Lusitania

Proper noun

Lusitania

1. An ancient Roman province, roughly corresponding to modern Portugal.
2. (archaic, poetic) Portugal.
   • Yet this, as well as most of the forts in the Moluccas, was originally built by the Portuguese themselves. Oh! Lusitania, how art thou fallen!1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 125
3. (historical) The RMS Lusitania, a British ship that was sunk in 1915 during World War I.
   • The anti-German riots which erupted simultaneously in many countries in response to the torpedoing of the Lusitania by a German U-boat in 1915 reflected shifts in the status of minorities in multi-ethnic societies at a time of escalating nationalist emotions.2013 November, Tilman Dedering, “‘Avenge the Lusitania’: The Anti-German Riots in South Africa in 1915”, in Immigrants & Minorities, volume 31, number 3, →DOI, pages 256–288