Pliny
Americannoun
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the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus, a.d. 23–79, Roman naturalist, encyclopedist, and writer.
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his nephew (“the Younger,” Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus ) a.d. 62?–c113, Roman writer, statesman, and orator.
noun
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known as Pliny the Elder. Latin name Gaius Plinius Secundus. 23–79 ad , Roman writer, the author of the encyclopedic Natural History (77)
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his nephew, known as Pliny the Younger. Latin name Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. ?62–?113 ad , Roman writer and administrator, noted for his letters
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Craft beer drinkers know Pliny the Elder as the inspiration for his namesake double IPA.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 12, 2026
The 17-year-old Pliny was at Misenum, approximately 18 miles from the volcano, but even there “you could hear the wailing of women, the cries of babies, the shouting of men.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
Two thousand years ago, the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder described a man named Pomponius who could not belch.
From Salon • Sep. 8, 2024
During the late 2000s, when Pliny the Younger became the most sought-after ale in North America, Brouwer’s had kegs of the triple IPA squirrelled away.
From Seattle Times • May 28, 2024
For Pliny and others make divers sorts of them, the best whereof is the Ethiopian.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
