Word.ws English Dictionary

Elymian

Elymian noun: any member of a people who inhabited western Sicily during the Bronze Age and Classical antiquity.

Noun

Elymian (plural Elymians)

  1. (historical) Any member of a people who inhabited western Sicily during the Bronze Age and Classical antiquity.
    • In 580 the Greeks attacked the Carthaginians and Elymians.2009, Jeff Champion, Pyrrhus of Epirus, Pen and Sword Books, unnumbered page
    • To the Elymians and the Phoenicians the change of names could have signified a welcome return to the older name of the colony (Makara = "Herakleia") before the Selinuntines seized it and named it "Minoa".2011, Irad Malkin, A Small Greek World: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean, Oxford University Press, page 140

Adjective

Elymian (comparative more Elymian, superlative most Elymian)

  1. Of or pertaining to the Elymian people or their society, language, etc.
    • The exact relations which existed between Carthage and the Elymian towns, those again which existed between the two Elymian towns themselves, are nowhere clearly described.1892, E. A. Freeman, The History of Sicily from the Earliest Times, Volume III: The Athenian and Carthaginian Invasions, Clarendon Press, page 83

Proper noun

Elymian

  1. An extinct, undeciphered and unclassified language spoken by the Elymians.
    • The chance find of a dump at Segesta has yielded more Elymian inscriptions (mostly single words, inscribed in Greek letters on potsherds) than all other sites combined.2005, Irad Malkin, Mediterranean Paradigms and Classical Antiquity, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 49

Forms of Elymian

Noun
pluralElymians
Adjective
comparativemore Elymian
superlativemost Elymian

Origin of Elymian

From Elymi + -an.

Questions about Elymian

What does Elymian mean?
Elymian means any member of a people who inhabited western Sicily during the Bronze Age and Classical antiquity.
What part of speech is Elymian?
Elymian can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
What is the plural of Elymian?
The plural of Elymian is Elymians.

Words near Elymian in the dictionary

  1. elydoric
  2. elyite
  3. Elymaean
  4. Elymais
  5. Elymi
  6. Elymian
  7. Elymians
  8. elymoclavine
  9. Elymus
  10. Elyot
  11. Elyria

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Elymian (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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