Prussian

[ pruhsh-uhn ]

adjective

1. of or relating to Prussia or its inhabitants.
2. characterized by, exemplifying, or resembling Prussianism.

noun

1. a native or inhabitant of Prussia.
2. (originally) one of a Lettic people formerly inhabiting territory along and near the coast at the southeastern corner of the Baltic Sea.
3. a Baltic language formerly spoken in Prussia; Old Prussian. : Pruss

Prussian

/ ˈprʌʃən /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Prussia or its people, esp of the Junkers and their formal military tradition

noun

1. a German native or inhabitant of Prussia
2. a member of a Baltic people formerly inhabiting the coastal area of the SE Baltic
3. See Old Prussian

Other Words From

• an·ti-Prus·sian adjective noun
• non-Prus·sian noun adjective
• pro-Prus·sian adjective noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Prussian¹

First recorded in 1555–65; Prussi(a) + -an

Example Sentences

You know the print: swoops of Prussian blue water topped with white foam curling like fingers above the abyss, Mount Fuji in the back.

From Seattle Times

A meeting was arranged with her and Hermann Parzinger, president of The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, a body that oversees 19 museums and collections including the Humboldt Forum.

From BBC

Hermann Parzinger, the head of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees the Ethnological Museum and others in Berlin, noted that the background is particularly complex in the case of the Kogi masks.

From Washington Times

Edeltraut would be her son’s most important collaborator — inverting that word’s negative wartime charge — with heroic investigative feats like translating from childhood memory an archaic, loopy Prussian script, through the cloud of glaucoma.

From New York Times

Claire Messud, a novelist, is also the author of a book of essays, “Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write.”

From New York Times