Ragusan

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to Ragusa, the historic city now called Dubrovnik on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, or to its former maritime republic
2. Describing something from or connected with the old Dalmatian city-state of Ragusa, known today as Dubrovnik in Croatia
3. Belonging to or characteristic of Ragusa, the medieval trading republic whose capital is the port city now named Dubrovnik

Etymology: Ragusa was the Italian name for the city now called Dubrovnik, on the Adriatic coast of what is today Croatia. For centuries it was an independent maritime republic, a trading power that rivalled Venice, and its name shaped the vocabulary of the sea and of commerce. The adjective "Ragusan" simply attaches the suffix "-an", which marks a person or thing belonging to or coming from a place, so a "Ragusan" is someone from Ragusa and anything pertaining to that city. The suffix is the ordinary English one found in words like "Roman" or "Tuscan", so the word needs no special explanation beyond the place it names. Its use is largely confined to historical and scholarly writing about the republic, its merchants, its ships and its laws.