palaestra

See also: Palaestra and palæstra

English

Alternative forms

• palæstra
• palaistra
• palestra (US)

Etymology

From Middle French palestre, from Old French, from Latin palaestra, from Ancient Greek παλαίστρα (palaístra, “wrestling school”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pəˈliːstɹə/, /pəˈlʌɪstɹə/

Noun

palaestra (plural palaestras or palaestrae)

1. (historical) A public area in ancient Greece and Rome dedicated to the teaching and practice of wrestling and other sports; a wrestling school, a gymnasium. [from 15th c.]
   • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:

     Athenian culture flourished in externalities, the open air of the agora and the nudity of the palestra.

2. An arena for literal or figurative combat; a battlefield. [from 15th c.]

Translations

ancient wrestling area

• Catalan: palestra (ca) f
• Finnish: palaistra
• French: palestre (fr) f
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: παλαίστρα f (palaístra)

• Polish: palestra (pl) f

Anagrams

• sarapatel

Latin

palaestra Carthāginiēnsis

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek παλαίστρα (palaístra, “wrestling school”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /paˈlae̯s.tra/, [päˈɫ̪äe̯s̠t̪rä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /paˈles.tra/, [päˈlɛst̪rä]

Noun

palaestra f (genitive palaestrae); first declension

1. wrestling school, palaestra; place of exercise; gymnasium
2. wrestling
3. (figuratively) rhetorical exercises; school of rhetoric, school
4. (figuratively) art, skill; dexterity
5. (figuratively, in the language of comedy) brothel

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	palaestra	palaestrae
Genitive	palaestrae	palaestrārum
Dative	palaestrae	palaestrīs
Accusative	palaestram	palaestrās
Ablative	palaestrā	palaestrīs
Vocative	palaestra	palaestrae

Synonyms

• (wrestling school): oleum

Related terms

• palaestēs
• palaestrica
• palaestricē
• palaestricōs
• palaestricus
• palaestrīta

Descendants

• → Catalan: palestra
• → French: palestre
  • → English: palaestra
• → Friulian: palestre
• → Italian: palestra
• → Piedmontese: palestra
• → Portuguese: palestra
• → Romanian: palestră
• → Spanish: palestra

References

• “palaestra”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “palaestra”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• palaestra 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)
• palaestra in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “palaestra”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “palaestra”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin