triclinium

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin triclīnium, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek τρικλίνιον (triklínion).

Noun

triclinium (plural tricliniums or triclinia)

1. (historical, Roman antiquity) A couch for reclining at mealtimes, extending round three sides of a table, and usually in three parts.
2. (historical, Roman antiquity) A dining room furnished with such a triple couch.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “triclinium”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

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Latin

Tria triclīnia in triclīniō. (Three triclinia (couches) in a triclinium (dining room).)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek τρικλίνιον (triklínion), from τρεῖς (treîs, “three”) + κλίνω (klínō, “to lean”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /triˈkliː.ni.um/, [t̪rɪˈklʲiːniʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /triˈkli.ni.um/, [t̪riˈkliːnium]

• Audio (Classical):

  (file)

Noun

triclīnium n (genitive triclīniī or triclīnī); second declension

1. dining room, where three couches are laid out for dining around a small serving table.
2. a couch for reclining at meal, on which three people may recline.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	triclīnium	triclīnia
Genitive	triclīniī triclīnī1	triclīniōrum
Dative	triclīniō	triclīniīs
Accusative	triclīnium	triclīnia
Ablative	triclīniō	triclīniīs
Vocative	triclīnium	triclīnia

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

Related terms

• triclīniarches
• triclīniāria
• triclīniāris

Descendants

• Italian: triclinio

References

• “triclinium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “triclinium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• triclinium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• triclinium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “triclinium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “triclinium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin