ἀρτίδιον

Forms

ἀρτίδιον (artídion) n (genitive ἀρτιδίου); second declension.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a diminutive from Ancient Greek ἄρτος (ártos, “bread, loaf”), with the suffix -ίδιον (-ídion).^[3][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example is a papyrus of the 3rd century BC, where it means a small loaf.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a word of everyday and technical prose: papyri use it for small loaves and for food, the physician Soranus for a piece of bread, and Diogenes Laertius for a small loaf.^[3][1] It is rare: the GLAUx corpus has only three examples, all from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.^[5]

Timeline

• 3rd century BC – A papyrus uses it of a small loaf.^[1]
• 1st century AD – An Oxyrhynchus papyrus uses it in the sense “food”.^[3][1]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Soranus uses it of a piece of bread.^[3][1]
• 2nd century AD – Apollonius Dyscolus and Galen use it.^[1][5]
• 3rd century AD – Diogenes Laertius uses it of a small loaf.^[3][1]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small loaf, a bread roll.^[3][1][6]
2. A piece of bread.^[3][1]
3. Food.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
2. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli