Aragonian

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to the region or culture of Aragon in northeastern Spain; describing the dialect spoken in this area; pertaining to the historical and geographical aspects of Aragon
2. Connected to the community, language, or traditions of Aragon, a Spanish autonomous community; referring to the local speech form; associated with the territory’s heritage and identity
3. Characteristic of Aragon including its people, linguistic variations, and regional customs; denoting origin from this part of Spain; involving cultural and historical elements distinctive to Aragon

Etymology: Aragonian is simply a variant of "Aragonese," and the story behind it is a chain of suffixes rather than a single coinage. The place name Aragon is the starting point, and the adjective-forming ending that turns it into a description of people, language, or things comes from "-ese," which English took from Middle English "-eys." That Middle English ending was itself borrowed from Old French "-eis," which descended from Latin "-ēnsis," meaning belonging to or coming from a place. The Latin suffix has an even longer ancestry. Its distant roots trace back through Proto-Germanic and the Vulgar Latin form "-iscus," a diminutive-style ending that spread widely across Romance languages. Over many centuries it passed from one language to the next until it attached itself to the names of regions, cities, and peoples across Europe. The "-ian" form in "Aragonian" is an alternative ending with the same function, so the word describes the same things as "Aragonese": the region's culture, its historical and geographical features, and the dialect spoken there.

Synonyms: Aragonese, from Aragon, Aragonian