Sassenach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sassenach is a word used chiefly by the Scots to designate an Englishman.[1] It derives from the Gaelic Sasunnach meaning, originally, "Saxon," from the Latin "Saxones." The modern Scottish spelling is Sasannach. As employed by Scots or Scottish English-speakers today it is usually used in jest, as a (friendly) term of abuse. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) gives 1771 as the date of the earliest written use of the word in English.
Sasanach, the Irish-language word for an Englishman, has the same derivation, as do the words used in Welsh to describe the English people (Saeson, sing. Sais) and the language and things English in general: Saesneg and Seisnig. These words are normally, however, used only in the Irish and Welsh languages themselves.
Cornish, another British Celtic language (previously extinct, though undergoing a mini-revival) also terms English Sawsnek, likely from the same derivation. However the Cornish word Emit meaning "ant" is more commonly used in Cornwall as slang to designate non-Cornish Englishmen.
In James Joyce's Ulysses (novel), Buck Mulligan refers to Haines, a British guest in the Martello tower with them, as "the Sassenach."
In the well-known Irish Rebel song, The Bold Fenian Men, the final couplet uses the word sassenach: All who love foreign law, native or sassenach, must out and make way for the bold Fenian men.
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In the Outlander series of novels by Diana Gabaldon, the main character, Englishwoman Claire Fraser (Beauchamp), is often referred to as 'Sassenach' by her Scottish husband, Jamie Fraser, as a term of endearment.
