-ian +
(Latin: suffix form of -an from -ianus, a modifier of the main word to which it is attached: belonging to, coming from, being involved in, or being like something )
Appearing in such words as comedian, egalitarian, Bostonian, Italian, Smithsonian, mathematician, Alabamian, Californian, Arizonian, and Canadian. It is attached to the root of common or proper nouns with the meanings "of, pertaining to, from", or "like" the proper name appearing in the stem.
—Based on information from The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology,
Edited by Robert K. Barnhart, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
apiarian
Pertaining to bee-hives or bee-keeping.
aquarian
1. Of or pertaining to the sign of Aquarius; characteristic of a person born under this sign.
2. One of a sect of Christians in the primitive church, who used water instead of wine in the Lord's Supper.
3. Someone who keeps an aquarium.
attitudinarian
One who studies and practices attitudes.
authoritarian
1. Favoring strict rules and established authority.
2. Belonging to or believing in a political system in which obedience to the ruling person or group is strongly enforced.
3. Someone who favors or maintains strict rules and obedience to authority.
4. One who supports the principle of authority as opposed to that of individual freedom.
avian
Pertaining to, relating to, or referring to birds.
barbarian, barbaryn (older spelling)
1. Historically, someone who is not a Greek; then it became a person living outside the pale of the Roman empire and its civilization; applied especially to the northern nations that overthrew them; followed by anyone who existed outside the realm of Christian civilization.
2. A rude, wild, uncivilized person.
3. An uncultured person, or one who has no sympathy with literary culture.
4. Applied by nations, generally depreciatively, to foreigners; thus at various times and with various speakers or writers: non-Hellenic, non-Roman (most usual), non-Christian.
5. A foreigner, one whose language and customs differ from the speaker's.
From Greek βάρβαρος barbaros, "non-Greek, foreign, barbarous," from an Indo-European imitative base barb, "to stammer, stutter; and unintelligible." The Greeks were quoted as saying that foreigners sounded as if they were saying, "Barbar, Barbar," which was, for the Greeks, unintelligible.
batrachian
A descriptive word for a tailless amphibian; for example, a frog or a toad.
biometrician
1. Someone who specializes in the science of biometry, or biometrics, which is the study biostatistics including the calculation of the probable duration of human life.
2. A person who uses statistical techniques to analyze biological data.
centenarian
Someone who is in his/her hundreds; a person who is one hundred plus years old.
cibarian
Of or pertaining to food.
circadian
Designating physiological activity that occurs approximately every twenty-four hours, or the rhythm of such activity.
clinician
cornucopian
1. The property of being extremely abundant.
2. Characterized by being an overflowing store; an abundance: "The Christmas season is a cornucopian time for store sales."
custodian
1. Someone having charge, or who takes care, of buildings, grounds, or animals.
2. A person who has custody; a keeper; a guardian.
2. Anyone entrusted with guarding or maintaining a property; for example, a janitor.
diagnostician
1. A person who diagnoses, especially a physician specializing in medical diagnostics.
2. An expert in making diagnoses; especially, a medical doctor.
3. Someone with special skills in identifying the cause or nature of a problem even in areas other than medical.