Definitions

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

  • adjective obsolete Under the influence of Mars; courageous; bold.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare Martian, martial.

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Examples

  • The water was brought from some pools in one of the valleys on the eastern side of the Anio, some miles farther up than the point from which the Anio Vetus was supplied; and the new aqueduct, which was 54 miles in length, was called the Marcian, after the Prætor Marcius, to whom the work was intrusted.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 520, December 19, 1885 Various

  • And there were at Rome then two heretics, that one was called Marcian and that other Valentine, the which had deceived much people by their false doctrine.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 7 1230-1298 1900

  • This priest it was -- he bore the name Gaudiosus -- who had baptized Marcian, and had given him in childhood religious teaching; a good, but timid man, at all times readier to praise than to reprove, a well-meaning utterer of smooth things, closing his eyes to evil, which confused rather than offended him.

    Veranilda George Gissing 1880

  • When St. Mamertinus was Abbot of the monastery which St. Germanus had founded at Auxerre, there came to him a young man called Marcian (also known as Marian), a fugitive from Bourges then occupied by the Visigoths.

    Catholic Online > Daily Readings 2009

  • Struck to the heart by his friend's words, words such as Marcian had never yet addressed to him, Basil stood mute and let his eyes wander: he gazed at the Forum, at the temples beyond it, at the Capitol with its desecrated sanctuary of Jupiter towering above.

    Veranilda George Gissing 1880

  • But he found in Marcian, the new husband of Pulcheria, a much more tight-fisted proposition than his predecessor Theodosius II; once Attila committed himself to a Western campaign, all pay-outs from Constantinople were stopped completely.

    Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

  • On 25 August 450 she and Marcian appeared at the Hebdomon parade ground on the coast outside of Constantinople, and in view of the troops Pulcheria personally bestowed upon her new husband the diadem and the purple military paludamentum, effectively crowning him the new Augustus.

    Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010

  • Braid them, twist them together; the result is enormous: it is Attila hesitating between Marcian on the east and Valentinian on the west; it is Hannibal tarrying at Capua; it is Danton falling asleep at Arcis-sur-Aube.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • Their attendants, Marcian and Agatha, having assisted their master and mistress in the performance of their usual offices, left them, in order to seek the places of repose assigned to them among persons of their degree.

    Count Robert of Paris 2008

  • “Tell Marcian, my armourer,” said the Count, “to attend with the silver and blue suit of plate and mail which I won in a wager from the Count of Thoulouse.”

    Count Robert of Paris 2008

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