Germanism

American  

[jur-muh-niz-uhm] / ˈdʒɜr məˌnɪz əm /

noun

1. a usage, idiom, or other feature that is characteristic of the German language.

2. a custom, manner, mode of thought, action, etc., that is characteristic of the German people.

3. extreme partiality for or attachment to Germany, Germans, or German customs, manners, etc.

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Germanism British  

/ ˈdʒɜːməˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. a word or idiom borrowed from or modelled on German

2. a German custom, trait, practice, etc

3. attachment to or high regard for German customs, institutions, etc

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Other Word Forms

• anti-Germanism noun
• pro-Germanism noun

Etymology

Origin of Germanism

First recorded in 1605–15; German + -ism

Example Sentences

The story is most memorable in the passages where Germanism is horribly mocked by events, as Plievier evokes those last, insane days when thoroughness turned into madness, tables of organization into the outlines of farce.

From Time Magazine Archive

In a series of Advent sermons that packed St. Michael's Church he condemned the false choice that the Nazis had tried to place before Catholics�the choice between "Germanism" and disloyalty.

From Time Magazine Archive

This topic of Germanism haunted Wagner for years, and I may have a little to say about it later.

From Richard Wagner Composer of Operas by Runciman, John F.

The result is that much of the Germanism of that age, sometimes far off from the great towns, still survives.

From Human, All-Too-Human, Part II by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm

Germanism in its later and worst form would be the inspiriting thought and philosophy of the hour.

From New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915 April-September, 1915 by Various