Ian

¹

[ ee-uhn, ee-ahn, ahy-uhn ]

noun

1. a male given name, Scottish form of John.

-ian

²

1. a suffix with the same meaning and properties as -an, though -ian is now the more productive of the two suffixes in recent coinages, especially when the base noun ends in a consonant: Orwellian; Washingtonian .

-ian

suffix

1. a variant of -an

   Johnsonian

   Etonian

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ian¹

Extracted from Latin loanwords in which -ānus (adjective suffix) is joined to stems ending in i; -an

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ian¹

from Latin -iānus

Example Sentences

Yes, the original Bond, as imagined by Ian Fleming, was obviously white.

From The Daily Beast

The medical record, from an Ebola case, made for grim reading, but Dr. Ian Crozier could not put it down.

From The Daily Beast

He went on to thank his family, his gallerist, distributor, and paid tribute to artist Ian White.

From The Daily Beast

Oh, and that his profile on Twitter and his name elsewhere say “Ian Miles Cheong” whereas mine says “Arthur Chu.”

From The Daily Beast

Update: Ian Sams, a spokesman for the DNC, has informed me that the airbone creature was, a Cliff Hawk.

From The Daily Beast

"Headmen" they have, leaders of various degrees of authority, but no Vich Ian Vohr, no semi-sacred representative of the tribe.

From Project Gutenberg

Ophid′ian, Ophid′ious, pertaining to serpents: having the nature of a serpent.

From Project Gutenberg

Sheumais must wait till Ian Macarthur came back again, which might be any day now.

From Project Gutenberg

She was at Ranza-Mr, and when a shadow came into the dairy where she was standing she looked up, and saw Ian before her.

From Project Gutenberg

Before the great venture began Sir Ian Hamilton had to throw the enemy off the scent.

From Project Gutenberg