Etymologically
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λίτρα

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /lǐː.traː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈli.tra/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈli.tra/[1]

Forms

λῑ́τρᾱ (lī́trā) f (genitive λῑ́τρᾱς); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is a word from Sicily, identical with Latin lībra (“balance, pound”).[2][3] Wiktionary takes it as borrowed from Proto-Italic *līðrā (“ingot”), from an Italic language, perhaps through a Sicel form *lītrā;[1] LSJ likewise derives both words from an early Italic form.[1][4] Beekes and Chantraine call it a Mediterranean word that Greek and Latin took over separately, and Chantraine sets up a common form with a spirant, *līþrā.[2][3] The ancient grammarian Herodian says that the /i/ is short in Doric, which no one has explained.[2][3]

Furnée compares the Hesychius gloss λιδρίον (lidríon) “cup”, also a measure.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the Sicilian comic writers Epicharmus and Sophron, the latter of the 5th century BC, as the name of a Sicilian silver coin worth half a mina or fifty drachmas.[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle discussed the value of the coin.[4] The New Pauly describes the Sicilian litra as a weight of about 109 grams, a third of the Roman pound, divided like it into twelve ounces.[5] With Roman rule the Greek word came to translate the Roman pound of twelve ounces (about 327 grams): Polybius and Diodorus use it so, and in the Gospel of John it measures ointment and the spices for a burial.[4][6][7] Galen uses it also as a measure of capacity, equal to an Italian κοτύλη (kotúlē).[4][7]

In Byzantium it was the pound by which coins were weighed, and a late epigram plays on the pound of gold being minted into 72 coins: a man who has lived a “pound of years” is 72.[8][4] The word was borrowed into Coptic, attested from about AD 300, and through Aramaic into Arabic as رطل (riṭl), the source of the English rotl.[9][1] Modern Greek λίτρα (lítra) is an old-fashioned name for the litre.[10]

Timeline

  • 5th century BC – Epicharmus and Sophron use it of the Sicilian silver coin.[4][2][11]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle discusses the value of the coin.[4][11]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the pound of twelve ounces.[4][7][11]
  • 1st century AD – The Gospel of John measures ointment and spices by the pound.[6]
  • 2nd century AD – Galen uses it as a measure of capacity.[4][7][11]
  • AD 300 – The word is attested as a Coptic borrowing.[9]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek λίτρα (lítra) survives as an old name for the litre.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The litra, a Sicilian silver coin.[4][7]
  2. A pound, a weight of twelve ounces; the Roman libra.[4][6][7]
  3. A measure of capacity, equal to an Italian κοτύλη (kotúlē).[4][12]

Word family

  • ἡμίλιτρον (hēmílitron)
  • λιτραῖος (litraîos)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Montanari, Franco (2015), The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  9. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  12. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica