| 释义 |
Estonian, a. and n.|ɛˈstəʊnɪən|
Also Esthonian.
[f. mod.L. Est(h)oni(a, f. Esth a. and n., after Saxonia, etc. + -an.]
A. adj. Of or belonging to Estonia (native name Eesti), since 1940 a constituent republic of the U.S.S.R., stretching along the south coast of the Gulf of Finland.
B. n.
1. A native or inhabitant of Estonia.
2. The Finno-Ugrian language of Estonia.
1795in W. Tooke Varieties of Literature I. 23 Esthonian poetry. Ibid., The Esthonians..have an extremely soft, delicate, and tender articulation. 1841Lady Eastlake Resid. Shores Baltic II. xvi. 62 Nothing can exceed the hospitality of the Estonians. 1863R. G. Latham Nationalities of Europe I. xii. 129 Ma, in Estonian, means land. Ibid. 132 The Estonian instrument is the harp. 1874A. H. Sayce Princ. Compar. Philol. 322 Wanna Issi in Esthonian means ‘the old father’. 1894W. F. Kirby Hero of Esthonia I. p. xvi, The Finns, the Esthonians, and the Lapps..speak very similar languages. 1925O. Rutter New Baltic States xi. 199 Estonian folklore owes something to the Finnish. 1941J. H. Jackson Estonia i. 20 The Soviets..were asking for naval bases on Estonian territory. Ibid. iii. 58 One of the eight chairs on the original foundation was a professorship in the Estonian language. 1948A. Oras Baltic Eclipse i. 20 The Estonian shipyards, railway works, plywood factories. 1952E. Uustalu Hist. Estonian People v. 82 These tax and work registers, or ‘Vakus-books’, as they were called in Estonian. |