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Iberian, a. and n. | SECOND EDITION 1989 |
(abrn) [f. L. Ibria the country of the Ibri or Ibres, a. Gr. the Spaniards, also an Asiatic people near the Caucasus in modern Georgia. See -AN, -IAN.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to ancient Iberia in Europe (comprising Spain and Portugal, the Iberian peninsula), or its inhabitants; hence a. Basque; b. Of Spain and Portugal unitedly.
a1618 SYLVESTER Tobacco battered 692 By This, th' Iberian Argonauts May be suppos'd..T' have kill'd more Men then by their Martyrdom, Or Massacre.
1634 MILTON Comus 60 Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields.
1828-32 THIRLWALL &
HARE tr
Niebuhr's Hist. Rome (1851) I. 171 An Iberian colony at Nora.
1881 Times 21 Apr. 9/4 Whether this Iberian scheme has any chance of realization.
1898 J. HERON Celtic Church 7 There are reasons for believing that the Firbolgs contained an Iberian element.
2. Of or pertaining to ancient Iberia in Asia, nearly corresponding to modern Georgia.
1671 MILTON P.R. III. 318 The Hyrcanian cliffs Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales.
3. Pertaining to the Iberians of Britain (cf B. n. 3).
1880 Encycl. Brit. XII. 605/2 Extreme exponents of the theory do not hesitate to speak of the Iberian ancestors of the people of England. 1907 T. R. HOLMES Anc. Brit. 65 The race to which they [sc. neolithic inhabitants of Britain] belonged is often called the Iberian, though there is no reason to believe that its British representatives belonged to the Iberian rather than to some other branch of the Mediterranean stock.
B. n.
1. a. An inhabitant of ancient Iberia in Europe; hence (a) a Basque, (b) a Spaniard. b. The language of ancient Iberia, supposed to be represented by the modern Basque.
1623 COCKERAM,
Iberians, Spaniards.
1632 MASSINGER Maid of Hon. I. i, When the Iberian quaked, her [England's] worthies named.
1842 PRICHARD Nat. Hist. Man xxiv. (1848) 256 The language of the ancient Iberians has survived..in the vernacular speech of the Biscayans in Spain and the Basques of France.
2. An inhabitant of ancient Iberia in Asia.
1601 HOLLAND Pliny I. 119 You enter..into the Iberians region, who are separated from the Albanois..by the riuer Alazon, which runneth downe from the Caucasian hills
1613 PURCHAS Pilgrimage (1614) 43 The Iberians, saith Montanus, dwelt neare to Meotis: certaine Colonies of them inhabited Spaine, and called it Hiberia.
1635 E. PAGITT Christianogr. I. ii. (1636) 54 The Georgians are those people whom Cosmographers cal Iberians.
3. A neolithic inhabitant of Britain, considered as one of a branch of the continental Iberians.
1880 W. B. DAWKINS Early Man in Brit. 322 The Silures, identified by Tacitus with the Iberians, were left only in those fastnesses which were subsequently a refuge for the Welsh against the English invaders.
1900 W. A. D
UTT Norfolk 7 The Iceni..were probably mentally as well as physically superior to the Iberians.
1920 H. F. H
ENDERSON Relig. in Scotl. i. 11 The Iberians absorbed the Celts without serious dilution of their original characteristics.
1957 G. A
SHE King Arthur's Avalon i. 15 Throughout a long stretch of years the inhabitants of Britain were dark little Iberians.
Hence Iberianism (see quot.).
1880 Literary World 8 Oct. 234/2 Iberianism, the project of bringing Spain and Portugal together under a single crown.
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