Definition: Closely related, relevant, pertinent, apposite.

Usage: Today's word is related to English german "having the same parents or grand-parents," as in "brother-german," "sister-german," "cousin-german." A sister-german is the contrary of a step-sister. The current meaning of the word with the final [e] is but a short hop from the meaning of "most closely related by kinship."

Suggested Usage: Today's word refers to a stronger relation than does "pertinent" or "relevant." Raising pigs for their skin might be pertinent to a discussion of US football since footballs are made from pigskin but hardly germane. Quarterbacks, field goals, and end runs are, however, quite germane to any discussion of football. So, would a discussion of the word "German" be germane here? Apparently, not. The English name for the Germans apparently comes from an accidentally similar Latin word, perhaps itself borrowed from Celtic.

Etymology: Ultimately from Latin germanus "own, fully related," based on germen "offshoot." The root here, germ-, underwent an interesting change frequently seen in language called "dissimilation." It was originally the same *gen- that gave us "generate," "genus" from Latin and "kin," "kind" and German "Kind" from Old Germanic. But when the suffix –men was added to the root to make *gen-men-, the [n] and the [m] didn't get along because both are nasals, i.e. pronounced through the nose. (Hold your nose and pronounce them; you should get [d] and [b], as you do when your nose is stopped up from a cold.) Anyway, the [m] forced the [n] to become a dissimilar [r] to remain next to it, hence *ger-men from *gen-men.