officials have been especially angered by some of the reporting in what they call the "Anglo-Saxon" press.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2011

  • 4 The term Anglo-Saxon gets bandied about pretty loosely, but Park is one of the few people I know of who has a real Anglo-Saxon name: Wulstan.

    Archive 2010-01-01 Peter Rozovsky 2010

  • What we commonly call Anglo-Saxon, indeed, is more English than what we commonly call English at the present day.

    Early Britain Anglo-Saxon Britain Grant Allen 1873

  • It is just one way that what Guillermo Ortiz, Mexico's central bank governor, referred to as the "Anglo-Saxon concept" of economic policy needs to be adapted to a more diverse and globalized world.

    At IMF, the hunt for a new consensus 2011

  • The City, in short, was placed on the same platform as Wall Street, thus creating the paradigm known as Anglo-Saxon Capitalism.

    Robert Teitelman: Big Bang, Now and Then Robert Teitelman 2011

  • Almost all the authors are more than comfortable with the idea of Anglo-Saxon superiority, and lesser breeds are treated with disdain and contempt—even when there is reason to fear their vile schemes and vindictive nature.

    The Case of the Missing Adventure Story Allan Massie 2011

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