Oscanadj.n.

1661 T. Ross tr. Silius Italicus Second Punick War xiv. 399 Thither Messana went, That lies upon the Sea, from Latian Ground Too far disjoyn'd, by Oscan Tribes renown'd [L. Osco memorabilis ortu].

1728 T. Gordon tr. Tacitus Ann. iv, in Wks. I. 164 The Oscan Farce [L. Oscum..ludicrum], formerly only the contemptible delight of the vulgar.

1839 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 62 At the same period, the popular Oscan comedies were performed upon the Roman stage.

1877 J. S. Blackie Wise Men Greece 41 Behind the march Of some barbarian tanling, cradled now Behind the Oscan hills.

1931 A. Nicoll Masks, Mimes & Miracles i. 78 The Oscan mime drama became one of the most popular divertisements there.

1958 E. Badian Foreign Clientelae ix. 195 Of other patrons of Marius we know of the Herennii,..themselves of Oscan origin.

1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XIV. 789/2 The Oscan village of Pompeii..soon came under the influence of the cultured Greeks..across the bay.

2002 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 24 May 20 The Oscan slave Ennius who, almost single-handed, created a world-class literature by mistranslating from his second language, Greek, into his third language, Latin.

1797 G. Baker tr. Livy Hist. Rome II. x. 356 He..sent persons, who understood the Oscan language [L. Oscae linguae].

1845 Encycl. Metrop. XXV. 1345/1 The Umbrian, Oscan, and Samnite characters, are, with a few trifling exceptions, nearly identical with the Etruscan.

1891 Science 27 Mar. 172/2 M. Zanardelli has published..a paper on the relationship of the Etruscan, Umbrian, and Oscan languages to the modern Italian.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 727/2 Much more important than the scanty remains of Faliscan is the Oscan alphabet.

1948 D. Diringer Alphabet ii. ix. 503 The Oscan script..was an offshoot of the Etruscan alphabet in its southern Campano-Etruscan sub-species.

1994 Museum Internat. No. 184. 44/1 In front is a stone tablet inscribed in Oscan characters.

1740 C. Pitt tr. Virgil Æneid II. vii. 338 The rough Saticulan and Oscan [L. Oscorum manus] stood.

1773 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 63 26 Both which words seem to denote the supreme magistrate, or rather one of the two supreme magistrates, amongst the Oscans and the Samnites.

1840 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 6 The airs of ancient Rome, inherited perhaps from the Etruscans, the Oscans, or the Greeks, were chanted by the early Christians at their secret devotions.

1886 Amer. Naturalist 20 406 The coeval languages of the Greeks and Romans, Oscans and Umbrians being of the same linguistic family, some light is thrown upon Celtic from that quarter.

1935 E. H. Warmington Remains Old Lat. I. 107 The Opscan [L. Opscus] gives battle.

1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XIV. 789/2 It seems certain that Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae were first settled by the Oscans.

1998 D. Bellos et al. tr. G. Ifrah Universal Hist. Numbers xvi. 190/1 Several centuries before Julius Caesar the Etruscans, and the other Italic peoples (the Oscans, the Aequians, the Umbrians, etc.), had in fact invented numerals with form and structure identical to those of the archaic Roman numerals.

1813 J. C. Eustace Tour through Italy II. x. 258 Oscan was not unknown even in the age of Cicero and Augustus.

1897 R. S. Conway Italic Dial. II. 472 In some few cases in Oscan the final -s of the Nom. and Gen. is still wanting.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 727/2 It..is rendered probable by the survival in Umbrian and Oscan..of forms which are not found in Etruscan itself.

1969 E. T. Salmon Roman Colonization ii. 44 In 354, Rome signed an alliance with the Samnites, an Oscan-speaking people of the south.

1976 Archivum Linguisticum 7 62 Latin shares a number of lexical items with Oscan.

1989 J. P. Mallory In Search of Indo-Europeans iii. 90 Oscan itself was the language of the Samnites and it probably did not become extinct until the first centuries ad if graffiti on the walls of Pompeii can be any guide.