Word
alan
Phoneticsalan
/ˈæɫən/
Definitions
01male name
n. a common first name for a man.
n. a male given name of Celtic origin, common in English-speaking countries.
“My friend Alan is coming over for dinner tonight.”
“Alan Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.”
02historical tribe
n. a member of an ancient group of people from Central Asia who moved into Europe.
n. a member of a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language.
“The Alan tribes migrated across Europe during the late Roman Empire.”
“Historical records suggest that the Alan cavalry played a significant role in the complex alliances of the Migration Period.”
Technical
Etymology
From Old Breton Alan, name of early Breton saints, of disputed origin and meaning; brought to England by Normans. It may have been the name of a Celtic deity, the brother of Bran, Welsh Alawn, Alun. As an early Irish name, perhaps connected with ail (“noble”). Compare French Alain.
From Latin Alānī, from Ancient Greek Ἀλανοί (Alanoí), from Proto-Sarmatian *Allān.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/alan