West Saxon
1
9.9
- noun
- Archaic
:
sajón occidental
- In any case, with or without Cerdic's West Saxons, the savage host he brought to Badon likely was the largest ever marshaled by an Anglo-Saxon leader to that date.
Examples
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Many West Saxons settled in nearby regions after the fall of their kingdom.
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In 519, with his erstwhile master now out of the picture, Cerdic declared himself King of the West Saxons.
Blog text (15) -
One question which must be asked: was Cerdic, wily leader of the "West Saxons," present?
Blog text (15) -
The West Saxons defended their land bravely against the invading Danes.
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The West Saxons established a stronghold in Wessex, which became a center of power.
Synonyms
12
8.1
A person from a Germanic people who settled in England in the early Middle Ages
1
8.8
A person from England before the Norman Conquest or their descendants
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound combines 'West' (a direction/region) and 'Saxon' (a member of the Saxons), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a Saxon from the western area (i.e. someone from Wessex). Although it refers to a specific historical group, the region+people naming pattern is directly compositional and common cross-linguistically, making the meaning accessible to B1 learners.
Etymology
West Saxon simply means a Saxon from the west: a person who lived in the old kingdom of Wessex. That's why the word refers to a native or inhabitant of that region.