λίθος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Has been compared to λεῖος (leîos, “smooth”), λιτός (litós, “simple, plain”), Latin laedō (“to strike, hurt”), and Lithuanian slidùs (“slippery, slick”). Beekes argues for a Pre-Greek origin, noting that words for "stone" are often taken from a substrate language.

Pronunciation

Noun

λῐ́θος • (líthos) m (genitive λῐ́θου); second declension

1. a stone

   Synonym: πέτρος (pétros)

2. stone as a substance

   Synonym: πέτρα (pétra)

3. stone, pebble (used as as piece in a board-game)
4. large rock or stone block, used as a seat to a speaker's platform, especially in the Assembly or in the Athenian agora, where archons, arbitrators and certain witnesses swore oaths

Usage notes

Λίθος is sometimes used as a feminine noun. This often (but not always) is used to refer to some special stone, such as a gem or magnet.

Declension

Derived terms

• λιθάργυρος (lithárguros)
• λιθουργός (lithourgós)
• μονόλιθος (monólithos)
• λίθινος (líthinos)
• λιθωτός (lithōtós)

Descendants

Further reading

• “λίθος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “λίθος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “λίθος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• λίθος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• λίθος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “λίθος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3037 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • boulder idem, page 90.
  • crag idem, page 182.
  • gem idem, page 355.
  • jewel idem, page 463.
  • pebble idem, page 601.
  • precious idem, page 634.
  • rock idem, page 719.
  • stone idem, page 819.
  • touch-stone idem, page 884.
  • trinket idem, page 895.
• 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
• λίθος - ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ (since 2011) Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch) University of Chicago.

Greek

Etymology

Learnedly, from Ancient Greek λίθος (líthos), masculine (also feminine).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈli.θos/
• Hyphenation: λί‧θος

Noun

λίθος • (líthos) m or f (plural λίθοι)

1. masculine form:
   1. stone (building material)

      ο θεμέλιος λίθος ― o themélios líthos ― the foundation stone

   2. (medicine, formal) stone, calculus
   3. (archaeology) Εποχή του Λίθου (“Stone Age”)
2. feminine form (in phrases): special "stones":
   1. λυδία λίθος (“touch stone”)
   2. φιλοσοφική λίθος (“philosopher's stone”)

Declension

Synonyms

• (rock, medicine): πέτρα f (pétra, “stone”)
• (rock): βράχος m (vráchos, “stone”)

Coordinate terms

Related terms

Further reading

• λίθος on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el
• λίθος - Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής , 1998, by the "Triantafyllidis" Foundation.