Salonica

See also: Salónica

English

Alternative forms

• Salonika

Etymology

From Medieval Latin Salonica, from Byzantine Greek Σαλονίκη (Saloníkē), clipping of Ancient Greek Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē), named for Thessalonike daughter of Philip II, half-sister of Alexander the Great, and wife of Cassander of Macedonia, from Θεσσᾰλός (Thessalós, “Thessalian”) + νῑ́κη (nī́kē, “victory”), possibly named for her birth on the anniversary of the Battle of Crocus Field. Sometimes parsed as a clipping within English of Thessalonica. Originally and still chiefly as a calque of Ottoman Turkish سلانیك (Selânik); now with occasional reference to modern Greek Σαλονίκη (Saloníki).

Proper noun

Salonica

1. (now chiefly historical) Synonym of Thessaloniki, a port city in northern Greece.
   • 1951 November, 'Pausanias', “To Greece by the "Simplon-Orient Express"”, in Railway Magazine, page 731:

     Sleeping-car passengers, however, will know little of their entry into Greece until, at 6 a.m. on the third morning after leaving Paris, the short train runs over the Vardar plain, with dawn glimpses of Mount Athos to the east and of cloud-capped Olympus across the gulf to the south, past the rebuilt yard and into the new passenger station at Salonica.

Derived terms

• Gulf of Salonica

Anagrams

• Ascolian, Insalaco

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Byzantine Greek Σαλονίκη (Saloníkē).

Proper noun

Salonica f

1. Synonym of Thessalonica

Portuguese

Proper noun

Salonica f

1. Dated spelling of Salónica.