Niobe

See also: Niobé and niobé

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Νιόβη (Nióbē).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnʌɪ.ə.bi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈnaɪ.oʊ.bi/

Proper noun

Niobe

1. (Greek mythology) A daughter of Tantalus, said to have turned into stone while weeping for her children.
2. (astronomy) 71 Niobe, a main belt asteroid.
3. A female given name.

Translations

Asteroid

Noun

Niobe (plural Niobes)

1. A crying woman; a woman who is bereaved or inconsolable. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene xi]:

     There is a word will Priam turne to stone, Make wells and Niobe’s of the maides and wiues.

   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC:

     But when a man has been ranging, like the painful bee, from flower to flower, perhaps for a month together, and the thoughts of home and wife begin to have their charms with him, to be received by a Niobe, who, like a wounded vine, weeps her vitals away, while she but involuntarily curls about him; how shall I be able to bear that?

   • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book III, chapter 26:

     Here poor Mrs Vincy's spirit quite broke down, and her Niobe throat and good-humoured face were sadly convulsed.

Anagrams

• Ebion, boine

Italian

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Νιόβη (Nióbē).

Proper noun

Niobe f

1. (Greek mythology) Niobe

Anagrams

• beino, beoni

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Νιόβη (Nióbē).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈni.o.beː/, [ˈniɔbeː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈni.o.be/, [ˈniːobe]

Proper noun

Niobē f sg (genitive Niobēs); first declension

1. (Greek mythology) Niobe

Declension

First-declension noun (Greek-type), singular only.

	singular
nominative	Niobē
genitive	Niobēs
dative	Niobae
accusative	Niobēn
ablative	Niobē
vocative	Niobē

Related terms

• Niobēus
• Niobīdēs

References

• “Niobe”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Niobe in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “Niobe”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray