μέλαθρον

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• μελάθρα (meláthra)

Etymology

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

 

• IPA^(key): /mé.la.tʰron/ → /ˈme.la.θron/ → /ˈme.la.θron/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /mé.la.tʰron/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈme.la.tʰron/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈme.la.θron/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈme.la.θron/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈme.la.θron/

Noun

μέλᾰθρον • (mélathron) n (genitive μελᾰ́θρου); second declension

1. roofbeam, ridgepole, vault of the roof
2. (in general) house, dwelling
3. lair of an animal

Inflection

Second declension of τὸ μέλᾰθρον; τοῦ μελᾰ́θρου (Attic)

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:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• μελαθρόω (melathróō)
• ὀλβομέλαθρος (olbomélathros)
• ὑψιμέλαθρος (hupsimélathros)

 

Further reading

• “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