Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In ancient Greece, a fundamental land-measure, being the square of 100 feet, or 10,000 square feet.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Gr. Antiq.) A long measure of 100 Greek, or 101 English, feet; also, a square measure of 10,000 Greek feet.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A Greek unit of
cord measurement, equivalent to one hundredpodes .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Make Egypt pay thousands upon thousands of gold talents for every plethron of land!
Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007
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Make Egypt pay thousands upon thousands of gold talents for every plethron of land!
Antony and Cleopatra Colleen McCullough 2007
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If the text is right, the {plethron} must here be a measure of area.
The History of Herodotus Herodotus 2003
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[Greek: _ekeleue tous plousious ... mae, en ho peri mikron diapherontai, ton pleonon hyperidein, misthon hama taes peponaemenaes exergasias autarkae pheromenous taen exaireton aneu timaes ktaesin es aei bebaion hekasto pentakosion plethron, kai paisin, ois eisi paides, ekasto kai touton ta haemisea_].
A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate 1885
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[Greek: _anekainize ton nomon maedena ton pentakosion plethron pleon hechein, paisi d 'auton hyper ton palaion nomon prosetithei ta haemisea touton_].
A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate 1885
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a fathom, and thou art pulling it out by the plethron.
Imaginary Conversations and Poems A Selection Walter Savage Landor 1819
reesetee commented on the word plethron
An ancient Greek unit of distance equal to 100 Greek feet or 1/6 stadion (the traditional length of an athletic field). The Greek foot was slightly longer than the English foot, so the plethron was approximately 100 to 105 English feet (31 to 33 meters).
Plural is "plethra," but the word does not seem to be related to the root for plethora, according to the OED.
November 8, 2007
seanahan commented on the word plethron
That is really strange, I would have assume that plethora and plethron came from the same source, but apparently they were just similar sounding Greek words.
November 8, 2007