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Byelorussian

Byelorussian

1 8.8
A person from Belarus
  • noun
  • /ˌbaɪəˈlʌrɪʃən/
  • Archaic
translation icon : bielorruso
  • In school, we learned about the traditions of the Byelorussian communities across the globe.
  • Byelorussians and Ukrainians

Examples

  • The Byelorussian people have a rich cultural heritage that reflects their history.

  • The man was Ukrainian, the woman Byelorussian.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • I am half Polish and half Byelorussian on my mother's side, and I don't like occupation, but for the moment, the German occupation is worse than the Soviets'.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • The Byelorussians are all reunited again, Ukrainians—reunited, Moldavians—reunited.

    Academic text (1994)
  • My grandmother was a Byelorussian who moved to America many years ago.

Synonyms

Belorussian
vsByelorussian
  • Archaic
1 7.6

A person from Belarus

has identical meaning but follows a different spelling variant

Compounds

A language spoken mainly in Belarus that uses the Cyrillic alphabet

Surface Forms

Byelorussian singular
Byelorussians plural

Morphology

Byelorussian = Byelorussia (semi-transparent) = Byelorussia + ian

A regular demonym formation from the historical country name 'Byelorussia', but the base name is archaic and may mislead learners about the relation to Russia/Belarus.

Etymology

Byelorussian comes from the parts Byelo- meaning 'white' and -russian meaning 'of Rus' or 'Russia', so it originally meant 'people of White Russia'. Today it means a person from the country now called Belarus.