Varangian

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /vəˈrændÍ¡Ê’iÉ™n/

Origin

Ultimately from Byzantine Greek Βάραγγος, from Old Norse Vǽringi.

Full definition of Varangian

Noun

1. (historical) A member of the ethnically Scandinavian people around the borders of Constantinople in the ninth and tenth centuries.
2. (historical) A member of the imperial body guard at Constantinople from 955.
• 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 506:The Byzantines continued to recruit elite warriors from the north, not merely from Rus’ but directly from far-off Scandinavia; from the end of the tenth century, they referred to them as ‘Varangians’.

Synonyms

• Varyag

Adjective

1. Of or pertaining to the Varangians.
2. Of or pertaining to the Varanger Peninsula in Norway.
3. (geology) Pertaining to a period of intense glaciation during the late Proterozoic eon.