Pleias

Latin

Alternative forms

• Plias

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Πλειάδες (Pleiádes).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpleː.i.as/, [ˈpɫ̪eːiäs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈple.i.as/, [ˈplɛːiäs]
• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpleː.i̯as/, [ˈpɫ̪eːi̯äs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈple.jas/, [ˈplɛːjäs]

Proper noun

Plēias f (genitive Plēiadis); third declension

1. a Pleiad, one of the Seven Sisters
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.668:

     Nec superum rector mala tanta Phoronidos ultra ferre potest natumque vocat, quem lucida partu Pleias enixa est letoque det imperat Argum.

     Now the king of the gods can no longer stand Phoronis’s great sufferings, and he calls his son, born of the shining Pleiad, and orders him to kill Argus.

2. (in the plural) the Pleiades (constellation)
3. (transferred sense, poetic) a storm, rain
   • c. 90 CE, Valerius Flaccius, Argonautica 2.405:

     Modo saeva quierunt aequora. Sic portus fugeret ratis, aspera si te Plias in adversae tenuisset litore Thraces.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	Plēias	Plēiadēs
genitive	Plēiadis	Plēiadum
dative	Plēiadī	Plēiadibus
accusative	Plēiadem	Plēiadēs
ablative	Plēiade	Plēiadibus
vocative	Plēias	Plēiadēs

References

• “Pleias”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Pleias”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Pleias in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “Pleias”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers