Axumite

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Axum and its culture, people, or history ; a native or inhabitant of that ancient kingdom in northeastern Africa
2. Belonging to or characteristic of the ancient state of Axum in the highlands of Ethiopia ; a person who lived in or came from that ancient African kingdom
3. Describing something connected with the old Axumite empire centered in present-day Ethiopia ; one of the people who inhabited that ancient realm

Etymology: The name of an ancient kingdom is the root here: "Axum" is the city in northern Ethiopia that was the centre of a powerful trading state between roughly the first and eighth centuries. The suffix "-ite" is the common English ending used to form nouns for people or things associated with a place, as in "Israelite" or "Muscovite." Put together, "Axumite" describes a person or thing belonging to Axum, most often the kingdom or its culture. The word is a straightforward formation rather than a coinage with a dramatic backstory. Its use in English is largely confined to historians, archaeologists and writers on late antique Africa and the Red Sea trade, who refer to the Axumite kingdom, its coinage, or its monumental stone stelae.