Marquesan

[ mahr-key-zuhn, -suhn ]

noun

1. a Polynesian native of the Marquesas Islands.
2. the Polynesian language of the Marquesas Islands.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the Marquesas Islands, the Marquesans, or their language.

Marquesan

/ mɑːˈkeɪzən; -sən /

adjective

1. of or relating to the Marquesas Islands or their inhabitants

noun

1. a native or inhabitant of the Marquesas Islands

Word History and Origins

Origin of Marquesan¹

First recorded in 1790–1800; Marques(as Islands) + -an

Example Sentences

Tattoo historian Steve Gilbert explains that the word "tattoo" itself is a combination of Marquesan and Samoan words – tatau and tatu – to describe these practices.

From Salon

The accompanying illustrations, uniformly delightful, include a juxtaposition of the patterns of traditional Marquesan tattoos with those of late-Victorian hosiery.

From The New Yorker

For example, people in neighboring steep-sided valleys of the Marquesas communicated with each other mainly by sea; each valley formed an independent political entity of a few thousand inhabitants, and most individual large Marquesan islands remained divided into many such entities.

From Literature

In turn, the bas-relief patterns of Marquesan wooden bowls are adapted so deftly by Gauguin in his own "Deep Bowl" that he seems to have gone entirely native.

From Seattle Times

As the galleries alternate between suites of Gauguin paintings and groupings of Tahitian and Marquesan carvings, headdresses and weapons, the relation between exiled artist and islands aesthetic grows until, halfway through the show, Gauguin and Polynesia are suddenly in direct conversation with each other.

From Seattle Times