Javan
/ˈdʒɑː.vən/noun
A person or thing associated with Java, Indonesia, or, in biblical usage, the ancient Greeks or Ionians.
Did you know?The biblical Javan is traditionally identified with the Ionians, while Persian Yauna and Sanskrit Yavana used related forms to refer to Greeks.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*yāwan-
“A reconstructed ancestral form associated with the Ionians or Greeks; the exact reconstruction and pathway remain debated.”
Ancient Greek
Greek
Iāōnes
“Ionians, the Greek-speaking peoples of the Aegean coast.”
6th–5th Century BCE
Old Persian
Yauna
“Greeks or Ionian peoples, as used in Persian imperial inscriptions.”
Ancient Hebrew
Hebrew
Yāwān
“Javan; a biblical ethnonym associated with Greece or the Ionians.”
Ancient Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Yavana
“Greeks or western foreigners, borrowed through contact with Persian and Greek worlds.”
Modern English
English
Javan
“Relating to Java, or referring in biblical and historical contexts to the Greeks or Ionians.”