diota

diota

See also: Diota

English

Etymology

From Latin, from Ancient Greek, “two-handled”. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

diota (plural diotas or diotae)

1. (historical, Roman antiquity) A vase or drinking cup with two handles.
   • 1817, Edward Daniel Clarke, Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, Part 2: Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land, 4th Edition, Volume 6, page 105,

     A Greek had recently discovered a vessel of terra cotta containing some small bronze coins of Naxos, of the finest die, exhibiting the head of the bearded Bacchus in front, and a diota on the reverse, with the legend ΝΑΞΙΩΝ: we bought ten of these.

   • 1832, G. H. Smith, Appendix I: Observations on the Coinage and Currency of the Greeks, A Manual of Grecian Antiquities, page 262,

     The reasons for introducing these two devices are obvious; but the case of the diota, which is commonly placed horizontally under the feet of the owl, requires a separate explanation. Corsini says, in a dissertation of his Fasti Attici, that it is supposed by dome to refer to the amphora of oil, which was presented to the conquerors at the Panathenæa; but is himself of opinion, that it intended to denotes the manufacture of vessels in terra cotta, for which the Athenians were celebrated.

   • 1865, Charles Thomas Newton Dominic Ellis Colnaghi, Travels & Discoveries in The Levant, Volume 1, page 236,

     On the shore here I found three handles of Greek unpainted diotæ, on which magistrates′ names are stamped.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for diota in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Anagrams

• Todai, aotid