Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A region of the central Caucasus. The area was annexed by Russia between 1801 and 1806 and is now split into North Ossetia and South Ossetia.

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

  • proper noun An ethnolinguistic region located on both sides of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, largely inhabited by the Ossetians. Northern part of the region forms North Ossetia-Alania federal subject of Russia. The southern part is South Ossetia.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Russian Осетия (Osétija), from Georgian ოსეთი (oset’i), from ოსი (osi) ‘Ossetian (person)’.

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