Lydians

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Members of an ancient people who inhabited the region of Lydia in western Asia Minor, known for their wealth and cultural influence in the classical world ; inhabitants or natives of the historical kingdom of Lydia in what is now Turkey
2. An ancient people dwelling in western Asia Minor who were famous for their prosperity and innovations ; people originating from or belonging to the kingdom of Lydia in the Mediterranean region
3. The inhabitants of ancient Lydia, a prosperous civilization in what is now western Turkey ; members of the ethnic or political group associated with the Lydian kingdom of antiquity

Etymology: "Lydians" is the plural of "Lydian," the name for the people of Lydia, an ancient kingdom in western Anatolia (modern Turkey). The name is built from the place name "Lydia" plus the suffix "-an," which English took through Old French from Latin "-ānus," a suffix meaning "belonging to" or "associated with." That same pattern produces many English words for inhabitants, such as "Roman" or "Italian." The suffix has a long ancestry before it reached English. Its distant roots lie in a prehistoric Indo-European form, which passed into Proto-Italic and then into Latin as "-ānus." From Latin it entered Old French as "-ain," and Middle English adopted it as "-an" during the centuries that followed, so the ending in "Lydian" reflects a journey through several languages.