[1840–50; medus(a) + -an]This word is first recorded in the period 1840–50. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: creationism, flan, plaque, pylon, sensationalism-an is a suffix occurring originally in adjectives borrowed from Latin, formed from nounsdenoting places (Roman; urban) or persons (Augustan), and now productively forming English adjectives by extension of the Latin pattern.Attached to geographical names, it denotes provenance or membership (American; Chicagoan), the latter sense now extended to membership in social classes, religious denominations,etc., in adjectives formed from various kinds of noun bases (Episcopalian; pedestrian; Puritan; Republican) and membership in zoological taxa (acanthocephalan; crustacean). Attached to personal names, it has the additional senses “contemporary with” (Elizabethan; Jacobean) or “proponent of” (Hegelian; Freudian) the person specified by the noun base. It also occurs in a set of personal nouns,mainly loanwords from French, denoting one who engages in, practices, or works withthe referent of the base noun (comedian; grammarian; historian; theologian)
Examples of 'medusan' in a sentence
medusan
Significant differences of medusan abundances were found between seasons (dry vs. rainy).
Karina Rodríguez-Sáenz, José A. Vargas-Zamora, Lourdes Segura-Puertas 2012, 'Medusas (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) de una zona de afloramiento costero, Bahía Culebra, Pacífico,Costa Rica Medusae (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa) from a coastal upwelling zone, Culebra Bay,Pacific, Costa Rica', Revista de Biología Tropicalhttp://www.scielo.sa.cr/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-77442012000400028. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Flexible bell margins are characteristic components of rowing medusan morphologies and are expected to contribute towards their high propulsive efficiency.
Sean P Colin, John H Costello, John O Dabiri, Alex Villanueva, John B Blottman, BradJ Gemmell, Shashank Priya 2012, 'Biomimetic and live medusae reveal the mechanistic advantages of a flexible bell margin.',PLoS ONEhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3492145?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)