Sassenach

American  

[sas-uh-nuhkh, -nak] / ˈsæs ə nəx, -næk /

noun

Often Disparaging.

1. a term used by the Gaelic inhabitants of the British Isles to refer to the English inhabitants.

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Sassenach British  

/ ˈsæsəˌnæk, -næx /

noun

1. an English person or a Lowland Scot

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Etymology

Origin of Sassenach

1765–75; < Scots Gaelic Sasunnach, Irish Sasanach English, English person, Protestant, Middle Irish Saxanach, derivative of Saxain, Sagsuin, Sachsain the Saxons, England ≪ Late Latin Saxonēs; see Saxon

Example Sentences

“The Roman, not the Sassenach, was for him the tyrant of the islanders,” Joyce wrote in “Stephen Hero,” referring to the Catholic Church and the English, respectively.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

Young girl Mouse Haggis Sassenach Whose locks were like the raven, but are now like the snaw, in a much-loved Burns poem?

From The Guardian • Jan. 25, 2011

He prefers to be known by his Gaelic name, Domnhall Ua Buachalla, but will answer to Donal, and insists that his office is not that of a Sassenach governor general, but a good Gaelic Seanascal.

From Time Magazine Archive

Their associate, Sir Henry Self, who looks like an Irish patriot's caricature of a hard-eyed, thin-lipped Sassenach statesman, rarely makes a remark.

From Time Magazine Archive

These were Knights of the Sassenach, they were thinking—for they could tell by the armour—and, if so, knights of that very King Arthur against whom their own king had for the second time revolted.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White