A member of a Germanic people who invaded and settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries.
From Late Latin 'Saxones', from Germanic 'Sahson', possibly meaning 'knife-people' from 'sahs' (knife). The Saxons were one of the three main Germanic tribes (along with Angles and Jutes) who colonized Britain, giving their name to Anglo-Saxon culture.
The Saxons gave us the very name 'England'—though ironically, it comes from the Angles, not the Saxons. Their legacy lives on in modern English through countless everyday words like 'house', 'bread', and 'water', which come from Old English rather than Latin, showing how deeply their language shaped our own.
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