a. and sb. [ad. L. Fabiānus of or belonging to a Fabius or to the Fabian gens.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to the Roman gens Fabia.
1842. Macaulay, The Battle of the Lake Regillus, xvii.
| Tall Cæso was the bravest man | |
| Of the brave Fabian race. |
2. Pertaining to, or after the manner of, Q. Fabius Maximus, surnamed Cunctator (‘Delayer’) from the tactics which he employed against Hannibal in the Second Punic War, and which consisted in avoiding a battle, and weakening the enemy by cutting off supplies and by continual skirmishing.
1808. J. Barlow, The Columbiad, V. 826.
| In vain sage Washington, from hill to hill, | |
| Plays round his foes with more than Fabian skill. |
1843. Tait’s Mag., Oct., 615/2. We shall not at present say more of Ireland, than that, whatever has been done, has been ill done; though the Fabian policy to which Sir Robert Peel has tied himself up, seems not the worst that might be adopted under the circumstances.
1849. Ld. Houghton, in Life (1891), I. x. 433. Stanley did all he could to inspire them, but the Fabian Duke succeeded in checking his zeal; and a proxy majority, which cannot be repeated in the Committee, saved the Government.
b. Fabian Society: a society founded in 1884, consisting of Socialists who advocate a ‘Fabian’ policy as opposed to immediate attempts at revolutionary action. Hence Fabian principles, etc.
1884. Manchester Courier, 12 March, 3/5. Mr. J. Hunter Watts (of the Fabian Society, London) then addressed the meeting.
B. sb.
† 1. Flaunting Fabian: see quot. 1598.
[Perh. originally a transl. of L. licens Fabius, used by Propertius with reference to the Fabian priests of Pan, and the licence permitted them at the Lupercalia.]
1598. Florio, Brauazzo, a swashbuckler, a swaggrer, a cutter, a quareller, a roister, a flaunting fabian. Ibid., Sfoggiatore, a riotous, lauish, flauting fabian, a carelesse fellow, an vnthrift.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 46. Protested to make the stem of her loynes of all fishes the flanting Fabian or Palmerin of England, which is Cadwallader Herring.
2. A member of the ‘Fabian Society,’ or one who sympathises with its opinions.
1891. The Athenæum, 21 Feb., 242/2–3. The first essay, by Mr. Robertson, is a very general one, on ‘The Impracticability of Socialism,’ will hardly win souls away from the Fabians.
