Sassenach
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Sassenach is a word used chiefly by the Scots to designate an Englishman. It derives from the Scottish Gaelic Sasunnach meaning, originally, "Saxon", from the Latin "Saxones"; it was also formerly applied by Highlanders to (non-Gaelic-speaking) Lowlanders.[1] 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 also terms English Sawsnek from the same derivation. Some Cornish were known to use the expression 'Meea navidna cowza sawzneck!' to feign ignorance of the English language.[2]
[edit] Uses
In James Joyce's Ulysses, Buck Mulligan refers to Haines, a British guest in the Martello tower with them, as "the Sassenach". And in the "Cyclops" episode, the citizen, a Gaelic revivalist, says: "To hell with the bloody brutal Sassenachs and their patois."
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.
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, though it is more usually employed against the English as a term of abuse.
In the film The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, the handyman Mowbray rebukes Captain Hamilton for his "Sassenach attitudes".
In an episode of The Broons, Hen and Joe go out dressed in Kilts and carrying weapons ("Doon wi' the Sassenachs!"). Granpaw Broon tries to warn them ("It'll no' come aff - it's been tried before!"). His grandsons, however, are just playing cameo roles in a film.[3]
In the video game Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy, by Her Interactive, the caretaker Donal refers to the missing fiancé using the Irish form "Sasanach".
One of the headstones in the video game Fable III (specifically, in the Mercenary Camp in Mistpeak) refers to a man who was "killed by the Sassanachs".
In the British comedy television series Are You Being Served?, a kilt-wearing Scotsman being fitted for a pair of trousers takes great offense when one of the clerks Mr. Lucas attempts to take his inside leg (inseam) measurement by putting the tape measure up the man's kilt. He admonishes the clerk as an "ignorant sassenach."
In Bernard Cornwell's novel "Sharpe's Triumph", a beleaguered Scottish battalion, under fire from a traitorous English officer's battalion, adds zest to his men's efforts by telling them "that a Sassenach was their enemy."
In George MacDonald Fraser's novel The Reavers, Scottish highwayman Gilderoy calls the mysterious Englishman Archie Noble "Sassenach".
In Morgan Llewelyn's novel 1949, Finbar Cassidy describes a rival Enlish suitor as "damned sasanach".
[edit] References
- ^ The Concise Scots Dictionary, Aberdeen University Press, 1985
- ^ Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall, 1602 N.B. in revived Cornish, this would be transcribed My ny vynnaf cows sowsnek. However the Cornish word Emit meaning "ant" (and perversely derived from OE) is more commonly used in Cornwall today as slang to designate non-Cornish Englishmen.
- ^ The Broons, 1983 Annual
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