Hun

Origin

From Old English Hūnas, Hūne (both plural), from Late Latin Hunni, from Koine Greek Οὗννοι (Hoûnnoi), borrowed through Middle Iranian. Cognate with Old Norse húnir, Old High German Hunni. See also etymology of Xiongnu. Compare Sogdian [script needed] (xwn), Sanskrit हूण (hūṇa), and 匈奴 (OC *hoŋ-nâ) (c. 318 BCE) > *hɨoŋ-nɑ (Eastern Han), which Schuessler (2014:264) proposes to be transcription of foreign *Hŏna ~ Hŭna. More at Huns. As a derogatory term for Germans popularized by Rudyard Kipling, reacting to Germany's proposal that the Royal Navy be used to collect debts from Venezuela.