collyrium

English

Etymology

From Latin collȳrium, from Ancient Greek κολλύριον (kollúrion, “poultice”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈlɪɹɪəm/

Noun

collyrium (countable and uncountable, plural collyria or collyriums)

1. A lotion or liquid wash used as a cleanser for the eyes; an eye-salve.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection ii:

     Democritus' collyrium is not so sovereign to the eyes as this is to the heart […]

2. Loosely, any product applied to or around the eyes; kohl.
   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 44

     […] there were rings of collyrium about her eyes.

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Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κολλυριον (kollurion, “eye salve”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kolˈlyː.ri.um/, [kɔlˈlʲyːriʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kolˈli.ri.um/, [kolˈliːrium]

Noun

collȳrium n (genitive collȳriī or collȳrī); second declension

1. eye-salve
2. pessary, suppository

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	collȳrium	collȳria
Genitive	collȳriī collȳrī1	collȳriōrum
Dative	collȳriō	collȳriīs
Accusative	collȳrium	collȳria
Ablative	collȳriō	collȳriīs
Vocative	collȳrium	collȳria

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Descendants

• Catalan: col·liri
• French: collyre
• Galician: colirio
• Italian: collirio
• Portuguese: colírio
• Spanish: colirio

References

• “collyrium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “collyrium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• collyrium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “collyrium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “collyrium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin