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Glite Dictionary
Pliny

Pliny

6 8.9
Two famous Roman writers, one who wrote about nature and the other who wrote letters and worked as a lawyer
  • proper noun
  • /ˈplɪni/
translation icon : Plinio
  • In the first century A.D., the Roman historian Pliny wrote, "Semper ex Africa aliquid novi":
  • Pliny the Elder
  • Pliny, Natural History
  • Roman historian Pliny

And Josephus, Pliny, Philo all wrote about how people would come from far and wide to get healed by the Essenes in the Qumran Valley because they were known for this.

Examples

  • Dubois opened his remarkable Atlantic Monthly essay with a quotation from Pliny the Elder in Latin, which he slightly mangled.

  • Stories involving the labyrinth appear in sources ranging from Herodotus to Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, and Apollodorus.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Oh, that was that was Pliny the Younger.

  • "It's not easy being pious for both of us, you know," Pliny advises.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • See: Josephus for one, Pliny the Younger for another, and Tacitus for a third.

    Blog text (4)

  • Naturally, the high value placed on emeralds led to counterfeiting, which Pliny denounced.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Some of these same stories, says Gellius, he later found in Pliny's Naturalis Historia.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Traced to its source, this perception derives from the Natural History of Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE).

    Academic text (2006)

  • Their bad taste allowed Pliny the Elder to derive the plant's Latin name, Arbutus unedo, from the phrase Unum Edo.

  • In A.D. 77, a workaholic called Pliny the Elder published the first encyclopedia, Natural History.

Surface Forms

Pliny main

Etymology

Pliny comes from the Roman family name Plinius and is famous because two Roman writers had this name: Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger. So, when you see Pliny, think of those Romans who wrote about nature and wrote many letters, which is why the name now stands for those famous authors.