Hun
[huhn]
- a member of a nomadic and warlike Asian people who devastated or controlled large parts of eastern and central Europe and who exercised their greatest power under Attila in the 5th century a.d.
- (often lowercase) a barbarous, destructive person; vandal.
- Older Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a German, especially a German soldier in World War I or II.
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Origin of Hun
before 900; 1895–1900 for def 3; singular of Huns, Old English Hūnas; cognate with Old Norse Hūnar; akin to Late Latin Hunnī
Usage note
The disparaging and offensive use of this term likens the Germans to the barbarous and warlike Huns of the 4th and 5th centuries. The source of the comparison was a speech by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1900, encouraging German soldiers bound for China to act toward the Chinese just like “the Huns a thousand years ago.”
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hun
Contemporary Examples
Prime Minister Hun Sen had taken power in a bloody coup in July 1997.
He might have elicited a smile rather than a cringe had he gone to that reliable standby, “to the right of Attila the Hun.”
Analyzing the Political Humor of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Mitt RomneyMark Katz
February 15, 2012
I always felt Attila The Hun set the clearest path for himself, what would today be called his “mission statement.”
Historical Examples
The invasions of the Hun shook to its centre the western empire.
The Formation of Christendom, Volume VIThomas W. (Thomas William) Allies
Incidentally, it kept the Hun from coming out and bombing us.
From the St. Lawrence to the Yser with the 1st Canadian brigadeFrederic C. Curry
What made that great bunch of Yankee boys turn back the Hun hordes?
Tales of FishesZane Grey
I wish to God I were back there and the hun was still resisting.
The Crimson TideRobert W. Chambers
If that is theosophy, I will believe it when I am old, fat and a Hun.
The Paliser caseEdgar Saltus
Hun
- a member of any of several Asiatic nomadic peoples speaking Mongoloid or Turkic languages who dominated much of Asia and E Europe from before 300 bc, invading the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries a.d
- informal (esp in World War I) a derogatory name for a German (def. 2)
- informal a vandal
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Word Origin
Old English Hūnas, from Late Latin Hūnī, from Turkish Hun-yū
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for hun
Hun
Old English, person from a tribe from central Asia that overran Europe in the 4c. and 5c., from Medieval Latin Hunni, apparently ultimately from Turkic Hun-yü, the name of a tribe (they were known in China as Han or Hiong-nu). Figurative sense of "reckless destroyer of beauty" is from 1806. Applied to the German in World War I by their enemies because of stories of atrocities, but the nickname originally was urged on German soldiers bound for China by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1900, which caused a scandal.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper