Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to ancient Carthage, its inhabitants, or their language.
  • adjective Having the character of treachery attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans.
  • noun The dialect of Phoenician spoken in ancient Carthage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Carthaginians, who were characterized by the Romans as being unworthy of trust; hence, faithless; treacherous; deceitful.
  • noun The language of the Carthaginians, which belongs to the Canaanitish branch of the Semitic tongues, and is an offshoot of Phenician, and allied to Hebrew.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the ancient Carthaginians.
  • adjective Characteristic of the ancient Carthaginians; faithless; treacherous.

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

  • adjective Of or relating to ancient Carthage, its inhabitants, or their language.
  • adjective Perfidious, treacherous, faithless.
  • proper noun The language of Carthage.

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

  • adjective tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans
  • noun the Phoenician dialect of ancient Carthage
  • adjective of or relating to or characteristic of ancient Carthage or its people or their language

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin Poenicus, Pūnicus, from Poenus, a Carthaginian, from Greek Phoinix, Phoenician.]

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Examples

  • Even the name Punic—which comes from the word Phoenician—was given to them by outsiders.

    An Empire of the Mediterranean Adrian Goldsworthy 2011

  • He quotes also St. Jerome as authority that Alma in Punic

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • The three wars between them are known as the Punic wars; they are the most famous contests that ancient history records; and they ended in the complete destruction of Carthage.

    Early European History Hutton Webster

  • Carthage, (known as the Punic wars) and the achievements of the famous

    Story of Aeneas Michael Clarke 1880

  • These wars, I mean those called the Punic wars, could not have stood the human race in less than three millions of the species.

    The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) Edmund Burke 1763

  • Thefe Wars, I mean thofe called the Punic Wars, could not have ftood the human Race in lefs than three Millions of the Species, And yet this forms but a Part only, and a very fmall Part, of the Havock caufed by the Roman Ambition.

    Fugitive Pieces on Various Subjects 1771

  • -- Yet they are stigmatised by the Romans for faction, cruelty, and cowardice; and the "Punic" faith has come down to us in a proverb: but Livy was a Roman! and there is such a thing as a patriotic malignity!

    Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) Isaac Disraeli 1807

  • Well, if there was no “material difference,” then then the U.S. deserves to go the way of Carthage after the third Punic war.

    Matthew Yglesias » The Legal Cost of Torture 2009

  • Hannibal was one of the few people to actually defeat the Roman army in more than one battle, and it was not until the final battle of Zama in the third century BC that Hannibal was finally defeated, and Carthage overthrown in the Third Punic War.

    2010 May 20 « The BookBanter Blog 2010

  • Hannibal was one of the few people to actually defeat the Roman army in more than one battle, and it was not until the final battle of Zama in the third century BC that Hannibal was finally defeated, and Carthage overthrown in the Third Punic War.

    2010 May « The BookBanter Blog 2010

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