metic

[met-ik]

noun

1. an alien resident of an ancient Greek city who paid a tax for the right to live there.

metic

/ ˈmɛtɪk /

noun

1. (in ancient Greece) an alien having some rights of citizenship in the city in which he lives

Word History and Origins

Origin of metic¹

1800–10; < Late Latin metycus, variant of metoecus < Greek métoikos emigrant, equivalent to met- met- + -oikos dwelling

Word History and Origins

Origin of metic¹

C19: from Greek metoikos, from _meta- (indicating change) + -oikos dwelling

Example Sentences

That’s the word he uses, “metic”, and you can see why it gives rise to smiles when it’s used to describe Emmanuel Macron.

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Being an arith­metic mean, it gives disproportionate significance to a few very highly cited papers, and it falsely implies that papers with only a few citations are relatively unimportant.

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In the classical period four-fifths of the population of Attica were slaves and of the remainder half were metics.

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Thucydides tells us that a garrison of 16,000 inferior soldiers, old men, boys, and metics, sufficed to do this work.

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Thither resorted metics or resident foreigners, and much of the trade of Athens was in their hands, since they were less frequently employed in foreign service.

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