Ionians
/aɪˈoʊniənz/noun
The ancient Greek people associated especially with Ionia on the western coast of Anatolia and nearby islands.
Did you know?The Ionians’ name appears in several ancient traditions, including Old Persian Yaunā and Biblical Hebrew Yāwān, terms that became associated broadly with Greeks.
Etymological Timeline
Mycenaean Greek period, c. 13th century BCE
Mycenaean Greek
Possibly *Ia-wо-ne
“A disputed Linear B form sometimes connected with the later name Ionians; the identification is not certain.”
8th–7th Century BCE
Homeric Greek
Ἰάονες (Iáones)
“Ionians; the name of a Greek people.”
6th Century BCE
Old Persian
Yaunā
“Greeks or Ionians, used in Persian imperial inscriptions.”
1st Millennium BCE
Biblical Hebrew
יָוָן (Yāwān)
“Javan or Greece; a traditional Hebrew designation connected with the Greek world.”
Classical Greek
Greek
Ἰωνία (Iōnía)
“Ionia, the region inhabited principally by Ionian Greeks.”
Latin and later English
Latin / English
Iōniī → Ionians
“The Ionians; English uses the Latin-derived ethnic name in its plural form.”