sicilian

sicilian — adjective

1. coming from the Mediterranean island of Sicily, or describing the culture, tradi

1.adjectiveB1
Definition

coming from the Mediterranean island of Sicily, or describing the culture, traditions, or people who live there

Example

The Sicilian coastline attracts thousands of tourists every summer.

attributive: Sicilian + noun (coastline)

Piotr's grandmother taught him an old Sicilian recipe for pasta with sardines.

collocation: Sicilian recipe

Common collocations
  • Sicilian cuisine
  • Sicilian culture
  • Sicilian dialect
  • Sicilian coast
  • Sicilian history
  • Sicilian landscape
Synonyms
  • from Sicily

    phrasal alternative; less concise but more transparent for lower-level learners

Grammar Patterns

Sicilian + noun

be + Sicilian

Usage Note

Always capitalised as it derives from the proper noun Sicily. Not typically used in comparative or superlative forms.

Common Mistakes

Sicillan cuisine is famous around the world.
Sicilian cuisine is famous around the world.
the middle has one 'c' and one 'l': Sic-i-lian, not Sicil-lan.

Word family

  • Sicily
    proper nounB1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Sicilian is the standard adjective used before nouns (Sicilian wine, Sicilian culture). From Sicily is a phrasal alternative that works predicatively (this wine is from Sicily) but is less natural in attributive position. Sicily's (possessive) is used for features unique to the island as a whole (Sicily's coastline), but cannot describe people or cultural traditions the way Sicilian does. In practice, Sicilian is the preferred choice for most attributive uses, while from Sicily is more common after the verb be.

Sicilian ↗from SicilySicily's

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • of Sicilian origin
  • in the Sicilian style
  • a Sicilian tradition

Etymology

GreekLatinEnglish

Sicilian comes from Latin 'Sicilia', the name of the island, which traces back to Ancient Greek 'Sikelia' (Σικελία). The Greek name was taken from the Sikeli (Sicels), an Italic tribe living on the island before Greek colonisation. The suffix '-ian' (from Latin '-ianus') means 'belonging to' or 'related to'.