Prussian

How to spell prussian

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce prussian

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does prussian mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to Prussia, the former northern European kingdom, or to its people, army, and culture.
2. nounA person from Prussia or of Prussian descent.

Prussian in a sentence

• adjective

  The museum displayed a prussian military uniform from the eighteenth century.

• noun

  His grandfather was a prussian who emigrated to America in 1880.

• adjective

  Historians often praise the efficiency of the prussian civil service.

• noun

  The novel follows a young prussian studying in Paris.

Where does prussian come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word is built on Prussia, the name of a historical state and region in northern Europe along the Baltic coast. The name itself goes back to the Old Prussians, a Baltic people whose territory was recorded in medieval Latin as Borussia or Pruzzia, and whose own name is of uncertain Baltic origin. As the German Teutonic Knights colonised the area in the Middle Ages, the label spread to the larger kingdom that eventually dominated German politics, so 'Prussian' came to describe its army, its discipline, and its institutions. The adjective entered English in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as contact with the rising military power increased. A famous everyday survival is 'Prussian blue', a deep blue pigment first made in Berlin around 1704, and the doubled s plus the -ian ending are the spelling features most likely to trip a writer up.

How the word is built

• Pruss- (from Prussia, the historical Baltic and German region)
• -ian (adjective and noun suffix meaning 'belonging to')