atrium

Etymology

From Latin ātrium (“entry hall”), from Etruscan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeɪ.tɹi.əm/
• Hyphenation: a‧tri‧um

Noun

atrium (plural atria or atriums)

1. (architecture) A central room or space in ancient Roman homes, open to the sky in the middle; a similar space in other buildings.
2. (architecture) A square hall lit by daylight from above, into which rooms open at one or more levels.
3. (anatomy) A cavity, entrance, or passage.

   an atrium of the infundibula of the lungs

   1. (anatomy) One of two upper chambers of the heart.
4. (biology) Any enclosed sexine and nexine layers, widening toward the interior of the grain.
   • 1965, Janet Kircher Warter, Palynology of a Lignite of Lower Eocene (Wilcox) Age from Kemper County‎, page 52:

     Nexine 0.5μ thick, separating from the sexine about 5μ from the pore and forming a deep, well-defined atrium.

Noun

atrium

1. atrium (central room in Roman homes)
2. atrium (square hall lit from above)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ātrium. Doublet of aître.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.tʁi.jɔm/

Noun

atrium m (plural atriums)

1. atrium

Etymology

Related to āter, or from Etruscan.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈaː.tri.um/, [ˈaː.tri.ũ]

• Audio (Classical)

  (file)

Noun

ātrium n (genitive ātriī); second declension

1. a welcoming room in a Roman villa; reception hall
2. a hall, court in a temple

References

• ātrĭum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• atrium in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• atrium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• ātrĭum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette, page 182/3
• atrium in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• atrium in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• “ātrium” on page 199 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)
• Niermeyer, Jan Frederik (1976), “atrium”, in Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus (in Latin), Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 67