cotyle

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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 W 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 M 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)
    • 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).

Derived terms

References

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