Dane

Etymology

From Middle English Dane, from Old Norse danir. Displaced native Old English Dene. Both forms ultimately descend from Proto-Germanic *daniz.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /deɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn
• Homophone: deign

Noun

Dane (plural Danes)

1. A person of Danish descent.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198:

     Fresleven - that was the fellow’s name, a Dane - thought himself wronged somehow in the bargain, so he went ashore and started to hammer the chief of the village with a stick.

2. A person from Denmark.
3. (historical) A member of the Danes, a Germanic tribe inhabiting the Danish islands and parts of southern Sweden.
   • 1881, John Kirby Hedges, The history of Wallingford‎, volume 1, page 170:

     Kenett states that the military works still known by the name of Tadmarten Camp and Hook-Norton Barrow were cast up at this time ; the former, large and round, is judged to be a fortification of the Danes, and the latter, being smaller and rather a quinquangle than a square, of the Saxons.

Proper noun

Dane

1. A surname transferred from the nickname for someone who came from Denmark, also a variant of Dean.
   • 1913, Harry Leon Wilson, Bunker Bean, BiblioBazaar, LLC, published 2008, →ISBN, page 13:

     Often he wrote good ones on casual slips and fancied them his; names like Trevellyan or Montressor or Delancey, with musical prefixes; or a good, short, beautiful, but dignified name like "Gordon Dane". He liked that one. It suggested something.

2. A male given name transferred from the surname, or from the ethnic term Dane (like Scott or Norman).
   • 1977, Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds, Gramercy Books, published 1998, →ISBN, pages 432–433:

     "I'm going to call him Dane."
     "What a queer name! Why? Is it an O'Neill family name? I thought you were finished with the O'Neills."
     "It's got nothing to do with Luke. This is his name, no one else's. - - - I called Justine Justine simply because I liked the name, and I'm calling Dane Dane for the same reason."
     "Well, it does have a nice ring to it," Fee admitted.

3. A river, the River Dane, in Cheshire, England, which joins the River Weaver at Northwich.

Anagrams

• Aden, Dean, Dena, Edna, Enda, Nead, aden-, ande, dean, eDNA, nade

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈdanɛ]
• Rhymes: -anɛ
• Hyphenation: Da‧ne

Proper noun

Dane

1. vocative singular of Dan

Alternative forms

• Dan

Etymology

Through Old French Dan, or directly from Old Norse Danir, in turn from Proto-Germanic *daniz. Displaced native Old English Dene.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdaːn(ə)/

Noun

Dane (plural Danes)

1. Dane