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Pliny

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: plíny

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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Ultimately from Latin Plīnius, an Italic name of obscure origin.

Pronunciation

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Proper noun

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Pliny (plural Plinys or Plinies)

  1. An ancient Roman praenomen.
    • 1828, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 24, number 147:
      The two Plinys, Lucan, (though again under the disadvantage of verse) Petronius Arbiter, and Quintilian, but above all, the Senecas, (for a Spanish cross appears to improve the quality of the rhetorician) have left a body of rhetorical composition such as no modern nation has rivalled.
    • 1836, Thomas Frognall Dibdin, Reminiscences of a Literary Life:
      Of Q. Curtius, the Demosthenes (both), Eutropius, Horace (first with a date), Homer, Justin, Livy, the two Plinies, Quintilian, Martial, Tacitus, and Virgil, the first editions; but my friend must not be allowed to have a succession of nights of undisturbed repose till he possesses the first Horace, and the first Roman edition of Virgil.
  2. Pliny the Elder, Gaius Plinius Secundus (23–79 AD): an ancient Roman nobleman, scientist and historian, author of Naturalis Historia, "Pliny's Natural History".
    • a. 1776, Joseph Baretti, “Dialogue the Fortieth”, in Easy Phraseology for the Use of Those Persons Who Intend to Learn the Colloquial Part of the Italian Language[1], 1835 edition, Turin: Joseph Bocca, page 236:
      I will leave off all my childish fooleries and diversions, and set about studying with such a rage, that when you come back next year, you may find the tongue I have now in my mouth more forky than that of some serpents mentioned by Pliny the naturalist.
  3. Pliny the Younger, Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (63–circa 113): an ancient Roman statesman, orator, and writer, a great-nephew of Pliny the Elder.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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  • Pliny”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.