Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• σκῐομᾰχῐ́ᾱ ‎(skiomakhíā) later
  • 129 CE – 216 CE, Galen, Collected Works 6.146

Noun

σκῐᾱμᾰχῐ́ᾱ • ‎(skiāmakhíā) f ‎(genitive σκῐᾱμᾰχῐ́ᾱς); first declension

1. a fighting against a shadow: esp. a form of exercise with hands and feet
   • 280 BCE – 220 BCE, Philo of Byzantium, Compendium of Mechanics 1.153
2. (figuratively) fighting with a shadow, mock fight, beating the air
   • 106 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, Fam. 11.14.1
   • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Moralia 2.514d
   • 1115 – 1195, Eustathius of Thessalonica, Collected Works 663.16

Declension

Descendants

• → Late Latin: sciāmachia
  • English: sciamachy

References

• σκῐᾱμᾰχία in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• «σκιαμαχία» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette