Ethiopic, a.
(iːθɪˈɒpɪk)
[ad. L. æthiopic-us: see Ethiop and -ic.]
1. Of or belonging to Ethiopia. Now only with reference to language, denoting the ancient language of Abyssinia, or to the church using this language in its services.
| 1659 Hammond On Ps. lxxii. 9 Annot. 350 The æthiopick sea. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. 4 The Phœnicians pass'd from the Eastern or Ethiopick sea. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 62 The characters of an Ethiopic manuscript. 1882–3 Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. 1842 In the Ethiopic church he [Pilate] is a saint. |
2. absol. The Ethiopic language.
| 1867 Whitney Lang. & Study of Lang. 299 The ancient tongue of Abyssinia, the Ethiopic or Geëz, has a literature. |
| attrib. a 1891 Mod. A good Ethiopic scholar. |
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For sense 2 read: 2. absol. and as n. a. The ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia: = Geez n. b. A grouping of various related Semitic languages spoken in modern Ethiopia.
| 1725 [see polyglot n. 2 a]. 1809 Edin. Rev. Jan. 371 Of Greek his knowledge is slender; and of Hebrew and Ethiopic he is equally and totally ignorant. 1867 W. D. Whitney Lang. & Study of Lang. 299 The ancient tongue of Abyssinia, the Ethiopic or Geëz, has a literature. 1939 [see Tigrinya n.]. 1961 Webster 781/1 Ethiopic, the Ethiopic group of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. 1962 G. W. B. Huntingford in M. Guthrie Afr. Lang. Stud. III. 182 The Ethiopic comprises the Semitic languages Ge'ez, Tigri{nmac}a, Tigrē and Amharic. 1978 Language LIV. 454 The term ‘Ethiopic’..is ambiguous unless one knows that it usually is used to refer to Ethiopian Semitic (here my term ‘Ethio-Semitic’ is a convenient abbreviation). 1989 Scots Mag. Feb. 497 A letter in Ethiopic sent to George III in 1811 was given to [Alexander] Murray as the only person in the kingdom able to translate it. |