▪ I. Syrian, n. and a.
(ˈsɪrɪən)
Forms: 5 Sirien, Syryen, 6 Surian, Sirian, 7 Sorian, 6– Syrian.
[a. OF. sirien, mod.F. syrien, f. L. Syrius (Surius) Syrian, or Syria: see -an. Cf. Syry.]
A. n. A native or inhabitant of Syria, historically a region of Western Asia immediately east of the Mediterranean and since 1946 an independent Arab republic.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 1447 In þe quilke þe siriens of þis sire so many soroȝes had. 1474 Caxton Chesse ii. iv. (1883) 48 The noble knyghtes Ioab and Abysay that fought agaynst the Syryens and Amonytes. 1535 Coverdale Dan. ii. 4 The Caldees answered the kynge in the Syrians speach. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 233 The Sorians are so called of Syria, in which Prouince they liue, hauing their owne Patriarke. 1656 Stanley Hist. Philos. iv. Bion iii. (1687) 143/2 Contemporary with Pherecydes the Syrian. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch III. 21 The Syrians roamed from town to town without discipline. 1830 H. G. Knight Eastern Sketches (ed. 3) Pref. p. xix, The Syrians are, generally speaking, a handsome race. |
B. adj.
1. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of Syria or the Syrians.
| 1537 [Coverdale] Orig. & Sprynge of Sectes 46 The Surian order, or Samaritan fayth. 1560 Bible (Genev.) Dan. ii. 4 margin, Y⊇ Syrian tongue which differeth not muche from the Caldeans. 1578 H. Wotton Courtlie Controv. 38 A Knight..mounted vpon a mightie Sirian courser. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 421 The Brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground. 1821 Shelley Hellas 579 The Christian tribes Of Lebanon and the Syrian wilderness. 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 85 He was acquainted with ancient Greek, Persian, Modern Greek, Arabic, and Syrian books. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. lii, The sinless years That breathed beneath the Syrian blue. 1867 M. Arnold Obermann once more xliv, Now he is dead! Far hence he lies In that lorn Syrian town. |
2. In names of plants, animals, and products actually or reputedly coming from Syria, as Syrian bear, Syrian goat, Syrian grape, Syrian mastic, Syrian oak, Syrian pear, Syrian rue, Syrian thistle, Syrian tobacco: see quots.
| 1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. 13 Marum Syriacum vel Creticum. The Syrian or Candye Mastick. This Candye or Syrian Marjerome, hath sundry upright stalkes. 1649 Ogilby tr. Virg. Georg. ii. (1684) 77 The Syrian Pear. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 325 Rue, Wild Syrian, Peganum. 1780 Ann. Reg., Chron. 223/2 A cluster of Syrian grapes, the largest..that ever grew in England. 1812 Shaw Gen. Zool. II. ii. 374 Syrian Goat... This variety is common in many parts of the East, and is distinguished by the great length of the ears. 1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 357/1 The variety of thick-skinned white grape, called the Syrian. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Syrian Tobacco, the Nicotiana rustica..which furnishes the Turkish, Latakia, and some of the Asiatic tobaccoes. 1866 Syrian thistle [see thistle n. 3]. 1879 E. P. Wright Anim. Life 116 The Syrian Bear (U[rsus] Syriacus) is found on Mount Lebanon, and elsewhere in Western Asia. |
Hence Syriˈanic a., Syriac; ˈSyrianism = Syriasm; ˈSyrianize v. trans., to make Syrian, to give a Syrian character to.
| 1828–32 Webster, Syrianism, a Syrian idiom, or a peculiarity in the Syrian language. Paley. 1873 R. Ellis Numerals as Signs of Prim. Unity Man. 56 The Hungarian nyoltz, ‘eight’, is produced by multiplying the Syrianic njolj, ‘four’, by tz for a ‘two’. 1893 Athenæum 21 Oct. 552/3 ‘The Gospel according to Peter’..is a Syrianized Greek text. 1915 Petrie Handbk. Egypt. Antiq. Univ. Coll. Lond. 34 Plaster cast of a limestone head of a man, from Thebes, an excellent instance of the delicate Syrianised type of that period. |
▪ II. Syrian
var. Zyrian n. and a.