obolus

See also: Obolus

English

Silver obol from 6th century BC Athens.

Etymology 1

From Latin obolus, from Ancient Greek ὀβολός (obolós), from ὀβελός (obelós). Doublet of obole and pul.

Alternative forms

• obol
• obolos

Noun

obolus (plural oboli or oboluses)

1. A silver coin minted in Ancient Greece, valued at a sixth of a drachma.
2. (historical) A unit of weight, equal to one-sixth of a drachma.
   • 1870, John Benson Coles Rose, Comedies of Publius Terentius Afer, Andria, Act II, sc. 2, page 21

     Dav. […] And after that I met the boy of Chremes
     

     With fishes, and an obolus of herbs.

Translations

silver coin

• Catalan: òbol (ca) m
• Finnish: oboli (fi)
• French: obole (fr) f
• German: Obolus (de) m
• Greek: οβολός (el) m (ovolós)
• Italian: obolo (it) m
• Polish: obol (pl) m
• Portuguese: óbolo (pt) m
• Russian: обо́л (ru) m (oból)
• Spanish: óbolo (es) m, obolus m

historical unit of weight

Etymology 2

Noun

obolus (plural oboli or oboluses)

1. Alternative form of obelus
   • 1914, Charles David Stewart, “The Principles of Government”, in Some Textual Difficulties in Shakespeare, page 27:

     The Globe editors have marked it with the obolus according to their explanation in the preface: "Whenever a lacuna occurs too great to be filled out with any approach to certainty by conjecture, we have marked the passage with an obolus (†)".

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.bo.lus/, [ˈɔbɔɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.bo.lus/, [ˈɔːbolus]

Noun

obolus m (genitive obolī); second declension

1. obolus (Greek coin)
2. A unit of weight, equal to one-sixth of a drachma

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	obolus	obolī
Genitive	obolī	obolōrum
Dative	obolō	obolīs
Accusative	obolum	obolōs
Ablative	obolō	obolīs
Vocative	obole	obolī

References

• “obolus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “obolus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• obolus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• obolus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “obolus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “obolus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin