μέλαθρον

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Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

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

 

Noun

μέλᾰθρον (mélathronn (genitive μελᾰ́θρου); second declension

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

Inflection

Derived terms

Further reading