Anglo-Saxon

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. 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.
2. n. Any of the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, who were dominant in England until the Norman Conquest of 1066.
3. n. See Old English.
4. n. A person of English ancestry.
5. adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of Anglo-Saxons, their descendants, or their language or culture; English.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. 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.
2. n. 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.
3. n. [The adj. used absolutely.] The language of the Anglo-Saxons; Saxon; the earliest form of 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. The first Anglo-Saxon dialect to receive literary cultivation was that of the Angles (Anglo-Saxon Ængle, Engle): hence the name Ænglise, Englise, that is, Anglish, was afterward applied to all the dialects, and particularly to the prevailing one, West Saxon; it is the origin of the name English as applied to the modern mixed language. (See Anglish and English.) A Middle Latin name for the language was lingua Saxonica, or lingua Saxonum or Anglo-saxonum. The Anglo-Saxon language, in the widest use of the name, consisted of several dialects: the Northern or Anglian group, including the Old Northumbrian and the Midland or Mercian dialects, and the Southern or Saxon group, including the West Saxon and the Kentish. The Kentish remains are scanty, the Mercian scantier still and doubtful, while the Old Northumbrian remains are considerable. The great bulk of the Anglo-Saxon literature is West Saxon, the two terms being practically synonymous except when expressly distinguished as generic and specific. In the Old or Middle English period the Midland dialect became conspicuous, and it is to it that the form of modern English is chiefly due. In this dictionary Anglo-Saxon (abbreviated AS.) includes the whole language (but chiefly West Saxon, the Old Northumbrian and Kentish being discriminated when necessary) from the middle of the fifth century, or rather from the seventh century, when the first contemporary records begin, to the middle or end of the twelfth century; the language from the conquest (1066) to the end of this period being ‘late Anglo-Saxon.’ See English.
4. Of or pertaining to the Anglo-Saxons: as, the Anglo-Saxon kings; the Anglo-Saxon language.
5. 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.
6. 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.

Wiktionary

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

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. of or pertaining to the Anglo-Saxons or their language.
2. n. 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.
3. n. The Teutonic people (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) of England, or the English people, collectively, before the Norman Conquest.
4. n. The language of the English people before the Norman conquest in 1066 (sometimes called Old English). See Saxon.
5. n. 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.
6. n. 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".

WordNet 3.0

1. n. English prior to about 1100
2. n. a native or inhabitant of England prior to the Norman Conquest
3. adj. of or relating to the Anglo-Saxons or their language
4. n. 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'