a. and sb. [f. L. Liguria (f. Ligur-, nom. Ligur, Ligus = Gr. Λίγυς, pl. Λίγυες Ligurian) + -AN.] a. adj. Belonging to the country anciently called Liguria in Cisalpine Gaul, including Genoa, parts of Piedmont and Savoy, etc. Now sometimes used by ethnologists as the distinctive epithet of a race of mankind supposed to be typically represented by the ancient Ligurians or their modern descendants. b. sb. An inhabitant or native of Liguria; a person belonging to the Ligurian race; also, a Ligurian bee.
Ligurian bee: a kind of honey-bee, Apis ligustrica, indigenous in southern Europe. Ligurian republic: the republic of Genoa, 1797–1805.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 57. Of the Ligurians, the most renowned beyond the Alpes, are the Sallij, Deceates, and Oxubij.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., I. 11. [I am] vnwilling to make relation of my passing through … the Sauoyean, and Ligurian Alpes.
1795. Gifford, Mæviad (1796), 58. Together we explored the stoic page Of the Ligurian, stern tho’ beardless sage [Persius].
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), X. 72/2. There is a great disagreement among authors concerning the origin of the Ligurians, though most probably they were descended from the Gauls.
1813. Southey, Life Nelson, vi. About seventy sail of vessels belonging to the Ligurian republic.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 54. It is best exemplified by the constitution of the Italian Republic, which was closely copied in the Ligurian.
1875. J. Hunter, Bee-keeping, 141 (heading), Ligurian bees and the methods of Ligurianizing an apiary. Ibid. The name ‘Ligurian’ appears to have been given by Spinola, who described it in 1805. Ibid. On the 19th of July, 1859, the Ligurian Bee was introduced to England. Ibid., 143. Many Bee-keepers … have successfully replaced their Black Queens with Ligurians, and so eventually succeeded in Ligurianizing their whole apiary.
1889. I. Taylor, Origin Aryans, 214. The primitive Aryans must be sought for among the four European races—Scandinavian, Celtic, Ligurian, and Iberian.
Hence Ligurianize v. trans., to make (a colony of bees) Ligurian.
1875. [see above].
