Varangian

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Ultimately from Byzantine Greek Βάραγγος, from Old Norse Vǽringi.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /vəˈɹandʒɪən/

Proper noun

Varangian

1. (historical) A member of the ethnically Scandinavian people around the borders of Constantinople in the ninth and tenth centuries.
2. (historical) The imperial body guard at Constantinople from 955.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 506:

     The Byzantines continued to recruit elite warriors from the north, not merely from Rus’ but directly from far-off Scandinavia; form the end of the tenth century, they referred to them as ‘Varangians’.

3. (geology) A period of intense glaciation during the late Proterozoic eon.

Translations

member of a Scandinavian tribe

Dutch: Varjaag m. Greek: Βαράγγειος (el) (Varángeios) m.

Russian: Варяг (Varjág) m. Swedish: varjag (sv), väring (sv), rus (sv)

the imperial body guard at Constantinople from 955

Greek: Βαράγγειοι (el) (Varángeioi) m. pl.

Adjective

Varangian (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to the Varangians.
2. Of or pertaining to the Varanger Peninsula in Norway.

References

• Varangian in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913