German orthography
Compound words, including nouns, are written together, e.g. "Haustür" (Haus+Tür; house door), "Tischlampe" (Tisch+Lampe; table lamp), "Kaltwasserhahn" (Kalt+Wasser+Hahn; cold water tap/faucet). This can lead to long words: the longest word in regular use, "Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften" ("legal protection insurance companies"), consists of 39 letters; while the longest German word ever published ("Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft", "Association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services") has 79 letters.
Germany
The English word "Germany" derives from the Latin , which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. The German term , originally ("the German lands") is derived from (compare "Dutch"), descended from Old High German "popular" (i.e. belonging to the or "people"), originally used to distinguish the language of the common people from Latin and its Romance descendants. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic "popular" (see also the Latinised form ), derived from , descended from Proto-Indo-European *"" "people", from which the word "Teutons" also originates.