Theodiscus

Theodiscus (the Latinised form of a Germanic word meaning "vernacular", "of the common people", or "native") is a Medieval Latin adjective referring to the Germanic vernaculars of the Early Middle Ages. It is an early Latinization of a Germanic word from which various common West Germanic terms are descended, namely the English exonym , the German endonym , and the Dutch exonym and endonym .

The word theodism, a neologism for a branch of Germanic neopaganism, is based on the Old English form of the word.

It is derived from Proto-Germanic *. The stem of this word, *, meant "people" in Proto-Germanic, and * was an adjective-forming suffix, of which is the Modern English form. The Proto-Indo-European root *tewtéh₂ ("tribe"), which is commonly reconstructed as the basis of the word, is related to Lithuanian tautà ("nation"), Old Irish túath ("tribe", "people") and Oscan touto ("community"). The various Latin forms are derived from West Germanic *þiudisk and its later descendants.

The word came into Middle English as thede, but was extinct in Early Modern English (although surviving in the English place name Thetford, 'public ford'). It survives as the Icelandic word þjóð for "people, nation", the Norwegian (Nynorsk) word tjod for "people", "nation", and the word for "German" in many European languages including German deutsch, Dutch Duits, Yiddish דײַטש daytsh, Danish tysk, Norwegian tysk, Swedish tyska, Spanish tudesco and Italian tedesco.

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