λίτρα

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Borrowed from an Italic language, ultimately from from Proto-Italic *līðrā (“ingot”). The immediate source for the Greek borrowing could be Sicel *lītrā. The Italic word also survives in Latin lībra. Compare the morphology of Ancient Greek στατήρ (statḗr).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /lǐː.traː/ → /ˈli.tra/ → /ˈli.tra/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /lǐː.traː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈli.tra/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈli.tra/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈli.tra/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈli.tra/

Noun

λῑ́τρᾱ • (lī́trā) f (genitive λῑ́τρᾱς); first declension

1. litra, a Sicilian silver coin
   • Epicharumus 5
   • Sophron 26
   • 342 BCE – 291 BCE, Diphilus, The Sicilian 1
   • 316 BCE – 250 BCE, Posidippus Comicus, The Gaul 2
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Fragments 436
2. libra, a unit of weight
   • Palatine Anthology 6.214
   • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, Histories 22.26.19
   • Palatine Anthology 10.97
   1. a box for holding libras

      Synonym: λιτροδόκη (litrodókē)

Inflection

First declension of ἡ λῑ́τρᾱ; τῆς λῑ́τρᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ λῑ́τρᾱ hē lī́trā	τὼ λῑ́τρᾱ tṑ lī́trā	αἱ λῖτραι hai lîtrai
Genitive	τῆς λῑ́τρᾱς tês lī́trās	τοῖν λῑ́τραιν toîn lī́train	τῶν λῑτρῶν tôn lītrôn
Dative	τῇ λῑ́τρᾳ têi lī́trāi	τοῖν λῑ́τραιν toîn lī́train	ταῖς λῑ́τραις taîs lī́trais
Accusative	τὴν λῑ́τρᾱν tḕn lī́trān	τὼ λῑ́τρᾱ tṑ lī́trā	τᾱ̀ς λῑ́τρᾱς tā̀s lī́trās
Vocative	λῑ́τρᾱ lī́trā	λῑ́τρᾱ lī́trā	λῖτραι lîtrai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

• → Aramaic:
  • Classical Syriac: ܪܺܝܛܠܳܐ / ܠܺܝܛܪܳܐ (līṭrā, rīṭlā)
  • Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: רִיטְלָא / לִיטְרָא (līṭrā, rīṭlā)
  • → Arabic: رِطْل (riṭl)
    • → English: rottol, rotol, rotolo, rottolo, rotal, rotl, rottil, rottle, rutl, rethel, rethl, rattle, ratl
    • → Italian: rotolo
    • → Portuguese: arrátel
    • → Spanish: arrelde
    • → Swahili: ratili
    • → Turkish: ratl / رطل
    • → Urdu: رطل
• → Old Armenian: լիտր (litr)
• → Medieval Latin: litra
  • → French: litre (see there for further descendants)
  • → Serbo-Croatian:
    • Cyrillic script: ли̏тра
    • Latin script: lȉtra

Further reading

• “λίτρα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “λίτρα”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• λίτρα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• G3046 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• λίτρα in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• λίτρα, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

Greek

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liˈtɾa/
• Hyphenation: λί‧τρα
• Homophone: λύτρα (lýtra)

Etymology 1

Noun

λίτρα • (lítra) n

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of λίτρο (lítro)

Etymology 2

Noun

λίτρα • (lítra) f (plural λίτρες)

1. Obsolete form of λίτρο (lítro).

Declension

Declension of λίτρα

	singular	plural
nominative	λίτρα (lítra)	λίτρες (lítres)
genitive	λίτρας (lítras)	λιτρών (litrón)
accusative	λίτρα (lítra)	λίτρες (lítres)
vocative	λίτρα (lítra)	λίτρες (lítres)