Sassenach is a word used chiefly by the Scots to designate an Englishman. It derives from the Gaelic Sasunnach meaning, originally, "Saxon", from the Latin "Saxones". The modern Scottish spelling is Sasannach. As employed by Scots or Scottish English-speakers today it is usually used in jest, as a (friendly) term of abuse. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) gives 1771 as the date of the earliest written use of the word in English.

Sasanach, the Irish-language word for an Englishman, has the same derivation, as do the words used in Welsh to describe the English people (Saeson, sing. Sais) and the language and things English in general: Saesneg and Seisnig. These words are normally, however, used only in the Irish and Welsh languages themselves.

Cornish also terms English Sawsnek from the same derivation. Some Cornish were known to use the expression 'Meea navidna cowza sawzneck!' to feign ignorance of the English language.

Uses

In James Joyce's Ulysses, Buck Mulligan refers to Haines, a British guest in the Martello tower with them, as "the Sassenach". And in the "Cyclops" episode, the citizen, a Gaelic revivalist, says: "To hell with the bloody brutal Sassenachs and their patois."

In the well-known Irish Rebel song, "The Bold Fenian Men", the final couplet uses the word sassenach: All who love foreign law, native or sassenach, must out and make way for the bold Fenian men.

In the Outlander series of novels by Diana Gabaldon, the main character, Englishwoman Claire Fraser (Beauchamp), is often referred to as 'Sassenach' by her Scottish husband, Jamie Fraser, as a term of endearment.

In the film The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, the handyman Mowbray rebukes Captain Hamilton for his "Sassenach attitudes".

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