German
    adj 1: of or pertaining to or characteristic of Germany or its
           people or language; "German philosophers"; "German
           universities"; "German literature"
    n 1: a person of German nationality
    2: the standard German language; developed historically from
       West Germanic [syn: German, High German, German
       language]

German \Ger"man\, a. [L. Germanus. See German, n.]
   Of or pertaining to Germany.
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   German Baptists. See Dunker.

   German bit, a wood-boring tool, having a long elliptical
      pod and a scew point.

   German carp (Zool.), the crucian carp.

   German millet (Bot.), a kind of millet (Setaria Italica,
      var.), whose seed is sometimes used for food.

   German paste, a prepared food for caged birds.

   German process (Metal.), the process of reducing copper ore
      in a blast furnace, after roasting, if necessary.
      --Raymond.

   German sarsaparilla, a substitute for sarsaparilla extract.
      

   German sausage, a polony, or gut stuffed with meat partly
      cooked.

   German silver (Chem.), a silver-white alloy, hard and
      tough, but malleable and ductile, and quite permanent in
      the air. It contains nickel, copper, and zinc in varying
      proportions, and was originally made from old copper slag
      at Henneberg. A small amount of iron is sometimes added to
      make it whiter and harder. It is essentially identical
      with the Chinese alloy packfong. It was formerly much
      used for tableware, knife handles, frames, cases, bearings
      of machinery, etc., but is now largely superseded by other
      white alloys.

   German steel (Metal.), a metal made from bog iron ore in a
      forge, with charcoal for fuel.

   German text (Typog.), a character resembling modern German
      type, used in English printing for ornamental headings,
      etc., as in the words,
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   Note: This line is German Text.

   German tinder. See Amadou.
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German \Ger"man\, a. [OE. german, germain, F. germain, fr. L.
   germanus full, own (said of brothers and sisters who have the
   same parents); akin to germen germ. Cf. Germ, Germane.]
   Nearly related; closely akin.
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         Wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion.
                                                  --Shak.
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   Brother german. See Brother german.

   Cousins german. See the Note under Cousin.
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German \Ger"man\, n.; pl. Germans[L. Germanus, prob. of Celtis
   origin.]
   1. A native or one of the people of Germany.
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   2. The German language.
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   3.
      (a) A round dance, often with a waltz movement, abounding
          in capriciosly involved figures.
      (b) A social party at which the german is danced.
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   High German, the Teutonic dialect of Upper or Southern
      Germany, -- comprising Old High German, used from the 8th
      to the 11th century; Middle H. G., from the 12th to the
      15th century; and Modern or New H. G., the language of
      Luther's Bible version and of modern German literature.
      The dialects of Central Germany, the basis of the modern
      literary language, are often called Middle German, and the
      Southern German dialects Upper German; but High German is
      also used to cover both groups.

   Low German, the language of Northern Germany and the
      Netherlands, -- including Friesic; Anglo-Saxon or
      Saxon; Old Saxon; Dutch or Low Dutch, with its
      dialect, Flemish; and Plattdeutsch (called also Low
      German), spoken in many dialects.
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German

    \j*r'mn\ A human language written (in latin
   alphabet) and spoken in Germany, Austria and parts of
   Switzerland.

   German writing normally uses four non-ASCII characters: "ä", "ö"
   and "ü" have "umlauts" (two dots over the top) and "ß" is a
   double-S ("scharfes S") which looks like the Greek letter beta
   (except in capitalised words where it should be written "SS").
   These can be written in ASCII in several ways, the most common are
   ae, oe ue AE OE UE ss or sz and the TeX versions "a "o "u "A "O
   "U "s.

   See also ABEND, blinkenlights, DAU, DIN, gedanken,
   GMD, kluge.

   Usenet newsgroup: <news:soc.culture.german>.
   <ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/soc.answers/german-faq>,
   <ftp://alice.fmi.uni-passau.de/pub/dictionaries/german.dat.Z>.

   (1995-03-31)

GERMAN, relations, germanus. Whole or entire, as respects genealogy or 
descent; thus, "brother-german," denotes one who is brother both by the 
father and mother's side cousins-germane" those in the first and nearest 
degree, i. e., children of brothers or sisters. Tech. Dict.; 4 M. & C. 56.