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The corpus record

χέλειον

cheleion

tortoise shell

Generated live from the audited corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

What it meant

1. χέλειον · cheleion — Beekes

χέλειον [η.] ‘tortoise shell’ (Nic., H.), χελεύς: κιθάρα (H.). With a different stem χελώνη [f.] ‘tortoise (shell)’ (h. Merc.+), metaph. of many tortoise-like objects, especially a wooden shield cover of siege-troops, Lat. testidé (X., Plb., etc.), As a first member in Χελωνο-φάγοι [m.pl.] EN (Str, D. S., Plin.), also = ἀετοί τινες (H.). Thence 1. χελών-ιον [n.] ‘tortoise shell’ (Arist.), often metaph., e.g. ‘cover … — [Beekes, s.v. χέλειον, p. 1675]

2. χέλειον · cheleion — LSJ

crabʼs shell, tortoise-shell, chelium testudinum

crabʼs shell, Nic. Al. 561, Hsch. (χέλιον cod.); tortoise-shell, chelium testudinum, Plin. HN 6.173, cf. 9.38.

II

perh. = χηλή I.3, of Cancer, Euph. in Philol. 90.137 (pl.), Arat. 494.

Where it came from

No etymology authority pointer is recorded for this lemma yet — an honest gap, not an omission. The etymological dictionaries (Beekes, Chantraine, Frisk) are matched incrementally.

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