Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to Augustus or his reign, considered as a time of great prosperity in the Roman Empire and great refinement in Latin literature.
  • adjective Of or relating to English literature during the early 1700s, characterized by refinement of style.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who belongs to the Augustan age or school of literature. See Augustanism.
  • Pertaining to the Emperor Augustus (31 b. c. to a. d. 14): as, the Augustan age.
  • Pertaining to the town Augusta Vindelicorum, now Augsburg, in Bavaria: as, the Augustan Confession, commonly called the Augsburg Confession. See confession.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to Augustus Cæsar or to his times.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the town of Augsburg.
  • adjective of any national literature, the period of its highest state of purity and refinement; -- so called because the reign of Augustus Cæsar was the golden age of Roman literature. Thus the reign of Louis XIV. (b. 1638) has been called the Augustan age of French literature, and that of Queen Anne (b. 1664) the Augustan age of English literature.
  • adjective (Eccl. Hist.) or confession of Augsburg, drawn up at Augusta Vindelicorum, or Augsburg, by Luther and Melanchthon, in 1530, contains the principles of the Protestants, and their reasons for separating from the Roman Catholic church.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to the times of the Roman emperor Augustus (63 BCE - 14 CE).
  • adjective Pertaining to the Roman poetic literature during this time.
  • adjective Pertaining to the period of English literature during the first half of the 18th century, known for satire and political themes.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or characteristic of the times of the Roman Emperor Augustus

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Augustus, a Roman emperor who ruled a period of peace and prosperity known as the Pax Romana or Pax Augusta

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