nounWord forms: plural-tiniae (-ˈtɪnɪˌiː) or -tinias
any sea anemone of the genus Actinia, which are common in rock pools
Also called: actinian
Word origin
C18: New Latin, literally: things having a radial structure. See actino-, -ia
actinian in American English
(ækˈtɪniən)
adjective
1.
belonging or pertaining to the order or suborder Actiniaria, comprising the sea anemones
noun
2.
any sea anemone
Word origin
[1885–90; ‹ NL Actini(a) actinia + -an]This word is first recorded in the period 1885–90. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: classified, reactor, retread, twofer, zoom-an is a suffix occurring originally in adjectives borrowed from Latin, formed from nounsdenoting places (Roman; urban) or persons (Augustan), and now productively forming English adjectives by extension of the Latin pattern.Attached to geographical names, it denotes provenance or membership (American; Chicagoan), the latter sense now extended to membership in social classes, religious denominations,etc., in adjectives formed from various kinds of noun bases (Episcopalian; pedestrian; Puritan; Republican) and membership in zoological taxa (acanthocephalan; crustacean). Attached to personal names, it has the additional senses “contemporary with” (Elizabethan; Jacobean) or “proponent of” (Hegelian; Freudian) the person specified by the noun base. It also occurs in a set of personal nouns,mainly loanwords from French, denoting one who engages in, practices, or works withthe referent of the base noun (comedian; grammarian; historian; theologian)