Elymian

Elymian

English

Etymology

Elymi +‎ -an.

Noun

Elymian (plural Elymians)

1. (historical) Any member of a people who inhabited western Sicily during the Bronze Age and Classical antiquity.
   • 2009, Jeff Champion, Pyrrhus of Epirus, Pen and Sword Books, unnumbered page,

     In 580 the Greeks attacked the Carthaginians and Elymians.

   • 2011, Irad Malkin, A Small Greek World: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean, Oxford University Press, page 140,

     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".

Adjective

Elymian (comparative more Elymian, superlative most Elymian)

1. Of or pertaining to the Elymian people or their society, language, etc.
   • 1892, E. A. Freeman, The History of Sicily from the Earliest Times, Volume III: The Athenian and Carthaginian Invasions, Clarendon Press, page 83,

     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.

Proper noun

Elymian

1. (linguistics) An extinct, undeciphered and unclassified language spoken by the Elymians.
   • 2005, Irad Malkin, Mediterranean Paradigms and Classical Antiquity, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 49,

     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.

Further reading

• Sicani on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Sicels on Wikipedia.Wikipedia