naumachy
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle French naumachie and its source, Latin naumachia.
Noun
editnaumachy (plural naumachies)
- (obsolete) A place built to stage a mock sea-battle, or the show performed therein. [17th c.]
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:, II.2.4:
- Lacedæmonians held their public banquets […], plays, naumachies, places for sea-fights, theatres, amphitheatres able to contain 70,000 men, wherein they had several delightsome shows to exhilarate the people […].