Frygian

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Of or relating to Phrygia, an ancient region of Asia Minor ; a person born or living in that ancient region ; a church-modal scale running from E to E on the piano's white keys ; a soft, brimless cap with a forward-curving point
2. Connected with the ancient land of Phrygia in Asia Minor ; someone who came from that ancient Anatolian region ; a musical mode built on the white keys starting at E ; a floppy conical hat symbolizing liberty
3. Belonging to the classical region of Phrygia ; an ancient Anatolian inhabitant of that land ; a scale mode whose notes follow the white keys from E upward ; a soft cap with a pointed, forward-bending top

Etymology: "Frygian" is a variant spelling of the adjective for Phrygia, an ancient region of west-central Anatolia in modern Turkey. The Greeks used the name for the people who lived there, and its ultimate origin is unclear, so it is best treated as unknown rather than traced to a specific root. The most striking legacy is a hat. Phrygians were pictured in soft caps that curled forward at the tip, and Romans adopted this style, calling it the "pileus Phrygius." Roman freed slaves wore such caps to mark their new status, and during the French Revolution the red version became a symbol of liberty, known as the liberty cap. Ancient Greek music theorists also named one of their musical modes after Phrygia, and that name survives in the Phrygian mode of Western music.