Jordanes
/dʒɔːrˈdeɪniːz/noun
Jordanes was a sixth-century Latin historian whose writings preserve important information about Gothic and other Germanic peoples.
Did you know?Jordanes’s Getica, written around the sixth century, is a major source for Gothic history, although it likely condensed and paraphrased an earlier work by Cassiodorus.
Etymological Timeline
Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew
יַרְדֵּן (Yardēn)
“The Jordan River; traditionally connected with a root meaning “to descend,” referring to flowing downward.”
Ancient Greek
Greek
Ἰορδάνης (Iordánēs)
“The Jordan River or a personal name derived from it.”
Late Antiquity
Latin
Iordanes
“A Latinized personal name associated with Jordan.”
6th Century
Latin
Jordanes
“The name of the Gothic-background historian who wrote Getica and Romana.”
Modern English
English
Jordanes
“The conventional English form of the sixth-century historian’s name.”