Norman

views updated Jun 27 2018

Norman a member of a people of mixed Frankish and Scandinavian origin who settled in Normandy from about ad 912 and became a dominant military power in western Europe and the Mediterranean in the 11th century, in particular, any of the Normans who conquered England in 1066 or their descendants.
Norman Conquest the conquest of England by William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Most of the Saxon nobles had been dispossessed or killed and the population was heavily taxed (the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086). Norman institutions and customs (such as feudalism) were introduced, and Anglo-Norman French and Latin adopted as the languages of literature, law, and government.
Norman French the northern form of Old French spoken by the Normans; the variety of this used in English law courts from the 11th to 13th centuries; Anglo-Norman French.

ANGLO-

views updated May 18 2018

ANGLO-. A combining form relating to: the Angles (Anglo-Saxon culture), England and the English (Anglo-Welsh relations) or Britain and the British (the Anglo-Irish agreement), location in England (Anglo-Jewry the Jews of England), and the English language (Anglo-Danish pidgin). In Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, the use of the term to mean Britain/British is widely disliked. In Scotland, newspapers tend to avoid this sense of Anglo-, using instead such phrases as the British-Irish agreement.

Anglo-

views updated May 18 2018

Anglo- comb. form of L. Anglus ENGLISH, as in modL. Anglo-Americanus XVIII, Anglopuritanus XVI;.
so Anglomania mania for what is English XVIII, after F. anglomanie; Anglophobia XVIII; Anglo-American, -Catholic, -Irish; Anglo-Norman or -French, variety of French current in England in the Middle Ages. See next.

Anglo-

views updated May 18 2018

Anglo- • comb. form English: anglophone. ∎  of English origin: Anglo-Saxon. ∎  English and …: Anglo-Latin. ∎  British and …: Anglo-Indian.

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Anglo-Norman literature

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