agrarian, a. and n.
(əˈgrɛərɪən)
[f. L. agrāri-us pertaining to land (f. agr- field + -āri-us: see -ary) + -an. The L. was first adapted as agrarie (cf. contrary), or untranslated.]
A. adj.
1. Rom. Hist. Relating to the land: epithet of a law (Lex agraria) for the division of conquered lands.
| [1533 Bellendene Livy iv. (1822) 379 The law Agrarie..put the Faderis fra the public landis, quhilkis was wranguislie possedit. 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 647 Cæsar preferred the Law Agraria.] 1618 Bolton Florus i. xxvi. 71 Spurius Cassius, suspected of affecting Soveraignty, because hee had published the Agrarian Law. 1838 Arnold Hist. Rome I. ix. 161 An agrarian law for the division of a certain proportion of the public land. |
2. gen. Relating to, or connected with, landed property. agrarian outrage, an act of violence originating in discord between landlords and tenants.
| 17.. in Somers Tracts II. 453 Whatever Reflections may be rais'd from the Agrarian Principles. 1833 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) II. 422 Have not your landlords brought you to the very eve of an agrarian war? 1876 Rogers Pol. Econ. xiii. 23 The Irish land system familiarised the peasantry with agrarian outrages. |
3. Of, relating to, or connected with, cultivated land, or its cultivation.
| 1792 A. Young Trav. France 197 Signore Giobert, academician, and of the agrarian society. 1864 Burton Scot Abroad II. ii. 163 The heartless agrarian devastation accompanying the movements of the Russian troops. 1867 J. Draper Amer. Civ. War I. xxvi. 445 The only bulwark..against the clamoring rule of agrarian majorities. |
4. Bot. Growing wild in the fields. Also, name proposed by H. C. Watson for the lowest of the altitudinal zones of vegetation, within the limits of the cultivation of corn.
| 1843 H. C. Watson Distrib. Brit. Pl. 34 Agrarian region. 1861 Buckman Rep. Brit. Assoc. (L.) We believe that the charlock is only an agrarian form of brassica. |
B. n.
1. An agrarian law.
| 1656 Harrington Oceana 54 (R.) An equal agrarian is a perpetual law establishing and preserving the balance of dominion. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. i. xvi. (1865) 125 The estate has passed into more prudent hands, and nothing but an agrarian can restore it. |
2. One in favour of a redistribution of landed property.
| 1818 Southey in Q. Rev. XIX. 97 An Agrarian of three hours standing. 1882 Goldw. Smith in Pall Mall G. 24 May 2 The agrarians will be satisfied with nothing short of the total spoliation of the landowners. |