I. ˈdōrēən, ˈdȯr- adjective
Usage: usually capitalized
Etymology: Latin dori us Dorian (from Greek dōrios, from Dōris, region in the central part of ancient Greece that included the cities of Sparta and Corinth) + English -an
1. : belonging to a racial and linguistic division of classical Greece
the stark severity of Dorian shrines
2. : peculiar to or having characteristics of the people of the Dorian division of Greece
she was a Dorian girl … who had undergone a training as severe as a boy's — Van Wyck Brooks
a Dorian festival in honor of Apollo
II. noun
( plural dorian or dorians )
Usage: usually capitalized
: one of a Hellenic race that about the 12th century B.C. completed the overthrowing of Mycenaean civilization and settled in Doris, Megaris, Argolis, Laconia, and Messenia, in Crete and other islands, and on the coast of Asia Minor