Definitions for Lucian
lu·cian

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Luciannoun

   A sophist who was of Syrian origin.

2. Luciannoun

   A male given name from Latin, rare in the English-speaking world.

3. Etymology: Latin Lucianus, either a derivative of the Roman praenomen Lucius, from lux ("light") ; or from Ancient Greek Λουκιανός (Loukianós), of obscure meaning.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Lucian

   Lucian of Samosata (c. 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was probably Syriac, all of his extant works are written entirely in ancient Greek (mostly in the Attic Greek dialect popular during the Second Sophistic period). Everything that is known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings, which are often difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm. According to his oration The Dream, he was the son of a lower middle class family from the city of Samosata along the banks of the Euphrates in the remote Roman province of Syria. As a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle to become a sculptor, but, after a failed attempt at sculpting, he ran away to pursue an education in Ionia. He may have become a travelling lecturer and visited universities throughout the Roman Empire. After acquiring fame and wealth through his teaching, Lucian finally settled down in Athens for a decade, during which he wrote most of his extant works. In his fifties, he may have been appointed as a highly paid government official in Egypt, after which point he disappears from the historical record. Lucian's works were wildly popular in antiquity, and more than eighty writings attributed to him have survived to the present day, a considerably higher quantity than for most other classical writers. His most famous work is A True Story, a tongue-in-cheek satire against authors who tell incredible tales, which is regarded by some as the earliest known work of science fiction. Lucian invented the genre of the comic dialogue, a parody of the traditional Socratic dialogue. His dialogue Lover of Lies makes fun of people who believe in the supernatural and contains the oldest known version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Lucian wrote numerous satires making fun of traditional stories about the gods including The Dialogues of the Gods, Icaromenippus, Zeus Rants, Zeus Catechized, and The Parliament of the Gods. His Dialogues of the Dead focuses on the Cynic philosophers Diogenes and Menippus. Philosophies for Sale and The Carousal, or The Lapiths make fun of various philosophical schools, and The Fisherman or the Dead Come to Life is a defense of this mockery. Lucian often ridiculed public figures, such as the Cynic philosopher Peregrinus Proteus in his letter The Passing of Peregrinus and the fraudulent oracle Alexander of Abonoteichus in his treatise Alexander the False Prophet. Lucian's treatise On the Syrian Goddess satirizes cultural distinctions between Greeks and Syrians and is the main source of information about the cult of Atargatis. Lucian had an enormous, wide-ranging impact on Western literature. Works inspired by his writings include Thomas More's Utopia, the works of François Rabelais, William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Lucian

   Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature. Although he wrote solely in Greek, mainly Attic Greek, he was ethnically Syrian. Lucian claimed to be a native speaker of a "barbarian tongue" which was most likely Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic.

The Nuttall EncyclopediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Lucian

   a Greek writer, born in Samosata, in Syria, in the early part of the 2nd century; he travelled much in his youth; acquired a cynical view of the world, and gave himself to ridicule the philosophical sects and the pagan mythology; his principal writings consist of "Dialogues," of which the "Dialogues of the Dead" are the best known, the subject being one affording him scope for exposing the vanity of human pursuits; he was an out and out sceptic, found nothing worthy of reverence in heaven or on earth.

MythologyRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Lucian

   (Lu′cian). The impersonation of folly, changed into an ass.

Biographical Dictionary of FreethinkersRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Lucian

   , witty Greek writer, born of poor parents, Samosata, on the Euphrates, and flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. He was made a sculptor, but applied himself to rhetoric. He travelled much, and at Athens was intimate with Demonax. His principal works are dialogues, full of wit, humor, and satire, often directed against the gods. According to Suidas he was named the Blasphemer, and torn to pieces by dogs for his impiety, but on this no reliance can be placed. On the ground of the dialogue Philopatris, he has been supposed an apostate Christian, but it is uncertain if that piece is genuine. It is certain that he was sceptical, truth-loving, and an enemy of the superstition of the time which he depicts in his account of Alexander, the false prophet.

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. LUCIAN

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Lucian is ranked #61899 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Lucian surname appeared 324 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Lucian.
   
   89.5% or 290 total occurrences were White.
   4.6% or 15 total occurrences were Black.
   3.7% or 12 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   1.5% or 5 total occurrences were of two or more races.

Anagrams for Lucian »

1. uncial

2. cunila

3. lucina

How to pronounce Lucian?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Lucian in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Lucian in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Lucian in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of Lucian in a Sentence

1. Erin Olivera:

   We were not going to raise Lucian to be this disability. We were going to raise Lucian to live with a disability.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lucian
2. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian
3. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=Lucian
4. ^ The Nuttall Encyclopedia
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12342/pg12342-images.html#Lucian
5. ^ Mythology
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/42474/pg42474-images.html#:~:text=Lucian
6. ^ Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/34513/pg34513-images.html#:~:text=Lucian
7. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
   https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html