Ian

¹

[ee-uhn, ee-ahn, ahy-uhn]

noun

1. a male given name, Scottish form of John.

-ian

²

1. a suffix with the same meaning and properties as -an, though -ian is now the more productive of the two suffixes in recent coinages, especially when the base noun ends in a consonant: Orwellian; Washingtonian .

-ian

suffix

1. a variant of -an

   Etonian

   Johnsonian

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ian¹

Extracted from Latin loanwords in which -ānus (adjective suffix) is joined to stems ending in i; -an

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ian¹

from Latin -iānus

Example Sentences

In Ian McEwan’s “What We Can Know,” war, sea-level rise and other upheavals have left humanity scraping by and unsure of itself.

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Benjamin Wood, barrister for two of Mrs McKay's children, Ian McKay and Dianne Levinson, said the family "offer their sincere apologies for the distress and inconvenience caused in relation to this deeply personal and sensitive matter".

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"You would want to go a long way with him before you drop him," said former Australia captain Ian Chappell, while describing Crawley as the "future" of England's batting.

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Pointing to recent corporate activity by global shipping lines and increased interest in transport assets from global infrastructure funds, analyst Ian Munro sees some probability of interest from a third party.

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The film, based on the book by Ian Fleming, was produced by Albert Broccoli and starred Sean Connery as the British spy.

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