sb. pl. [f. med.L. Ascii, also used in Eng. (a. Gr. ἄσκιοι, f. ἀ priv. + σκιά shadow) + -AN.] Inhabitants of the torrid zone, who twice a year have the sun directly overhead at noon, and then cast no shadows.
1635. Carpenter, Geog. Delin., I. x. 226. These men haue the Sunne twice euery yeere in their Zenith, and then they make no shaddowes at all, and therefore they are called Ascij, or without shaddowes.
1709. Mandey, Syst. Math. (1729), 584. Ascii, are those which have no Meridian Shadow.
1847. Craig, Ascians.
