Alemanni

See also: alemanni

English

Etymology

From Latin Alemannī (“the confederation of German tribes related to Suebi who lived near the upper reaches of Danube”), from Proto-Germanic *Alamanniz, corresponding to *allaz + *mann-.

Noun

Alemanni pl (plural only)

1. A group of Germanic peoples living between the Rhine, Main, and Danube Rivers from the third to the sixth century.
   • 1846, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire‎^[1], page 271:

     The hasty army of volunteers gradually coalesced into a great and permanent nation, and, as it was composed from so many different tribes, assumed the name of Alemanni, or Allmen ; to denote at once their various lineage, and their common bravery.

   • 2011 September 15, “Alemanni”, in Encyclopædia Britannica‎^[2]:

     The Alemanni were originally composed of fragments of several Germanic peoples, and they remained a loosely knit confederation of tribes in the Suebi group (see Suebi).

2. Those individuals descended from one of the Alemanni tribes.
   • 2011 October 1, Richard J. Gehman, “Reflections on our Germanic Mennonite Heritage”, in Bible Fellowship Church Online History Center‎^[3], archived from the original on 16 December 2020:

     On the basis of their location along the Rhine River during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, I have concluded that my ancestors were Alemanni and Franks, though lacking in ethnic purity.

Adjective

Alemanni (not comparable)

1. Of or related to the Alemanni peoples.
   • 2007, Michael Curtis Ford, Gods and Legions: A Novel of the Roman Empire, page 109:

     This time, however, his troops faced the full brunt of an Alemanni force that attacked them on the way.

2. Of or related to the Alemannic language or dialects.

See also

• Alemannic
• Suebi
• Swabian
• Swabish

Anagrams

• mainlane, melanian

Latin

Noun

Alemannī

1. inflection of Alemannus:
   1. nominative/vocative plural
   2. genitive singular

References

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