obolus

obolus

See also: Obolus

English

Silver obol from 6th century BC Athens.

Etymology 1

From Latin obolus, from Ancient Greek ὀβολός (obolós), from ὀβελός (obelós). Doublet of obole and pul.

Alternative forms

• obol
• obolos

Noun

obolus (plural oboli or oboluses)

1. A silver coin minted in Ancient Greece, valued at a sixth of a drachma.
2. (historical) A unit of weight, equal to one-sixth of a drachma.
   • 1870, John Benson Coles Rose, Comedies of Publius Terentius Afer, Andria, Act II, sc. 2, page 21

     Dav. […] And after that I met the boy of Chremes
     

     With fishes, and an obolus of herbs.

Translations

silver coin

Catalan: òbol (ca) m Finnish: oboli (fi) French: obole (fr) f German: Obolus (de) m Greek: οβολός (el) m (ovolós) Italian: obolo (it) m Polish: obol (pl) m Portuguese: óbolo (pt) m Russian: обо́л (ru) m (oból) Spanish: óbolo (es) m, obolus m

historical unit of weight

Noun

obolus (plural oboli or oboluses)

1. Alternative form of obelus
   • 1914, Charles David Stewart, "The Principles of Government" in Some Textual Difficulties in Shakespeare, page 27

     The Globe editors have marked it with the obolus according to their explanation in the preface: "Whenever a lacuna occurs too great to be filled out with any approach to certainty by conjecture, we have marked the passage with an obolus (†)".

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.bo.lus/, [ˈɔbɔɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.bo.lus/, [ˈɔːbolus]

Noun

obolus m (genitive obolī); second declension

1. obolus (Greek coin)
2. A unit of weight, equal to one-sixth of a drachma

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	obolus	obolī
Genitive	obolī	obolōrum
Dative	obolō	obolīs
Accusative	obolum	obolōs
Ablative	obolō	obolīs
Vocative	obole	obolī

References

• “obolus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “obolus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• obolus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• obolus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• “obolus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “obolus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin