fabian

adjective

1. seeking victory by delay and harassment rather than by a decisive battle as in the manner of Fabius Maximus: Fabian policy.
2. of or relating to the Fabian Society.

noun

3. a member of or sympathizer with the Fabian Society.

noun

1. Saint,died a.d. 250, pope 236–250.
2. a male given name.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or resembling the delaying tactics of the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus; cautious; circumspect

noun

2. a member of or sympathizer with the Fabian Society

“socialist,” from Fabian Society, founded in Britain 1884, named for Quintus Fabius Maximus (surnamed Cunctator “the Delayer”), the cautious tactician who opposed Hannibal in the Second Punic War. The Fabians sought to draw a distinction between their slow-going tactics and those of anarchists and communists. The Latin gens name is possibly from faba “a bean.”