Saxon

Partially from Middle English Saxe, Sax; Saxon, from Old English *Seaxa (attested in plural Seaxan), and Middle English *Saxon, Saxoun, from Old French *Saxoun, Saxon (“Saxon”), from Late Latin Saxonem, accusative of Saxo (“a Saxon”), both from Proto-Germanic *sahsô, probably originally a derivative of Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“rock, knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Cognate with Middle Low German sasse (“someone speaking Saxon, i.e. (Middle) Low German”), Old English Seaxa (“a Saxon”), Old High German Sahso (“a Saxon”), Icelandic Saxi (“a Saxon”), Old English seax (“a knife, hip-knife, an instrument for cutting, a short sword, dirk, dagger”). More at sax.

• IPA^(key): /sæksən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æksən

Saxon (plural Saxons)

1. A member of an ancient West Germanic tribe that lived at the eastern North Sea coast and south of it.
   • 1881, John Kirby Hedges, The history of Wallingford‎, volume 1, page 170:

     Kenett states that the military works still known by the name of Tadmarten Camp and Hook-Norton Barrow were cast up at this time ; the former, large and round, is judged to be a fortification of the Danes, and the latter, being smaller and rather a quinquangle than a square, of the Saxons.

2. A native or inhabitant of Saxony.
   • 2002, Jonathan Grix, Paul Cooke, East German distinctiveness in a unified Germany, page 142:

     [...] in West Germany Saxony and Saxons became synonymous with Ulbricht's Communist regime, [...]

   • 2005, Judd Stitziel, Fashioning socialism: clothing, politics, and consumer culture, page 69:

     The film taught that socialist competition, through encouraging the collaboration of both men and women and Saxons and Berliners, could overcome the natural antagonism between male industrial mass production and female fashion.

   • 2008, Eckbert Schulz-Schomburgk, From Leipzig to Venezuela, page 40:

     Dealing with people there was different from the way I dealt with Saxons, Berliners and others back in Leipzig.

3. (uncountable, US printing, rare, dated) A size of type between German and Norse, 2-point type.
4. (Ireland, Wales, poetic) An English/British person.
   • 1973, Sean McCarthy, Shanagolden (song):

     Then came the call to arms, love, the heather was aflame / Down from the silent mountains, the Saxon strangers came.

5. A kind of rapidly spinning ground-based firework.

• Transylvanian Saxon

• Anglo-Saxon

Saxon

1. The language of the ancient Saxons.
2. The dialect of modern High German spoken in Saxony.
   • 2014, Marco Polo, Dresden Marco Polo Guide →ISBN, page 21:

     Not everyone from the former GDR states are Saxons – and they do not all speak Saxon, […]

   • 2014, Gaston Dorren, Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe →ISBN:

     But does this mean that Germans nowadays speak Saxon? Far from it, in fact; Saxon is the most widely despised dialect in Germany, by a wide margin.

3. A surname​.
4. A male given name of modern usage, from the surname, or directly from the noun Saxon.

(ancient Saxons' language):

• Anglo-Saxon
• Semi-Saxon

• Old Saxon (Old Low Saxon, Old Low German)
• Middle Saxon (Middle Low Saxon, Middle Low German)
• New Saxon (New Low Saxon, New Low German)

(High German dialect):

• Upper Saxon

Saxon (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to the Saxons.
2. Of or relating to Saxony.
3. Of or relating to the Saxon language.
4. (Ireland, Wales, poetic) Of or relating to England, typically as opposed to a Celtic nationality.

• Anglo-Saxon

• Saxonian

• Axson, Naxos, axons

Saxon m (plural Saxons, feminine Saxonne)

1. Saxon (male person from Saxony)

• “Saxon” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).