Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A female given name.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Used since the sixteenth century, possibly originally a pet form of Elizabeth, but generally accepted as a variant of Late Latin lilium "lily".

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Examples

  • [Illustration: RAYMOND AND LILIAN.] "It is mamma and me," said Lilian, a little sadly; and then pointing to one that hung near it, she said, "I like that picture better than any."

    The Boy Artist. A Tale for the Young F. M. S.

  • After an affair comes to a tragic end, Lilian is banished from the Talbot mansion and married off to a sickly missionary in India.

    A Proper Education for Girls by Elaine diRollo: Book summary 2010

  • In actuality, this doesn't seem to happen as much as people might think it does -- although it does happen in Lilian Jackson Braun's books, of which I must have read at least 20.

    Being Catty 2007

  • Katie had a saintly cousin, "cousin Lilian," who was an "invalid," which, come to think of it is a terrible word to describe someone with a disabilitiy.

    Silver Threads Dave Hingsburger 2006

  • Did you notice how he refers to Lilian either by her full name, or just as she?

    Above Suspicion Lynda La Plante 2004

  • Did you notice how he refers to Lilian either by her full name, or just as she?

    Above Suspicion Lynda La Plante 2004

  • Within the circumference, and immediately round the woodpile, Margrave traced certain geometrical figures, in which -- not without a shudder, that I overcame at once by a strong effort of will in murmuring to myself the name of "Lilian" -- I recognized the interlaced triangles which my own hand, in the spell enforced on a sleep-walker, had described on the floor of the wizard's pavilion.

    A Strange Story — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • I overcame at once by a strong effort of will in murmuring to myself the name of "Lilian" -- I recognized the interlaced triangles which my own hand, in the spell enforced on a sleep-walker, had described on the floor of the wizard's pavilion.

    A Strange Story — Volume 08 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Lilian, that is very much the question I ask myself.

    On Cinema’s Violence « Tales from the Reading Room 2009

  • "Beulah, will you call Lilian, and your mother, too?

    The Homesteaders A Novel of the Canadian West Robert J. C. Stead 1919

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