An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/deutsch
deutsch, adj., ‘German,’ from the equiv. MidHG. diutsch, tiutsch; the initial d of the ModHG. and MidHG. words is MidG., the earlier form, teutsch (MidHG. tiutsch), is UpGer., and was, especially by the UpGer. writers, constantly used till the end of the last century. OHG. diutisk (for MidLat. theodiscus, the earliest records of the word are in the years 813, 842, 860), ‘German,’ properly only ‘pertaining to the people’ (OSax thiudisca liudi, ‘Teutons’); Goth. preserves the corresponding þiudiskô, adv., in the sense of ‘like a heathen’ (in close connection with Gr. ξθγικώς). The suffix isk denotes ‘pertaining to.’ The subst. MidHG. diet, OHG. diot, diota, ‘people,’ upon which this word is based, is preserved in such compound proper names as Dietrich, Detlef, Detmold, Detmar; as an independent word it is also obsolete in Eng.; AS. þeód; Goth. þiuda, f. The OTeut. subst. is based upon a word — pre-Teut. teutâ, ‘people’ — found in many West Aryan languages; comp. Lith. tautà, f., ‘country,’ Lett. tauta, ‘people, nation’; OIr. túath, ‘people’; Oscan touto, ‘people’ (Livy calls the chief magistrate of the Campanian towns ‘medix tuticus’). Thus the word deutsch has a singular and comprehensive history; it was used in the earliest OHG. and MidLat. writings only of the language (since 845 A.D. Theodisci occurs also as the name of a people, and first of all in Italy); deutsch, ‘popular,’ was the term applied to the native language in contrast to the Lat. ecclesiastical speech and the Lat. official phraseology. We may note E. Dutch, because it is restricted to the language of Holland; till about 1600 A.D. the people of Holland were convinced that their language was German.