cotyle

English

Alternative forms

• cotyla

Etymology

From Latin cotylē and Ancient Greek κοτύλη (kotúlē, “cup, half-pint”). Doublet of kotyle and kotylos.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒtɪliː/

Noun

cotyle (plural cotyles or cotylae or cotylai)

1. (chiefly historical) Alternative form of kotyle (“cantharus, a kind of ancient Greek and Roman cup”).
   • 1973, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, volumes 47–48, page 148:

     […] which is often falsely called Corinthian, but is really either Attic or Attico-Boeotian: the vases are mostly cups like this, or cotylai: a few examples, the cups Athens 649 and 1106, the cup B.M. 1920, 2-16, 1, and a cotyle in Cambridge.

2. (historical) A unit of Greek liquid measure.
   • 1912, W[alter] W[ybergh] How, J[oseph] Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, Clarendon Press, page 86:

     […] if, however, the proportion given in § 3 of one cotyle to two choenices be taken, it would be but two χόες. […] The prisoners at Sphacteria were allowed two Attic choenices of meal and two cotylae of wine; their servants were given half this amount (Thuc. iv. 16).

   • 1988, Hippocrates, translated by Paul Potter, Hippocrates, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 59:

     […] add a cotyle of oil, a half-cotyle of honey, a cotyle of sweet white wine, and two cotylai of beets; boil these until you think they have the proper consistency; then strain through a linen cloth, and add a cotyle of Attic honey to them, if you do not wish to boil the honey together with them; if you do not have Attic honey, mix in a cotyle of the best kind you have, and boil in a mortar; if the fluid is too thick, pour in some of the same wine, judging according to the thickness; administer as an enema.

   • 2004, I[an] M[ichael] Plant, editor, Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 142:

     Cleopatra uses the cotyle as a standard to compare other measures. She also gives a weight for each measure, probably the weight of water of that volume. A cotyle is normally given at the weight of 80 ‘Attic’ drachmas; Cleopatra gives the weight as 60 ‘Attic’ drachmas, i.e. ¾ of the regular size. […] There were normally two cotylae to the xestes, and four to the choinix, but it is clear that the ratios were not universal.

   • 2021, John C. Poirier, The Invention of the Inspired Text: Philological Windows on the Theopneustia of Scripture (Library of New Testament Studies), T&T Clark, →ISBN:

     The preparation of the beverage is as follows: taking three cotylai of rainwater in which a mole has drowned, bring to a boil until a waxy consistency obtains; […] Having crossed, having mixed, having crushed, add a cotyle of premium honey, and make it boil until it reaches the consistency of honey.

3. (historical) Synonym of hemina, a unit of Roman liquid measure equivalent to about 0.27 L
   • 1950, Caelius Aurelianus, translated by Israel Edward Drabkin, On Acute Diseases and On Chronic Diseases, University of Chicago Press, page 749:

     Again, they give the patient a cotyle of hulwort, clary seed, or caper root with half a drachm of squill; or an acetabulum of germander or thyme in three cyathi of oxymel; or two cotylae of alexanders seed with three cyathi of wine; or a cotyle of fennel seed and libanotis (Latin rosmarinum, ‘rosemary’) mixed with wine; or a drachm of gum ammoniac with three cyathi of oxymel.

4. (zootomy) Synonym of acetabulum, any of various cup-shaped joints, organs, or skin features in various animals.

References

• “cotyle, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κοτύλη (kotúlē, “cup, half-pint”).

Noun

cotylē f (genitive cotylēs); first declension

1. alternative form of cotyla

Declension

First-declension noun (Greek-type).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cotylē	cotylae
Genitive	cotylēs	cotylārum
Dative	cotylae	cotylīs
Accusative	cotylēn	cotylās
Ablative	cotylē	cotylīs
Vocative	cotylē	cotylae

Descendants

• English: cotyle