a member of an ancient people who established a powerful empire in Asia Minor and Syria, dominant from about 1900 to 1200 b.c.
an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of Indo-European, preserved in cuneiform inscriptions of the second millennium b.c. Cf. Hieroglyphic Hittite.
—adj.
of, pertaining to, or belonging to the Hittites or their language.