adytum

English

Etymology

From Latin adytum, from Ancient Greek ἄδυτον (áduton, “shrine”), neuter substantive form of ἄδυτος (ádutos, “not to be entered”).

Noun

adytum (plural adytums or adyta)

  1. The innermost sanctuary or shrine in ancient temples, whence oracles were given.
  2. (by extension) A private chamber; a sanctum.

Translations

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 adytum in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Latin

FWOTD – 8 October 2015

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From the Ancient Greek ἄδῠτον (áduton, “innermost sanctuary”, “shrine”), a substantivisation of the neuter forms of the adjective ἄδῠτος (ádutos, “not to be entered”).

Alternative forms

  • adytus (masculine fourth-declension collateral form)

Noun

adytum n (genitive adytī); second declension

  1. (literally) shrine, Holy of Holies (the innermost or most secret part of a temple or other sacred place; the sanctuary, which none but priests could enter, and from which oracles were delivered)
  2. (more generally) a secret place or chamber
  3. (transferred sense, of the dead) a grave, tomb, or mausoleum
    ab imīs adytīs
    from the innermost chambers [of a tomb]
  4. (figuratively) the inmost recesses
    ex adytō tamquam cordis respōnsa dēdere
    to yield answers as if from the inmost recesses of the soul
Declension

Second declension.

Case Singular Plural
nominative adytum adyta
genitive adytī adytōrum
dative adytō adytīs
accusative adytum adyta
ablative adytō adytīs
vocative adytum adyta
Synonyms
Descendants

References

  • ădytum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • adytum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • adytum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
  • ădy̆tum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette, page 69/3
  • adytum in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • adytum in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Etymology 2

See adytus.

Noun

adytum m

  1. accusative singular of adytus
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