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The corpus record

ἤλεκτρον

elektron · τό

amber, pieces of amber, an alloy of gold and silver

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

Where it lives

  • Shield of Heracles 1 · 3.09/10k
  • De Mundo 1 · 1.58/10k
  • Antigone 1 · 1.36/10k
  • Ezechiel 3 · 1.04/10k
  • Timaeus 1 · 0.42/10k
  • Odyssey 3 · 0.35/10k
  • Anabasis 1 · 0.18/10k
  • Histories 2 · 0.11/10k
  • Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1 · 0.09/10k

What it meant — LSJ

amber, pieces of amber

amber (cf. Ἠλεκτρίδες) , [ὅρμος] μετὰ . . ἠλέκτροισιν (i.e. pieces of amber) ἔερτο Od. 15.460, cf. 18.296, Hdt. 3.115, Pl. Ti. 80c, Phld. Sign. 1, D.L. 1.24, etc.; ἠλέκτρου λιβάδες A.R. 4.606.

II an alloy of gold and silver

an alloy of gold and silver, χρυσοῦ τʼ ἠλέκτρου τε καὶ ἀργύρου ἠδʼ ἐλέφαντος Od. 4.73, cf. Hes. Sc. 142, Hom. Epigr. 15.10, Pytheas ap. Ath. 11.465d; τἀπὸ Σάρδεων ἤ. S. Ant. 1038 (cj.): in pl., of the pegs of a lyre, ἐκπιπτουσῶν τῶν ἠλέκτρων Ar. Eq. 532. (The two senses are difficult to distinguish in early Poetry; cf. Paus. 5.12.7, Plin. HN 33.80, 37.31. The word is connected with ἠλέκτωρ.)

In the wild

6 of 14 attestations shown. Ask for more.

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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