Achaeans

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term referring to a group of ancient Greek people, especially noted for their role in the Trojan War
2. The name of a major branch of the Greek population during the Mycenaean era noted for their cultural contributions
3. An identifier for Greeks, specifically those from the Peloponnese region, renowned in classical literature and history

Etymology: The Achaeans were, in Homer's epics, the Greeks who besieged Troy, but the name was never a single nation's. In Homer, "Achaioi" is one of several names for the Greek army, alongside "Danaans" and "Argives," and the poems use it without explaining where it came from. The Greeks themselves applied "Akhaioi" to a region of the northern Peloponnese, the coastal land later called Achaea, and the name was carried around the Greek world by those who claimed descent from it. English took the word through Latin "Achaeus," itself borrowed from the Greek "Akhaiós," and the English form simply adds the "-an" that marks a person from a place, the same ending found in "Victorian" or "Roman." The plural "Achaeans" therefore means "people of Achaea," a usage that has stayed attached to Homer's Trojan War armies ever since, even though the regional sense is what the name originally described.