Plin·y

(plĭn′ē) Originally Gaius Plinius Secundus. Known as "the Elder." ad 23-79.

Roman scholar and naturalist. He wrote the 37-volume Historia Naturalis. His nephew Pliny (originally Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, ad 62?-113?), known as "the Younger," was a consul and writer whose letters provide valuable information about Roman life.

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.

Pliny

(ˈplɪnɪ)

1. (Biography) known as Pliny the Elder. Latin name Gaius Plinius Secundus. 23–79 ad, Roman writer, the author of the encyclopedic Natural History (77)

2. (Biography) his nephew, known as Pliny the Younger. Latin name Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. ?62–?113 ad, Roman writer and administrator, noted for his letters

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Plin•y

(ˈplɪn i)

n.

1. ( “the Elder,” Gaius Plinius Secundus) A.D. 23–79, Roman naturalist and writer.

2. his nephew ( “the Younger,” Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus) A.D. 62?–c113, Roman writer and orator.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	Pliny - Roman writer and nephew of Pliny the Elder; author of books of letters that commented on affairs of the day (62-113) Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Pliny the Younger
	2.	Pliny - Roman author of an encyclopedic natural history; died while observing the eruption of Vesuvius (23-79) Gaius Plinius Secundus, Pliny the Elder

Translations

Pliny

[ˈplɪnɪ] N → Plinio
Pliny the Elder → Plinio el Viejo
Pliny the Younger → Plinio el Joven

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Pliny

[ˈplɪnɪ] n Pliny the Younger/the Elder → Plinio il Giovane/il Vecchio

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Assuredly, we must conclude so, if we are to credit the accounts of such gentlemen as Pliny, and the ancient naturalists generally.

The whale of to-day is as big as his ancestors in Pliny's time.

View in context

For saith Pliny, very wittily, In commending another, you do yourself right; for he that you commend, is either superior to you in that you commend, or inferior.

View in context

In the time of the Romans, as we hear from Pliny, immense prices were given for pigeons; 'nay, they are come to this pass, that they can reckon up their pedigree and race.' Pigeons were much valued by Akber Khan in India, about the year 1600; never less than 20,000 pigeons were taken with the court.

Savages now sometimes cross their dogs with wild canine animals, to improve the breed, and they formerly did so, as is attested by passages in Pliny. The savages in South Africa match their draught cattle by colour, as do some of the Esquimaux their teams of dogs.

View in context

Already, in the nineteenth year of our era, according to Cassiodorus and Pliny, a new island, Theia

View in context

Every body has written about the Grotto del Cane and its poisonous vapors, from Pliny down to Smith, and every tourist has held a dog over its floor by the legs to test the capabilities of the place.

View in context

He was succeeded by Pliny, who also fell a victim to his thirst for knowledge.

View in context

A representative sentence is this: 'Although there be none so ignorant that doth not know, neither any so impudent that will not confesse, friendship to be the jewell of humaine joye; yet whosoever shall see this amitie grounded upon a little affection, will soone conjecture that it shall be dissolved upon a light occasion.' Others of Lyly's affectations are rhetorical questions, hosts of allusions to classical history, and literature, and an unfailing succession of similes from all the recondite knowledge that he can command, especially from the fantastic collection of fables which, coming down through the Middle Ages from the Roman writer Pliny, went at that time by the name of natural history and which we have already encountered in the medieval Bestiaries.

View in context

Run over a few: --The Authors of the Bible; Aristotle; Pliny; Aldrovandi; Sir Thomas Browne; Gesner; Ray; Linnaeus; Rondeletius; Willoughby; Green; Artedi; Sibbald; Brisson; Marten; Lacepede; Bonneterre; Desmarest; Baron Cuvier; Frederick Cuvier; John Hunter; Owen; Scoresby; Beale; Bennett; J.

View in context

You are a very good lawyer, but you are a poor historian, you know nothing of sociology, and your biology is contemporaneous with Pliny."

View in context

In ten minutes after the strangers had departed, Franz was on the road to the Piazza de Spagni, listening with studied indifference to the learned dissertation delivered by Albert, after the manner of Pliny and Calpurnius, touching the iron-pointed nets used to prevent the ferocious beasts from springing on the spectators.

View in context