ian

noun

1. a male given name, Scottish form of John.

1. a suffix with the same meaning and properties as -an; -ian is now the more productive of the two suffixes in recent coinages, especially when the base noun ends in a consonant: Orwellian; Washingtonian.

suffix

1. a variant of -an Etonian; Johnsonian

masc. proper name, Scottish form of John.

variant of suffix -an used with stem endings in -i, from Latin -ianus (-anus). In Middle English, frequently -ien, from words borrowed via French.