The Collaborative International Dictionary
Merovingian \Mer`o*vin"gi*an\, a. [From Merovaeus, the Latin name of a king of the Franks.] Of or pertaining to the first Frankish dynasty in Gaul or France. -- n. One of the kings of this dynasty.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1690s, from French Mérovingien, from Medieval Latin Merovingi, "descendants of Meroveus," (mythical?) ancestor of the line of Frankish kings in Gaul (c.500-752) beginning with Clovis; Merovingi is a Latinization of his Germanic name (compare Old High German Mar-wig "famed-fight") with the Germanic patronymic suffix -ing.
Wikipedia
The term Merovingian has several uses:
- The Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings ruled an area of modern France and Germany from the 5th to 8th century AD.
- Merovingian script, a type of script used in the Merovingian kingdom.
- Merovingian (The Matrix), a character in the films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
- Merovingian Music, a non-genre specific record label based out of Red Bank, New Jersey
- Merovingian art and architecture is the art and architecture of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks
Usage examples of "merovingian".
This is just like the invasion of Italy in 553 by the Alamannic brethren, and is quite in keeping with the loosely compacted character of the Merovingian monarchy, in which it was copied by the Anglian and Saxon Kingdoms.
With rare insight and rarer taste he discountenanced the prevalent Merovingian hand, and substituted in eclectic hand, known as the Carolingian Minuscule, which way still be regarded as a model of clearness and elegance.
France under Carolingian rule in the eighth or ninth century compared with the state of things under the Merovingians in the sixth and seventh.
It was the form also usually chosen for ornamentation or imitation in those Visigothic, Merovingian, or Lombardic MSS.
Then they all turn into windmills: the monks, the knights, nuns, couriers and lansquenets, the Prussian grenadiers and Natzmer uhlans, the Merovingians and Carolingians, and in between, popping like weasels, our midgets.
An example is the jargon of the Merovingian canalers, which, like many unwritten languages, is highly contextual: one word may have a dozen implications depending on situation and tone of voice.
An ingenious critic has deduced the Merovingians from the great Maroboduus.
But the subjects of the Merovingian kings might alienate their personal freedom.
If the junction of the Merovingian and Imperial forces had been effected in the neighborhood of Milan, perhaps they might have subverted the throne of the Lombards.
And there is at Peteghem, in Flanders, at the very spot where the Merovingian kings had their summer palace, a convent of Urbanists, the Abbey of Sainte Claire en Beaulieu, which I saved in 1793.
There is at Peteghem in Flanders, at the very place where the Merovingian kings had their summer palace, a monastery of Urbanists, the Abbey of Sainte Claire in Beaulieu, which I saved in 1793.