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σπα?́θ-η , ἡ,
A.any broad blade, of wood or metal:
1. flat wooden blade used by weavers in the upright loom (instead of the comb (κτείς) used in the horizontal), for striking the threads of the woof home, so as to make the web close, A.Ch.232, Philyll.12, Pl.Ly.208d; Dor. acc. pl. “σπάθα^ς” AP6.288 (Leon.).
2. spattle for stirring anything, Alex.60; esp. for medical purposes, Gal. 13.378, Heraclid.Tar. ap. eund.13.812.
3. blade of an oar, Lyc. 23.
4. pl., broad ribs, Poll.2.181, Ruf.Oss.25, and so prob. in Hp.Gland.14, PMag.Par.1.3116, Paul.Aeg.3.78.
5. broad blade of a sword, “Χαλκίδικαι σπάθαι” Alc.15.6; “σπάθῃ κολούων φασγάνου” E. Fr.373; “σπάθην παραφαίνων . . χρυσένδετον” Philem.70; χλαμὺς καὶ ς. (cf. Ital. capa e spada) Men.Pk.165, Sam.314, cf. Thphr.Char.25.4.
6. scraper for currying horses, PSI4.430.6 (iii B.C.), Poll.1.185.
7. stem of a palm-frond, Hdt.7.69: also spathe of the flower in many plants, esp. of the palm kind, Thphr.HP2.6.6, 2.8.4, Poll. 1.244.
8. pl., flukes of an anchor, PLond.3.1164（h).9 (iii A.D.).
9. pl.,= “ἀγκῶνες” 11.1, in machines, Orib.49.4.10.
Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.

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  • Cross-references in general dictionaries from this page (4):
    • Aeschylus, Libation Bearers, 232
    • Herodotus, Histories, 7.69
    • Plato, Lysis, 208d
    • Theophrastus, Characters, 25.4
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