Mauritian

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to Mauritius, the island country in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, or to its people and culture
2. Describing something that comes from or belongs to Mauritius, a republic of islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean
3. Characteristic of Mauritius, the volcanic island nation off the east coast of Africa and its inhabitants

Etymology: Mauritius itself was named by the Dutch, who took possession of the uninhabited island in the late 1500s and named it after Prince Maurice of Nassau, stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. The island's earlier history was tangled: Arab and Malay sailors knew it, and Portuguese navigators passed it without settling, so the Dutch name was the first lasting European one. The adjective and noun "Mauritian" built on that Latinised form. The suffix is the key to the word's structure. English "-an" comes from Latin "-anus" by way of Old French "-ain" and Middle English "-an", a suffix used to make adjectives and nouns meaning "belonging to" or "a native of" a place. So "Mauritian" simply means "of Mauritius" or "a person from Mauritius," the same pattern seen in "Parisian" or "Asian."