μέλαθρον
Ancient Greek edit
Alternative forms edit
- μελάθρα (meláthra)
Etymology edit
Explained by the ancients as deriving from μέλας (mélas, “black”), because of the soot which accumulates on the ceiling. The comparison with βλωθρός (blōthrós, “high”), proposed by Frisk, fails because the latter would presuppose a root *mlh₃-, which can never yield μέλα-. Connection with κμέλαθρον (kmélathron, “beam”) was tentatively considered by Güntert and Pisani, because of the remarkable formal and semantic similarity. According to Beekes, this proves that the word is Pre-Greek.
Pronunciation edit
- (5th BCE Attic) IPA(key): /mé.la.tʰron/
- (1st CE Egyptian) IPA(key): /ˈme.la.tʰron/
- (4th CE Koine) IPA(key): /ˈme.la.θron/
- (10th CE Byzantine) IPA(key): /ˈme.la.θron/
- (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA(key): /ˈme.la.θron/
Noun edit
μέλᾰθρον • (mélathron) n (genitive μελᾰ́θρου); second declension
Inflection edit
Case / # | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | τὸ μέλᾰθρον tò mélathron |
τὼ μελᾰ́θρω tṑ meláthrō |
τᾰ̀ μέλᾰθρᾰ tà mélathra | ||||||||||
Genitive | τοῦ μελᾰ́θρου toû meláthrou |
τοῖν μελᾰ́θροιν toîn meláthroin |
τῶν μελᾰ́θρων tôn meláthrōn | ||||||||||
Dative | τῷ μελᾰ́θρῳ tôi meláthrōi |
τοῖν μελᾰ́θροιν toîn meláthroin |
τοῖς μελᾰ́θροις toîs meláthrois | ||||||||||
Accusative | τὸ μέλᾰθρον tò mélathron |
τὼ μελᾰ́θρω tṑ meláthrō |
τᾰ̀ μέλᾰθρᾰ tà mélathra | ||||||||||
Vocative | μέλᾰθρον mélathron |
μελᾰ́θρω meláthrō |
μέλᾰθρᾰ mélathra | ||||||||||
Notes: |
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Derived terms edit
- μελαθρόω (melathróō)
- ὀλβομέλαθρος (olbomélathros)
- ὑψιμέλαθρος (hupsimélathros)
Further reading edit
- “μέλαθρον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “μέλαθρον”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “μέλαθρον”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
- μέλαθρον in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN