Ausonian

English

Etymology

From Latin Ausonia "Lower Italy," extended poetically to "Italy," from Ancient Greek Αὐσονία (Ausonía), from Αὔσων (Aúsōn), a son of Ulysses, who is said to have settled there.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔːˈsəʊni.ən/

Adjective

Ausonian (not comparable)

1. Of ancient Ausonia or the Ausonians.
   • 1887, Theodor Mommsen, William Purdie Dickson, The Provinces of the Roman Empire from Caesar to Diocletian, page 172:

     master of the glorious art of proud Ausonian song

2. (poetic) Italian.
   • 1907 (1850), “The Palace of Art”, in Select Poems of Alfred Tennyson:

     Or hollowing one hand against his ear, / […] stay'd the Ausonian king to hear / Of wisdom and of law.

3. Of or relating to the ancient poet Ausonius.

Noun

Ausonian (plural Ausonians)

1. An ancient inhabitant of middle or lower Italy.
   • 1823, “Chronology”, in Encyclopaedia Britannica:

     The Ausonians, the most ancient inhabitants of Italy, computed the day from midnight.

2. (poetic) An Italian.

Related terms

• ausonium

References

• “Ausonian”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “Ausonian”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.