Mes·sa·pic

(mə-sā′pĭk)

An extinct Indo-European language preserved in inscriptions from southeast Italy that date from the sixth to the first century bc. Also called Messapian.

adj.

Of or relating to Messapic or its speakers.

[From Latin Messāpia, ancient name for the region of Italy containing Apulia and Calabria.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Mes•sa•pic

(məˈseɪ pɪk, -ˈsæp ɪk)

also Mes•sa′pi•an,

an extinct Indo-European language of pre-Roman SE Italy.

[1765–75; < Latin Mesāp(ius) pertaining to Messāpia the Calabrian peninsula + -ic]

Mentioned in

Messapian

References in periodicals archive

The authors also suggest a substratum or adstratum source for the augmented forms in south Italy, citing Messapic and Greek as the possible source languages.

A new look at an old problem: on the origin of the pronominal augment -ne

The main goal of the dictionary is to describe which roots and stems of the vocabulary of the Italic languages (encompassing, for Vaan's purposes, the language families of Sabellic, Latino-Faliscan, and Venetic, and excluding Messapic) are likely to have been inherited from Proto-Indo-European.

Etymological dictionary of Latin and the other Italic languages

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