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  1. sassenach love

Definitions

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A Saxon; an Englishman: a general name applied by the Scottish Highlanders of the British Isles to persons of Saxon race.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Scotland, pejorative An English person.
  2. n. Scotland, pejorative A Lowland Scot.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Celtic A Saxon; an Englishman; a Lowlander.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the Scots' term for an English person

Etymologies

  1. From Scottish Gaelic sasunnach ("Saxon"). (Wiktionary)

Examples

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘sassenach’.

Comments

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  • nycanthro Any time I've heard this word uttered, it was as a playful insult suggesting that a person of English (i.e., non-Celtic) extraction was somehow 'lesser than'. I've always found it weird how sometimes a word for what a person is, can be transformed into an epithet by mere tone or context without needing to be qualified by an adjective. For example, "Jew," "goy," and, ever increasingly, "American." LOL. Mar 2, 2009

  • chained_bear I've seen it in novels and stuff spelled Sassenach. Not that that makes it correct. Feb 27, 2009

  • bilby Oh Foxy, dear Foxy, slaverin' wid glee,
    You can't trap a bilby by etta-molla-gee-
    whiz
    Feb 27, 2009

  • sionnach For bilby if you press that button
    you get a ton
    o nutton. Feb 27, 2009

  • bilby Hot Tip! The third link from the left (brown icon) under the word does a search at the Online Etymological Dictionary. Which in this case sez:
    Gaelic for "English person," 1771, Sassenaugh, lit. "Saxon," from L. Saxones, from a Gmc. source (cf. O.E. Seaxe "the Saxons"). The modern form of the word was established c.1814 by Sir Walter Scott, from Scot. Sasunnoch, Ir. Sasanach, Welsh Seisnig. Feb 27, 2009

  • sionnach Well, I can confirm that the Irish word for someone from England is "Sasanach", so it's entirely plausible that the Scots Gaelic word is "Sassenach". "Sassenach" would not be an admissible spelling in Irish Gaelic because there is a rule that requires vowels on either side of a consonant to be of the same type, broad (a, o, u) or slender (i, e). Feb 27, 2009

  • nycanthro This is more of a Scottish Gaelic or Irish word. I think it comes from their word for "Saxon". Can someone confirm this? My Googling finger has gang agley. Ta. Feb 27, 2009

  • garyth123 it was also formerly applied by Highlanders to (non-Gaelic-speaking) Lowlanders. (Wikipedia) Dec 28, 2008

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‘sassenach’ has been looked up 1704 times, added to 10 lists, commented on 8 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.