Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• ὀβολός ‎(obolós)
• ὀδελός ‎(odelós) (Doric)

Noun

ὀβελός • ‎(obelós) m ‎(genitive ὀβελοῦ); second declension

1. a spit, rod
   • Herodotus, Histories 2.41
   1. (ὀβελὸς λίθινος) a pointed square pillar, obelisk
2. a horizontal line
   • Lucianus, Essays in Portraiture Defended 24

Usage notes

The horizontal line was used as a critical mark to point out that a passage was spurious, but with one point below and one above (÷) (ὀβελὸς περιστιγμένος ‎(obelòs peristigménos)) it denoted superfluous passages, especially in philosophical writings.

Inflection

Derived terms

• ὀβελίσκος ‎(obelískos)

References

• ὀβελός in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ὀβελός in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ὀβελός in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «ὀβελός» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• «ὀβελός» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • skewer idem, page 780.
  • spit idem, page 802.