Baltic, a. and n.
(ˈbɔːltɪk)
[f. med.L. Balticus; cf. Balt.]
A. adj.
1. Of, pertaining to, designating or bordering upon an almost landlocked sea in N. Europe (Russ. Balt{iacu}ĭskoe Móre), called by the neighbouring Germanic countries ‘East Sea’ (G. Ostsee, etc.); spec. of or belonging to the states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and their inhabitants.
| c 1590 A. Ashley (title) The Second Part of the Mariners Mirrour..with all the sounds of Denmark, & the Baltick sea. 1608 Topsell Serpents 236 There be also in the Sueuian-Ocean or Balthicke-sea, Serpents of thirty or forty foote in length. 1845 Ainsworth's Mag. VIII. 161 The failure of a long established Baltic house at Kingston upon Hull. 1920 19th Cent. Mar. 536 A policy aimed at the Balkanisation of the Baltic provinces. 1937 [see Balt n. and a.]. |
2. Applied to a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising Lithuanian, Lettish, and Old Prussian, usu. classified with the Slavic group (see Balto-).
| 1887 Skeat Princ. Eng. Etym. vii. 102 Of the Lettic or Baltic group, the most interesting is the Lithuanian, spoken in parts of Eastern Prussia. 1888 [see Lettish]. 1891 A. L. Mayhew O.E. Phonol. p. xii, Baltic-Slavonic, including Old Prussian, Lithuanian, Lettish, and Old Bulgarian. |
3. In specific combinations with ns., as Baltic pine (see pine n.2 2); Baltic shield, the Archæan platform of Finland and E. Scandinavia.
| 1866 Baltic pine [see pine n.2 2]. 1891 W. Schlich Man. Forestry II. iv. 290 The timber of the Spruce..is known in Britian as white Baltic pine. 1906 B. C. Sollas tr. Suess's Face of Earth II. iii. ii. 76 East of the glint lies the Archaean table-land of the gulf of Bothnia; that is, the Baltic shield. |
B. n. The Baltic Sea; the lands bordering upon it.
| 1720 Phil. Trans. Abr. VI. 498 Observations on the variations of the needle in the Baltic. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. (1782) I. ix. 272 Some tribes..on the coast of the Baltic, acknowledged the authority of kings, though without relinquishing the rights of men. 1935 Huxley & Haddon We Europeans vii. 237 The ‘Windmill Hill’..type of pottery..was brought from the Baltic by long-headed people who buried their dead in long barrows. |