sb. and a. [f. L. Umbr-, Umber (a. and sb.) or Umbria (see def.) + -(I)AN.]
A. sb. 1. An inhabitant or native of Umbria, a province of central Italy; esp. a member of the Italic race anciently inhabiting this district.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 36. The Babylonians count for day all the time between two sunne risings…. The Vmbrians from noone to noone.
1693. Dryden, Persius, III. 140. The Greaz’d Advocate, that Grinds the Poor, Fat Fees from the defended Umbrian draws.
1843. Macaulay, Horatius, xxii. The terror of the Umbrian, The terror of the Gaul.
1867. Chambers’ Encycl., IX. 630/1. The Umbrians were considered in ancient times to be the oldest people of Italy.
1890. Contemp. Rev., Aug., 266. The pile dwelling in the Lake of Fimòn, near Vicenza,… must have been founded very soon after the Umbrians first reached Italy.
2. The language anciently spoken in Umbria.
1858. G. Robertson, Earliest Inhabitants Italy, 9. The differences between the Oscan and the Umbrian with its kindred dialects.
1864. F. W. Newman, Iguvine Inscriptions, p. xiv. The vowel-declensions of Umbrian.
1882. C. S. Halsey, Etym. Latin Greek, I. i. 2. This [division] includes … 2. The Latin, akin to which were the Oscan and the Umbrian of central Italy.
B. adj. 1. Of or belonging to ancient Umbria, its inhabitants or language.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. Index s.v., Vmbrian earth or chalke, for what it is good.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, XII. 1088. The persecuted creature … Turns here and there, to escape his Umbrian foe.
1845. Encycl. Metrop., XXV. 1345/1. The Umbrian, Oscan, and Samnite characters, are, with a few trifling exceptions, nearly identical with the Etruscan.
1864. F. W. Newman, Iguvine Inscriptions, p. iii. The Umbrian tendency to assimilate n even in the middle of words.
1890. Contemp. Rev., Aug., 264. We now come to the third Italian race, which may be called the Umbrian or Latin race.
2. Of or pertaining to mediæval or modern Umbria. Umbrian School, the Italian school of painting developed in Umbria in the 15th century.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 252. The Umbrian painters appear to have at first studied both the older Florentines and the decaying school of Siena.
1845. Mrs. Jameson, Early Italian Painters, I. 204. In the sentiment of their works they resembled the Umbrian school, but the manner of execution is different.
1883. W. Sharp, in E. A. Sharp, Life (1910), 88. Watching the sunset over the far-stretching Umbrian country.
