b. That it grew out of some such German word as Herman, Irmin, Wehrmann, or the Herm- in Hermunduri, Hermiones, &c.
Neither of these views satisfies the present writer.
For all the facts concerning the word Germani, see the Introduction to the third edition of the Deutsche Grammar.
[§ 99]. Dutch.—For the purposes of Philology the meaning given to this word is inconvenient. In England, it means the language of the people of Holland.
In Germany, Holland, and Scandinavia, it means the language of the people of Germany in general; and this general power of the word is retained even with us in the expression High-Dutch, and Low-Dutch. In the present work the term is avoided as much as possible. Nevertheless, wherever it occurs it means the Dutch of Holland.
The origin of the word has been a subject of much investigation; the question, however, may be considered to be settled by the remarks of Grimm, D. G.—Introduction to the third edition.
1. It was originally no national name at all.
2. In the earliest passage where it occurs, the derivative form þiudiskô corresponds with the Greek word ἐθνικῶς—The Mœso-Gothic Translation of the New Testament—Galatians, ii. 14.
3. The derivation of the word from the substantive þiudu=a people, a nation, is undoubted.
4. So also is the derivation of the modern word Dutch, in all its varied forms:—Old High-German, Diutisc; Anglo-Saxon, Þeódisc; Latin, Theodisca, Theudisca, Teutisca; Italian, Tedesco; Danish, Tyske; English, Dutch; the latter part of the word being the adjectival ending -isc=ish.