αὐλαία

Forms

αὐλαίᾱ (aulaíā) f (genitive αὐλαίᾱς); first declension^[1] Also written αὐλεία (auleía).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek αὐλή (aulḗ, “courtyard”) + -αῖος (-aîos), as the feminine of an adjective used as a noun.^[1][4][5] Babiniotis notes that the adjective αὐλαῖος (aulaîos) itself is recorded only in Hellenistic Greek, and compares the same suffix in ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos) beside ἀρχή (arkhḗ).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 4th century BC, in the orator Hyperides, who tells of the nine archons dining in a colonnade after screening off part of it with a curtain, and in an inscription from Samos.^[2][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The word named heavy and richly decorated hangings: curtains in doorways, on litters and carriages, and the tapestries of dining rooms, often woven with figures of people and animals.^[5][2][7] Theophrastus describes a vain man who buys a hanging with Persians woven into it.^[7][3] The theatre curtain may be meant in a fragment of Menander, and the Atticist lexicon of the Segueriana and Hesychius gloss the word as the curtain of the stage, citing Hyperides' speech against Patrocles.^[2][4][8][9] From a curtain it was used of other spread fabrics: a hunting net in Plutarch, screens that protected men on a wall from missiles in Philo's work on artillery, and an awning on a ship.^[4][5][2]

In the Septuagint it is the usual word for the curtains of the tabernacle in Exodus, about twenty times, and once for the door of a tent.^[10] It was borrowed into Latin aulaeum, mostly in the plural aulaea.^[11][7]

Modern Greek αυλαία (avlaía) is a learned revival: it is the curtain that separates the stage from the audience, and figuratively the opening or close of an event, as when the curtain “falls” on a meeting.^[12] Babiniotis notes that the special sense “theatre curtain” is already Hellenistic.^[6]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – Hyperides uses it of a curtain screening off part of a colonnade, and an inscription from Samos records it.^[2][4]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus mentions a hanging woven with figures of Persians, and Menander has it perhaps of a stage curtain.^[7][2][4]
• 3rd century BC – The Septuagint uses it for the curtains of the tabernacle, and a Zenon papyrus mentions a woollen curtain.^[10][13][2]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – Philo of Byzantium uses the plural for screens that protect a wall against missiles.^[4][2]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of a covering or curtain.^[5][2]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of a curtain and of a hunting net.^[4][5][2]
• Modern Greek – The learned word αυλαία (avlaía) means the theatre curtain and, figuratively, the beginning or end of an event.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A curtain or hanging, in a doorway, a tent or on a litter.^[4][5][2]
2. A tapestry in a dining room, often worked with figures.^[5][7]
3. Perhaps the curtain of a theatre.^[4][2][8]
4. A hunting net.^[4][5]
5. (in the plural) Screens that protect the defenders of a wall against missiles.^[4][2]
6. An awning on a ship.^[2]
7. (Septuagint) A curtain of the tabernacle; the door of a tent.^[10]

Related words

• αὐλή (aulḗ)
• Latin aulaeum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
3. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b c d e f Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
8. ^ a b Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck
9. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux