Scythian, a. and n.
(ˈsɪθɪən; now freq. ˈsɪðɪən)
Also 6–7 Sythian.
[f. L. Scythia, a. Gr. σκυθία (f. σκύθης Scyth) + -an.]
A. adj.
1. Pertaining to Scythia, an ancient region extending over a large part of European and Asiatic Russia, or to the nomadic people by whom it was inhabited.
| 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. xv. 312 Hypanis That springeth in the Scythian hilles. 1587–90 Marlowe 1st Pt. Tamburl. i. i. 44 Tamburlaine, that sturdie Scythian thiefe. 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 630/1 For though it [Nomadism] be an old Scythian use, yet it is very behoofull in that countrey of Ireland. a 1625 Beaum. & Fl. Four Plays in One, Tri. Death vi, What Scythian snow so white? what crystal chaster? 1776 Mickle tr. Camoens' Lusiad Introd. 14 The irruptions of northern or Scythian barbarians. 1882 Ruskin Bible of Amiens iii. 100 The northern kingdoms are moated from the Scythian desert by the Vistula. |
| transf. 1814 Scott Wav. xviii, All the domestic accommodations of milk, poultry, butter, &c., were out of the question in this Scythian camp. |
2. Special collocations: Scythian antelope = saiga; Scythian disease [for the reason for the name, cf. Herodotus i. cv], atrophy of the male organs of generation, accompanied by loss of masculine attributes (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1898); Scythian insanity, the mental perversion occurring in the Scythian disease, manifested in the assumption of female dress and habits (ibid.); † Scythian lamb = barometz; Scythian stone, some mineral.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 147 The gall of this beast [sc. the Dart] mixed with the Sythian Stone, yealdeth a very good Eye-salue. 1659 R. Lovell Herbal 524 Scythian Lamb Agnus Scyth. 1781 Pennant Quadrupeds I. 86 Scythian Antelope. 1800 Shaw Gen. Zool. II. 339 The Saiga or Scythian Antelope, is an inhabitant..of all the deserts from the Danube and the Dnieper to the river Irtish. |
† 3. Philol. Used as a designation for the Ural-Altaic family of languages. Obs.
| 1885 Whitney Philol. in Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 779/1 Ural-Altaic (Scythian, Turanian) Family. |
B. n.
1. a. A person belonging to the race by which Scythia was inhabited; = Scyth.
| 1543 Becon Invect. agst. Swearing, Cert. Laws Wks. 1560 I. 223 b, The law among the Scythyans was y{supt}, if [etc.]. 1590 Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. iii. v, Raile not proud Scythian. 1596 Edward III, ii. i. 72 That it may rayse drops in a Tarters eye, And make a flyntheart Sythian pytifull. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxvi. (1787) II. 563 note, In speaking of all, or any, of the northern shepherds of Europe, or Asia, I indifferently use the appellations of Scythians, or Tartars. 1883 Morfill Slavonic Lit. ii. 38, I shall not discuss the question here as to whether the Scythians were a Mongolian or Indo-European race. |
b. Russ. Lit. An advocate of Scythism (sense c).
| 1923 Contemp. Rev. Aug. 193 There is an immense wealth of pride in these Scythians, they heartily and sincerely despise the West. 1970 M. Ginsburg tr. Zamyatin's Soviet Heretic 22 Ivanov-Razumnik..leader of the Scythians, a literary group that included Blok and Bely. 1974 Moore & Parry Twentieth-Cent. Russ. Lit. ii. 18 He was now briefly one of the Scythians, who confronted the new social events with fervor and a sense of exultation. |
2. The language of Scythia.
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. i. i. §3. 3 The European Tartar, or Scythian, from which some conceive our Irish to have had its original. 1870 [see Babylonian n. 2]. 1894 [see Medic n.2]. 1939 L. H. Gray Foundations of Lang. xiii. 425 Hesychios..cites words..from many non-Classical languages, such as..Scythian. 1972 W. B. Lockwood Panorama Indo-Europ. Lang. xii. 235 The exiguous records of the Median language are of the same character as those of Scythian and Sarmatian. |
3. Comb. Scythian-like adj. and adv.
| 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 632/2 The old English also which there remayneth have gotten up theyr cryes Scythian-like, as the Geraldins Croum-abowe. Ibid. 633/1, I thought this manner of lewd crying and howling not impertinent to be noted as uncivill and Scythian-like. |