Norman: [13] Etymologically, the Normans were and are ‘men of the north’, a reference to the Scandinavians who settled in northern France in the 9th century and whose possession of the region, under their leader Rollo, was officially recognized by the French king in 911. The word originated in Old Norse northmathr, literally ‘northman’. In Old French that became normant or normand. That had a brief currency in English in the Middle Ages, but it was its plural form normans, shorn of its -s, that provided the standard modern English term.
c. 1200, "one of the mixed Scandinavian-Frankish people who conquered England in 1066," from Old French Normanz, plural of Normand, Normant, literally "North man," from a Scandinavian word meaning "northman" (see Norse), in reference to the Scandinavian people who overran and occupied Normandy 10c. Later meaning "one of the Norman French who conquered England in 1066." As an adjective from 1580s. As a style of architecture, developed in Normandy and employed in England after the conquest, it is attested from 1797. Norseman (1817) is not historical and appears to be due to Scott.
