Syrian

PluralSyrians

1. 1
   adjective

   Belonging to or coming from Syria, its people, or its language.

   The museum displayed several Syrian artifacts from the Bronze Age.

   Many Syrian families settled in the region over the past decade.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person who comes from Syria or who has Syrian ancestry.

   She is a Syrian by birth but grew up in France.

   Several Syrians have opened businesses in the neighborhood.

3. 3
   adjective

   From or associated with the Assyrian people or the Syriac language.

   The Syrian liturgy is chanted in classical Syriac.

   Their Syrian prayer books, printed in Syriac script, came with the family from an Assyrian village in northern Iraq.

   SimilarSyriac, Assyrian

   Note

   Careful writers sometimes object to this usage. The word is built on Syria, so readers tend to hear the "of Syria" meaning first, and a Syrian hymn will usually be taken as one from Syria. Not everyone objects, but the clearer choices are plain. Use Assyrian for the people, and Syriac for the language and its script, so the reader never has to guess which is meant.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A person who has Assyrian ancestry.

   Born to Assyrian parents in Iran, my grandmother never set foot in Syria but always introduced herself as a Syrian.

   As a Syrian born in Baghdad, he grew up attending an Assyrian church and speaking Aramaic at home.

   SimilarAssyrian

   Note

   The objection that shadows the Assyrian adjective has a sharper edge with the noun, because it names a person. An Assyrian from Iraq called a Syrian can sound misidentified by nationality, since the noun is normally heard as a person from Syria. Where ancestry rather than citizenship is the point, Assyrian names it without that risk.

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