Syrian

sb. ond a. Forms: 5 Sirien, Syryen, 6 Surian, Sirian, 7 Sorian, 6– Syrian. [a. OF. sirien, mod.F. syrien, f. L. Syrius (Surius) Syrian, or Syria: see -AN. Cf. SYRY.]

  A.  sb. A native or inhabitant of Syria, a region of Western Asia immediately east of the Mediterranean.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 1447. In þe quilke þe siriens of þis sire so many soroȝes had.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, II. iv. (1883), 48. The noble knyghtes Ioab and Abysay that fought agaynst the Syryens and Amonytes.

1535.  Coverdale, Dan. ii. 4. The Caldees answered the kynge in the Syrians speach.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., I. 233. The Sorians are so called of Syria, in which Prouince they liue, hauing their owne Patriarke.

1656.  Stanley, Hist. Philos., IV. Bion, iii. (1687), 143/2. Contemporary with Pherecydes the Syrian.

1770.  Langhorne, Plutarch, III. 21. The Syrians roamed from town to town without discipline.

1830.  H. G. Knight, Eastern Sketches (ed. 3), Pref. p. xix. The Syrians are, generally speaking, a handsome race.

  B.  adj. 1. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of Syria or the Syrians.

1537.  [Coverdale], Orig. & Sprynge of Sectes, 46. The Surian order, or Samaritan fayth.

1560.  Bible (Genev.), Dan. ii. 4, margin. Y^e Syrian tongue which differeth not muche from the Caldeans.

1578.  H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 38. A Knight … mounted vpon a mightie Sirian courser.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 421. The Brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground.

1821.  Shelley, Hellas, 579. The Christian tribes Of Lebanon and the Syrian wilderness.

1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 85. He was acquainted with ancient Greek, Persian, Modern Greek, Arabic, and Syrian books.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., lii. The sinless years That breathed beneath the Syrian blue.

1867.  M. Arnold, Obermann once more, xliv. Now he is dead! Far hence he lies In that lorn Syrian town.

  2.  In names of plants, animals, and products actually or reputedly coming from Syria, as Syrian bear, goat, grape, mastic, oak, pear, rue, thistle, tobacco: see quots.

1640.  Parkinson, Theat. Bot., 13. Marum Syriacum vel Creticum. The Syrian or Candye Mastick. This Candye or Syrian Marjerome, hath sundry upright stalkes.

1649.  Ogilby, trans. Virg. Georg., II. (1684), 77. The Syrian Pear.

1760.  J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 325. Rue, Wild Syrian, Peganum.

1780.  Ann. Reg., Chron., 223/2. A cluster of Syrian grapes, the largest … that ever grew in England.

1812.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., II. II. 374. Syrian Goat…. This variety is common in many parts of the East, and is distinguished by the great length of the ears.

1838.  Penny Cycl., XI. 357/1. The variety of thick-skinned white grape, called the Syrian.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Syrian Tobacco, the Nicotiana rustica … which furnishes the Turkish, Latakia, and some of the Asiatic tobaccoes.

1866.  Syrian thistle [see THISTLE sb. 3].

1879.  E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 116. The Syrian Bear (U[rsus] Syriacus) is found on Mount Lebanon, and elsewhere in Western Asia.

  Hence Syrianic a., Syriac; Syrianism = SYRIASM; Syrianize v. trans., to make Syrian, to give a Syrian character to.

1828–32.  Webster, Syrianism, a Syrian idiom, or a peculiarity in the Syrian language. Paley.

1873.  R. Ellis, Numerals as Signs of Prim. Unity Man., 56. The Hungarian nyoltz, ‘eight,’ is produced by multiplying the Syrianic njolj, ‘four,’ by tz for a ‘two.’

1893.  Athenæum, 21 Oct., 552/3. ‘The Gospel according to Peter,’ which is a Syrianized Greek text, was also connected with Antioch.

1915.  Petrie, Handbk. Egypt. Antiq. Univ. Coll. Lond., 34. Plaster cast of a limestone head of a man, from Thebes, an excellent instance of the delicate Syrianised type of that period.