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Sassenach is a word used chiefly by the Scots
Scottish people

The Scots people are a nation and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland.Historically, as an ethnic group, they emerged from an amalgamation of Celts, Picts, Gaels and Brythons....
 to designate an Englishman. It derives from the Scottish Gaelic Sasunnach meaning, originally, "Saxon
Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic peoples. Their modern-day descendants in Saxony are considered ethnic Germans; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch people; those in north eastern Belgium are considered to be ethnic Flemish people; and those in southern England ethnic English people ....
", from the Latin "Saxones
Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic peoples. Their modern-day descendants in Saxony are considered ethnic Germans; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch people; those in north eastern Belgium are considered to be ethnic Flemish people; and those in southern England ethnic English people ....
"; it was also formerly applied by Highlanders
Gàidhealtachd

The G?idhealtachd , sometimes known as A' Gh?idhealtachd , usually refers to the Scotland highlands and islands, and especially the Scottish Gaelic language culture of the area....
 to (non-Gaelic-speaking) Lowlanders
Scottish Lowlands

The Scottish Lowlands , although not officially a geographical area of the country, in normal usage is generally meant to include those parts of Scotland not referred to as the Scottish Highlands , that is, everywhere due south and east of a line between Stonehaven and Helensburgh ....
. As employed by Scots
Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
 or Scottish English
Scottish English

Scottish English refers to the Variety of English language spoken in Scotland. It may or may not include Scots language depending on the observer....
-speakers today it is usually used in jest, as a (friendly) term of abuse. The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
 (OED) gives 1771 as the date of the earliest written use of the word in English.

Sasanach, the Irish-language
Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic languages of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people....
 word for an Englishman, has the same derivation, as do the words used in Welsh
Welsh language

Welsh ]], is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh Marches and in the Welsh settlement in Argentina in the Chubut Valley in Argentina Patagonia....
 to describe the English people (Saeson, sing.






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Sassenach is a word used chiefly by the Scots
Scottish people

The Scots people are a nation and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland.Historically, as an ethnic group, they emerged from an amalgamation of Celts, Picts, Gaels and Brythons....
 to designate an Englishman. It derives from the Scottish Gaelic Sasunnach meaning, originally, "Saxon
Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic peoples. Their modern-day descendants in Saxony are considered ethnic Germans; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch people; those in north eastern Belgium are considered to be ethnic Flemish people; and those in southern England ethnic English people ....
", from the Latin "Saxones
Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic peoples. Their modern-day descendants in Saxony are considered ethnic Germans; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch people; those in north eastern Belgium are considered to be ethnic Flemish people; and those in southern England ethnic English people ....
"; it was also formerly applied by Highlanders
Gàidhealtachd

The G?idhealtachd , sometimes known as A' Gh?idhealtachd , usually refers to the Scotland highlands and islands, and especially the Scottish Gaelic language culture of the area....
 to (non-Gaelic-speaking) Lowlanders
Scottish Lowlands

The Scottish Lowlands , although not officially a geographical area of the country, in normal usage is generally meant to include those parts of Scotland not referred to as the Scottish Highlands , that is, everywhere due south and east of a line between Stonehaven and Helensburgh ....
. As employed by Scots
Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
 or Scottish English
Scottish English

Scottish English refers to the Variety of English language spoken in Scotland. It may or may not include Scots language depending on the observer....
-speakers today it is usually used in jest, as a (friendly) term of abuse. The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
 (OED) gives 1771 as the date of the earliest written use of the word in English.

Sasanach, the Irish-language
Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic languages of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people....
 word for an Englishman, has the same derivation, as do the words used in Welsh
Welsh language

Welsh ]], is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh Marches and in the Welsh settlement in Argentina in the Chubut Valley in Argentina Patagonia....
 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
Cornish language

The Cornish language is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. The language continued to function as a community language in parts of Cornwall until the late 18th century, and there have been attempts to revive the language since the early 20th century....
 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
James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Ireland expatriate author of the 20th century. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake , as well as the short story collection Dubliners and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ....
's Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)

Ulysses is a novel by James Joyce, first serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, in Paris....
, Buck Mulligan
Buck Mulligan

Malachi "Buck" Mulligan is a fictional character in James Joyce's novel Ulysses . At once callous and complex, Mulligan is a Falstaff student of medicine who has offended Stephen Dedalus by calling his mother "beastly dead." Yet later, Mulligan is portrayed as a hero for having saved a man from drowning....
 refers to Haines, a British guest in the Martello tower
Martello tower

Martello towers are small defensive Fortification built in several countries of the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the Napoleonic Wars onwards....
 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
Outlander (novel)

Outlander is the first in a series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. The book focuses on two main characters, Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser, and takes place in eighteenth and twentieth-century Scotland....
 by Diana Gabaldon
Diana Gabaldon

Diana Jean Gabaldon Watkins is an United States author of Mexican-American and England ancestry. Diana Gabaldon is her maiden name, and the one she uses professionally....
, the main character, Englishwoman Claire Fraser (Beauchamp), is often referred to as 'Sassenach' by her Scottish husband, Jamie Fraser, as a term of endearment
Term of endearment

A term of endearment is a word or phrase used to address and/or describe a person or animal for which the speaker feels love or affection. Terms of endearment are used for a variety of reasons, such as parents addressing their children and lovers addressing each other....
, though it is more usually employed against the English as a term of abuse.

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

In an episode of The Broons
The Broons

File:Broonsmarch0892.jpgThe Broons is a comic strip published in the weekly Scottish newspaper, The Sunday Post. It features the Brown family, who live in a tenement flat at 10 Glebe Street, in the fictional Scotland town of Auchentogle or Auchenshoogle....
, Hen and Joe go out dressed in Kilt
Kilt

The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century....
s and carrying weapons ("Doon wi´ the Sassenachs!"). Granpaw Broon tries to warn them ("It´ll no´ come aff - it´s been tried before!"). His grandsons, however, are just playing cameo roles in a film.