martian

adj

1. (not-comparable)Of or relating to the planet Mars, or (science fiction) its imagined inhabitants.

   “Prof. Percival Lowell, the eminent Martian astronomer, said in a recent interview in New York: "The Martian canals are not Panama canals. The word 'canals' you know, really means 'lines.' [...]"”

   “She [Catherine Elise Muller] claimed her astral body was transported to the planet, so she was able to draw detailed Martian landscapes and to speak and write its language.”

   “Martian meteorites (Fig. 1.3) are pieces of Mars that have been blasted off the surface, hurtled through space, and delivered to Earth [...]. We know they are from Mars because the noble gases, carbon, and nitrogen measured in shock melt pockets in certain meteorites have the same relative elemental abundances and similar isotopic ratios as the Martian atmosphere—a unique fingerprint [...].”

2. (not-comparable)Pertaining to the astrological influence of the planet Mars; aggressive, bellicose.

   “[T]he majority of human beings born under the influence of Mars—the Martians (or "Martials")—are heavily built but physically strong. [...] [T]hey are easily angered, and, for the time being, forget everything in the excess of their violence. The worst Martian type will commit murder before he knows it.”

3. (not-comparable, obsolete)Pertaining to battle or war; martial, military.

   “The iudges vvhich thereto ſelected vvere, / Into the Martian field adovvne deſcended, / To deeme this doutfull caſe, for vvhich they all contended.”

4. (not-comparable)Pertaining to the Roman god Mars, the god of war.

   “Near-synonym: Arean”

5. (alt-of, nonstandard)Alternative letter-case form of Martian (“of or pertaining to the planet Mars”).

noun

1. A person under the astrological influence of the planet Mars.

   “[T]he majority of human beings born under the influence of Mars—the Martians (or "Martials")—are heavily built but physically strong. [...] A male Martian is generally a great favorite with the ladies and is apt to be rather quick and unscrupulous in his courtship methods. He is not a sentimental lover. A bad Martian is a loud, fatiguing talker and a braggard.”

2. An inhabitant of the planet Mars.

   “Thus she [one of the moons of Mars] has a disc, always on this assumption be it remembered, equal to about a quarter of our moon's; and being illuminated by the sun, like the other moon, with a light varying from one-half to one-third that which he pours on the earth, it follows that the light she reflects to Martians, or would reflect to them if there were any such beings, varies from one-eighth to one-twelfth of that which we receive from the full moon.”

   “Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of their appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the wedge-like lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles, [...]”

   “[...] M. le Coultre, the distinguished astronomer of Geneva, has once more declared that the Martians are trying to signal to us. [...] How long M. le Coultre's suggestion will stand before it goes the way of other similar conjectures now exploded, no one can say.”

   “If the Martian understood and could analyze the character of men and women, he would find in shops, factories, mills, schools, offices, in business, in the professions and arts, multitudes of men and women in the unhappy position of the fish out of water. Floundering hopelessly in vocations for which they have no aptitude, unless some merciful wave carry them to their native element, the place for which nature especially equipped them, their lives will be wrecked.”

   “Like a philosopher, or rather the hermit crab, he [Hoo Keng Tuck] lives in complete retirement, looking out occasionally from his coign of vantage upon his luckless compatriots who are struggling to make this world a better place to live in for themselves and their children, pretty much as a Martian might watch the social activities of the earth's inhabitants.”

3. (rare, specifically)An inhabitant of the planet Mars.

   “Coordinate term: Martianess”

4. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of Martian packet.

name

1. A hypothetical language spoken on Mars.

   “Although impressed by [Catherine Elise] Muller as a person, [Théodore] Flournoy regarded her experiences as a marvel of psychology rather than spiritualism. One of his key findings was that, while Muller's Martian had a consistent 23 letter alphabet, grammar and syntax, it was in fact a twisted variant of French.”

   “Suvi: Between the Remnant city, Meridian, and however the Scourge fits in... pardon my Martian, but it's all weird as shit.”