sb. and a. Also 7 Valachian, 9 Vallakhian. [f. Walachia (in med.L. the country of the Walachs or Vlachs; in mod. use with narrower application, one of the two principalities which united to form the kingdom of Romania) + -AN.] A. sb.
1. = WALACH 1. Also, a native of Walachia.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turkes (1621), 204. Baiazet thus at once inuaded … Europe,… conuerting his forces against the Valachians.
1729. Consett, Pres. State Russia, 446. To leave his Allies the Walachians and Moldavians to the Resentment of the Turks for their intended Revolt to the Tsar.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xi. (1782), I. 357, note. The Walachians still preserve many traces of the Latin language.
1838. Encycl. Metrop., XXIV. 154/1. The neighbouring mountains are inhabited by Servians and Vallakhians.
1888. E[mily] Gerard, Land beyond Forest, II. xxviii. 30–1. This Wallachian was a still greater sorcerer in weather-making than the Wermesch peasant.
b. A Walachian sheep.
1837. Youatt, Sheep, v. 138. The Wallachians are about the size of the Dorset sheep, but not so tall.
2. The language spoken by the Walachians.
1864. Max Müller, Sci. Lang., Ser. II. iv. 182. Their language still lives in the modern Wallachian.
1877. Quaritch’s Catal., Suppl. 227. Rouman or Wallachian.
B. adj. Of or pertaining to Walachia or the Walachians.
c. 1791. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VIII. 712/1. There are four languages spoken … the German, Sclavonian, Wallachian, and Latin.
1804. E. Jones, Lyric Airs, Introd. 2. Matràki, or, The Wallachian Dance.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 34. According to Thunman, one half of all the Wallachian words are Latin.
a. 1901. W. Bright, Age of Fathers (1903), I. xxv. 503. The Gothic king … had flung St. Sabas into the waters of a Wallachian stream for refusing to taste idol-meats.
