chlamys

See also: Chlamys

English

WOTD – 31 May 2011

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek χλᾰμῠ́ς (khlamús).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈklæmɪs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈklamɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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Noun

chlamys (plural chlamyses or chlamydes)

1. (historical) A short poncho-like cloak caught up on the shoulder, worn by hunters, soldiers, and horsemen in Ancient Greece.
   • 1824–1829, Walter Savage Landor, “Æsop and Rhosope”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […]:

     He unfolded the chlamys, stretched it out with both hands before me, and then cast it over my shoulders.

   • 1847, “The Wellington Statue”, in The Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c., London, page 523, column 2:

     The horse was not in the least like a Greek horse (nor even a Trojan), and F.M. the Duke of Wellington was not represented with the ensis or short sword in his grasp, the chlamys flying from his shoulder, or the paludamentum, as more suitable for the cool of the English climate (totidem divisos orbe &c.), the kothornos on his leg, the galea slung at the crupper? no reins, and his naked nether-man, not (as in these precious models) seated on the bare back of the bull-necked, square-jawed, dray-limbed steed.

   • 1977, Mary Carol Sturgeon, Sculpture: the Reliefs from the Theater, page 38:

     A male god stands in three-quarter view to right, wearing a chlamys fastened at his right shoulder with a round clasp.

Translations

short cloak

• Catalan: clàmide f
• Finnish: klamys
• French: chlamyde (fr) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: χλαμύς f (khlamús)

• Italian: clamide f
• Russian: хлами́да (ru) f (xlamída)
• Spanish: clámide (es) f

See also

• chiton
• exomis
• himation
• peplos, peplum

Further reading

• chlamys on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Alternative forms

• clamis, clamys, chlamis, chlamyda

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek χλᾰμῠ́ς (khlamús).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkʰla.mys/, [ˈkʰɫ̪ämʏs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkla.mis/, [ˈkläːmis]

Noun

chlamys f (genitive chlamydos or chlamydis); third declension

1. chlamys (a broad, woollen upper garment worn in Greece, sometimes purple, and inwrought with gold, worn especially by distinguished military characters, a Grecian military cloak, a state mantle; hence also, the cloak of Pallas; and sometimes also worn by persons not engaged in war, by, e.g., Mercury, Dido, Agrippina, children, actors, the chorus in tragedy, etc.)

Declension

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, normal variant or non-Greek-type).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	chlamys	chlamydes chlamydēs
Genitive	chlamydos chlamydis	chlamydum
Dative	chlamydī	chlamydibus
Accusative	chlamyda chlamydem	chlamydas chlamydēs
Ablative	chlamyde	chlamydibus
Vocative	chlamys chlamy1	chlamydes chlamydēs

¹In poetry.

Synonyms

• (chlamys: military cloak): palūdāmentum (the Roman approximate equivalent)

Descendants

• → English: chlamys
• → Italian: clamide
• → Spanish: clámide

References

• “chlămys”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “chlamys”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• chlamys 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)
• chlămy̆s in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 301/2.
• “chlamys”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “chlamys”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• “chlamys” on page 310/3 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)