negus

name

1. An English surname of unknown derivation.

noun

1. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of negus (“Ethiopian ruler”).
2. (countable, uncountable)A drink made of wine, often port, mixed with hot water, oranges or lemons, spices and sugar.

   “And when he got home he had a glass of hot negus in his wife's sitting-room, and read the last number of the “Little Dorrit” of the day with great inward satisfaction.”

   “Esther began […] to cry. But when the fire had been lit specially to warm her chilled limbs and Adela had plied her with hot negus she began to feel rather a heroine.”

   “‘I could sure use a cup of negus and maybe some hot soup,’ he sniffs.”

3. (historical)A ruler of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), or of a province of Ethiopia; specifically, the king of Ethiopia before 1974.

   “Sir, the Negus of Ethiopia is here in person; and this is the day of our death, doe what you can to saue your selfe, for my part I meane here to die”

   “In the Abyssinian Language a King is call'd Negus. Their Monarch they stile Negus Negasta, which is as much as to say, King of Kings.”

   “It was a Syrian merchant, Frumentius, who is credited with converting Ezana, the Negus (king or emperor) of the powerful northern Ethiopian state of Aksum.”