Hun

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a member of a nomadic confederation that entered Europe in late antiquity and reached its greatest power under Attila in the fifth century

   The Huns established a powerful federation in central and eastern Europe.

2. 2
   noun

   dated and offensive: a German person or soldier, especially in British and Allied wartime propaganda

   The museum label explains how Hun was used as an anti-German slur during the First World War.

From Old English Hune, through Late Latin Hunni and Greek Hounnoi; the name's deeper Eurasian origin is uncertain. The derogatory application to Germans was popularized in English around the turn of the twentieth century and is now historical and offensive.

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