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Goth

 
Dictionary: Goth   (gŏth) pronunciation
n.
A member of a Germanic people who invaded the Roman Empire in the early centuries of the Christian era.

[From Middle English Gothes, Goths, from Late Latin Gothī, of Germanic origin, akin to Old English Gota and Old Norse Goti, Goth.]


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(goth)

noun
A rude or uncivilized person.

Etymology
From Goth, one of a Germanic tribe who invaded the Roman empire during the third, fourth and fifth centuries.

Usage
"Meanwhile, his (Newt Gingrich's) pronunciamentos swing wildly between statesman and Goth. One minute he sounds like Peter Rodino, the next like, well, Gingrich." — Michael Powell, The Speaker, Holding His Tongue, The Washington Post, Oct 31, 1998.



Member of a Germanic people whose two branches, the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths, harassed the Roman Empire for centuries. Legend holds that the Goths originated in southern Scandinavia, crossed to the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, and then migrated to the Black Sea in the 2nd century. They raided the Roman provinces in Asia Minor and the Balkan peninsula in the 3rd century and drove the Romans out of the province of Dacia during the reign of Aurelian. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Visigoths smashed a Roman army, sacked the city of Rome, and created a kingdom in Spain that would last until the Muslim conquests of the 8th century. The Ostrogoths established an important kingdom in Italy in the late 5th century that was destroyed by Justinian in the 6th century. The adjective "Gothic" was applied disparagingly and inappropriately to medieval architecture by much later writers.

For more information on Goth, visit Britannica.com.

 
 
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ostrogoth
visigoth
Allgood (family name)

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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