Pelasgian

American  

[puh-laz-jee-uhn, -juhn, -gee-uhn] / pəˈlæz dʒi ən, -dʒən, -gi ən /

adjective

1. of or relating to the Pelasgians.

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noun

1. a member of a prehistoric people inhabiting Greece, Asia Minor, and the islands of the eastern Mediterranean.

Pelasgian British  

/ pɛˈlæzdʒɪən /

noun

1. a member of any of the pre-Hellenic peoples (the Pelasgi ) who inhabited Greece and the islands and coasts of the Aegean Sea before the arrival of the Bronze Age Greeks

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adjective

1. of or relating to these peoples

Etymology

Origin of Pelasgian

1480–90; ≪ Greek Pelásgi ( os ) Pelasgian ( Pelasg ( oí ) Pelasgi + -ios adj. suffix) + -an

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Pelasgian

That was the height of the temple of the Greeks, which was only the enlarged form of the hut or the house of their Pelasgian ancestors.

From Confessions of Boyhood by Albee, John

Add, too, the Colchian armies with my father's self To lead them; join the Scythian and Pelasgian hordes.

From Studies in the Poetry of Italy, I. Roman by Miller, Frank Justus

This Pelasgian name commands the sympathy of the poet and his laudatory epithets; but is nowhere used for the higher class or for the entire nation.

From Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 7 A Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of the Lives of More Than 200 of the Most Prominent Personages in History by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)

How the hearts of the Pelasgian wanderers must have bounded when their exploring prows pushed into this nook, which offered them shelter from all winds that blow!

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 121, November, 1867 by Various

Then verily to know the thing and reach it deep we burned, So little in Pelasgian guile and evil were we learned.

From The Æneids of Virgil Done into English Verse by Morris, William