Dictionary

Grecian en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡɹiːʃn̩/

Etymology

From Latin Graecia + -an. Compare Old French grecien and Middle English grecan, grecen, greken, grekin. By surface analysis, Greco- + -ian.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable, obsolete, poetic) Greek (of or from Greece or the Greek people, especially those of Ancient Greece).
   • Chlorine blue, bordered in forest green and looking out onto a Grecian gazebo, the pool was composed of hundreds of ceramic kitchen tiles, like a Minecraft version of C.Z. Guest’s once-upon-a-time world. 2016 September 13, Vanessa Friedman, “New York Fashion Week Comes to Life With Thom Browne and Proenza Schouler”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Aug 2020:
   • Olympic Games. — Besides the ordinary confederacies that join independent states together, a singular federal bond is remarkable in the Olympic games, which for many ages cemented the Grecian commonwealths by a joint tie of recreation and religious ritual. 1840, John Dunlop, The Universal Tendency to Association in Mankind. Analyzed and Illustrated, London: Houlston and Stoneman, page 103:
   • He was a young man with a scornful mouth and the bright blue eyes of a healthy baby set in a dark sensitive face. His hair was pitch black, damp and curly—the hair of a Grecian statue gone brunette. 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Offshore Pirate”, in Flappers and Philosophers, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 11:

Forms

Deriveds

Grecian knot · Bulgrecian

Synonyms

Hellenic

Grecian en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡɹiːʃn̩/

Etymology

From Latin Graecia + -an. Compare Old French grecien and Middle English grecan, grecen, greken, grekin. By surface analysis, Greco- + -ian.

Meanings

1. (obsolete) A native or inhabitant of Greece.
2. A senior pupil at Christ's Hospital School in West Sussex, England.
3. (obsolete) A Jew who spoke Greek; a Hellenist.
4. (obsolete) One well versed in the Greek language; a scholar of Greek.
   • […] and I will so exhibit its very words as that the reader, even if no Grecian, may understand the point in litigation. 1847, Thomas De Quincey, “Protestantism”, in Theological Essays and Other Papers, volume 1:
   • I spoke of Mr. Harris, of Salisbury, as being a very learned man, and in particular an eminent Grecian. 1791, James Boswell, “(please specify the year)”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC:
5. (obsolete, slang) An Irish labourer newly arrived on the British mainland.

Forms

Deriveds

Grecianship (senior pupil at Christ's Hospital)