Definitions

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

  • A peninsula of northwest Croatia, southwest Slovenia, and northeast Italy projecting into the northeast Adriatic Sea. The original Istrian inhabitants were conquered by the Romans in the second century BC. Istria was subsequently occupied by Venice, Austria, and Italy. All but the area surrounding Trieste was awarded to Yugoslavia in 1947 and in 1991 was split between Croatia and Slovenia.

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

  • proper noun A peninsula in Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy, on the northeastern coast of the Adriatic Sea.
  • proper noun A county in western Croatia.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Histria, from the ethnicon of the Illyrian tribe of the Histri who inhabited the region.

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Examples

  • I daresay that the little ragged Slav children of Kievo whom she saw clustering round the kindly Italian officer were glad enough to eat his chocolates, [57] but I think that we others should pay more attention to those secret societies, the _četasis_ (which is Slav for komitadjis), who have sworn to liberate all Istria from the Italians.

    The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2 Henry Baerlein 1917

  • Diocletian: he refreshed and reviewed his troops at Pola in Istria, coasted round the head of the Adriatic, entered the port of

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • The examination was short and private; 16 and as it was thought decent to conceal the fate of the young prince from the eyes of the Roman people, he was sent under a strong guard to Pola, in Istria, where, soon afterwards, he was put to death, either by the hand of the executioner, or by the more gentle operations of poison.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • † in Istria, a sequestered prison, which had been so recently polluted with royal blood.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Rome in the Annales in eighteen books, of which only parts remain, while Hostius wrote an epic entitled Istria, which has also perished.

    The Book of the Epic 1894

  • Italians had carried the report home with them; among whom there were some who made bold to say that they had seen Messer Torello d'Istria's dead body, and had been present at its interment.

    The Decameron, Volume II Giovanni Boccaccio 1344

  • I was reminded of Italy's Josko Gravner, a producer who makes wines with a concentration and purity quite unlike any other in Friuli in the northeast of Italy, which isn't far from Istria, Croatia's celebrated coastal region.

    Discovering Classic Croatia Will Lyons 2011

  • Istria is planted with around 3,000 hectares of Malvazija, a white grape variety that, in the case of western Istria producer Roxanich, produces a white wine with a copper gold color, an unusual nose with notes of marzipan, a slight sherried character and a tangy minerality.

    Discovering Classic Croatia Will Lyons 2011

  • Her chef is Fortunato Nicotra, who creates dishes native to Istria, near the Italian and former-Yugoslavian border from where Bastianich hails.

    Five Best Italian Restaurants in NYC | myFiveBest 2009

  • This intrigues me – I've never thought of putting anything other than parmesan into a beef lasagne before well, OK, my sister's mother-in-law makes a fabulous lasagne topped with lots of lovely Scottish cheddar, but apart from that, so I do some research on Italian-American lasagne, and one name keeps recurring: Lidia Bastianich, a chef born in Istria, who emigrated to the States in the late 1950s.

    How to cook perfect lasagne 2011

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