Alan
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See also: Appendix:Variations of "alan"
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈæl.ən/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ælən
Etymology 1
From Old Breton Alan, name of early Breton saints, of disputed origin and meaning; brought to England by Normans. It may have been the name of a Celtic deity, the brother of Bran, Welsh Alawn, Celtic Alun, ‘harmony’. As an early Irish name, perhaps connected with ail (“noble”). Compare French Alain.
Alternative forms
Proper noun
Alan (plural Alans)
- A male given name from the Celtic languages.
- 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Reeve's Tale”, in Nevill Coghill, transl., The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977:
- He grabbed at Alan by his Adam's apple,
And Alan grabbed him back in furious grapple
And clenched his fist and bashed him on the nose.
- 1910, P. G. Wodehouse, The Man Upstairs, and Other Stories, BiblioBazaar, LLC, published 2008, →ISBN, page 24:
- I could pose as an artist all right; so I took the studio. Also the name of Alan Beverley. My own is Bill Bates. I had often wondered what it would feel like to be called by some name like Alan Beverley or Cyril Trevelyan.
- A surname.
Derived terms
Translations
male given name
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Etymology 2
From Latin Alānī, from Ancient Greek Ἀλανοί (Alanoí), from Proto-Ossetic *Allānʉ.
Noun
- (historical) A member of a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.
Related terms
Translations
member of a Sarmatian tribe
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Etymology 3
Proper noun
Alan (plural Alans)
- A male given name from Hebrew, variant of Elon.
Anagrams
Czech
Pronunciation
Proper noun
Alan m anim
- a male given name, equivalent to English Alan
Declension
Portuguese
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English Alan.
Pronunciation
Proper noun
Alan m
- a male given name from English, equivalent to English Alan
Related terms
Slovak
Pronunciation
Proper noun
Alan m anim (genitive singular Alana, nominative plural Alanovia, declension pattern of chlap)
- a male given name, equivalent to English Alan
Declension
Declension of Alan
Further reading
- “Alan”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024
Turkish
Proper noun
Alan
- a male given name
Welsh
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Proper noun
Alan m
- a male given name, feminine equivalent Alana
Mutation
| Welsh mutation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| radical | soft | nasal | h-prothesis |
| Alan | unchanged | unchanged | Halan |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | |||
References
Heini Gruffudd (2010) Enwau Cymraeg i Blant / Welsh Names for Children, Y Lolfa, →ISBN, page 12