Etymology

Russian

R1U1S1S1I1A1N1

Today it means: Of or pertaining to Russia or Russians. Full definition →

Old East Slavic Русь
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Russian · adjective, noun, proper noun, verb1

  1. Old East Slavic · derived fromРусь
  2. English todayRussian

From Medieval Latin (11th century) Russiānus, from Russia, a Latinization of the Old East Slavic Русь (Rusĭ)) + -ānus (“of or pertaining to”). Attested in English (both as a noun and as an adjective) from the 16th century. By surface analysis, Russia + -an. Piecewise doublet of Rossiyan.

RuSSian · adjective, noun2

Blend of Russian + SS (“Schutzstaffel”), implying that the Russian character is fascistic. Compare with Russian руSSкий (ruSSkij).

Words from the same roots

Old East SlavicРусь all →

RussRusRusyn

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.