Definitions

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

  • Roman poet known for his books of epigrams.

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

  • proper noun A male given name narrowly applied to certain historic persons (but some of its foreign cognates are modern given names).
  • proper noun Anglicized cognomen or given name of the Roman poet Marcus Valerius Martialis, born in Spain in the first century AD and noted for his epigrams.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin Martialis, a Roman cognomen, from martialis "belonging/dedicated to Mars (or to war)", itself from the name of the Roman god of war Mars + -ialis.

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