"Phoenicious" is a non-standard variant of the word "Phoenician", which refers to the ancient civilization that inhabited present-day Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. The spelling of "Phoenicious" is influenced by the pronunciation of the word, which is /fɪˈnɪʃən/ (fi-NI-shən) in IPA phonetic transcription. The ending "-cious" is added to reflect the sound of the final syllable, /ʃən/ (shən), which in turn originates from the Greek word "Phoinikē" (Φοινίκη), meaning "purple".