any of the Christians of Colossae to whom St Paul's Epistle was addressed
Colossian in American English
(kəˈlɑʃən)
noun
1.
a native or inhabitant of Colossae
2.
one of the Christians of Colossae, to whom Paul addressed one of his Epistles
adjective
3.
of or pertaining to Colossae or its inhabitants
Word origin
[‹ L Coloss(ae) (‹ Gk Kolossaî) + -ian]-ian is a suffix occurring originally in adjectives borrowed from Latin, formed from nounsdenoting places (Italian) or persons (Flavian), and now productively forming English adjectives by extension of the Latin pattern.Attached to geographical names, it denotes provenance or membership (Washingtonian), the latter sense now extended to membership in social classes, religious denominations,etc. (Episcopalian; pedestrian). Attached to personal names, it has the additional senses “contemporary with” ( Victorian) 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; theologian)