Ashkenazim (n.) Look up Ashkenazim at Dictionary.com
(plural) "central and northern European Jews" (as opposed to Sephardim, Jews of Spain and Portugal), 1839, from Hebrew Ashkenazzim, plural of Ashkenaz, eldest son of Gomer (Genesis x:3), also the name of a people mentioned in Jeremiah li:27 (perhaps akin to Greek skythoi "Scythians," compare Akkadian ishkuzai); identified historically with various people; in Middle Ages, with the Germans.