Graecian

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Of or relating to ancient Greece, its people, or its classical culture ; an archaic term for a native of Greece
2. Connected with the land, language, or classical style of Greece ; an old-fashioned name for a person born in Greece
3. Pertaining to Greece and its classical heritage in the manner of the ancient Greeks ; a dated word for someone from Greece

Etymology: "Graecian" is an obsolete spelling of "Grecian," and the story of the word is really the story of the Latin name for Greece. The Romans called the country "Graecia," and English took that name and added the adjective-forming suffix "-an," producing a word meaning "of Greece" or "Greek." Old French had a parallel form, "grecien," and Middle English used several spellings, including "grecan," "grecen," "greken," and "grekin," before the form we now call standard settled in. The spelling "graecian" keeps the Latin "ae" that English later simplified to "e," just as it did in words like "Caesar" and "aesthetic" in their modern forms. Writers who kept the older spelling were following the Latin more closely than the Middle English forms did. The word is a plain adjective and noun built on a country name, so its history is short: a Latin place name, a suffix, and a few centuries of spelling variation.

Synonyms: Greek