triclinium

English

Etymology

Latin trīclīnium, from Ancient Greek τρικλίνιον (triklínion).

Noun

triclinium (plural tricliniums or triclinia)

1. (Ancient Rome) A couch for reclining at mealtimes, extending round three sides of a table, and usually in three parts.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 259:

     Seated on the triclinium in the midst is a middle-aged man, with a high and noble brow; the fine aquiline nose, so patrician, as if their eagle had set his own seal on his warlike race;...

2. (Ancient Rome) A dining room furnished with such a triple couch.

Coordinate terms

• biclinium

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “triclinium”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Derived terms

• triclinial
• tricliniary

French

Noun

triclinium m (plural trincliniums or triclinia)

1. triclinium

Further reading

• “triclinium”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Tria trīclīnia in trīclīniō. (Three triclinia (couches) in a triclinium (dining room).)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek τρικλίνιον (triklínion), from τρεῖς (treîs, “three”) + κλίνω (klínō, “to lean”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /triːˈkliː.ni.um/, [t̪riːˈklʲiːniʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /triˈkli.ni.um/, [t̪riˈkliːnium]

Noun

trīclīnium n (genitive trīclīniī or trīclīnī); second declension

1. dining room, where three couches are laid out for dining around a small serving table.
2. a couch for reclining at meal, on which three people may recline.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	trīclīnium	trīclīnia
Genitive	trīclīniī trīclīnī1	trīclīniōrum
Dative	trīclīniō	trīclīniīs
Accusative	trīclīnium	trīclīnia
Ablative	trīclīniō	trīclīniīs
Vocative	trīclīnium	trīclīnia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Synonyms

• cēnāculum

Related terms

• architrīclīnus
• trīclīniarchēs
• trīclīniāria
• trīclīniāris

Descendants

• Italian: triclinio

References

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

Romanian

Noun

triclinium n (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of tricliniu