A region of northeast Spain bordering on France and the Mediterranean Sea. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was a center of socialist and anarchist activity. Catalan separatists established an autonomous republic (1932-1938) that opposed Francisco Franco's loyalist forces during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
Catalonian Cat'a·lo'nian adj. & n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
