# λίτρα
## Ancient Greek
### Etymology

Borrowed from an Italic language, ultimately from from Proto-Italic *līðrā (“ingot”). The immediate source for the Greek borrowing could be Sicel *lītrā. The Italic word also survives in Latin lībra. Compare the morphology of Ancient Greek στατήρ (statḗr).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /lǐː.traː/ → /ˈli.tra/ → /ˈli.tra/
* (5th BCE Attic) IPA: /lǐː.traː/
* (1st CE Egyptian) IPA: /ˈli.tra/
* (4th CE Koine) IPA: /ˈli.tra/
* (10th CE Byzantine) IPA: /ˈli.tra/
* (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA: /ˈli.tra/

### Noun

λῑ́τρᾱ • (lī́trā) f (genitive λῑ́τρᾱς); first declension
* litra, a Sicilian silver coin
** Epicharumus 5
** Sophron 26
** 342 BCE – 291 BCE, Diphilus, The Sicilian 1
** 316 BCE – 250 BCE, Posidippus Comicus, The Gaul 2
** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Fragments 436
* libra, a unit of weight
** Palatine Anthology 6.214
** 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, Histories 22.26.19
** Palatine Anthology 10.97
** a box for holding libras
    Synonym: λιτροδόκη (litrodókē)

#### Descendants

* → Aramaic:
** Classical Syriac: ܪܺܝܛܠܳܐ / ܠܺܝܛܪܳܐ (līṭrā, rīṭlā)
** Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: רִיטְלָא / לִיטְרָא (līṭrā, rīṭlā)
** → Arabic: رِطْل (riṭl)
*** → English: rottol, rotol, rotolo, rottolo, rotal, rotl, rottil, rottle, rutl, rethel, rethl, rattle, ratl
*** → Italian: rotolo
*** → Portuguese: arrátel
*** → Spanish: arrelde
*** → Swahili: ratili
*** → Turkish: ratl / رطل
*** → Urdu: رطل
* → Old Armenian: լիտր (litr)
* → Medieval Latin: litra
** → French: litre (see there for further descendants)
** → Serbo-Croatian:
*** Cyrillic script: ли̏тра
*** Latin script: lȉtra

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “lībra”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 339
* ↑ Michael Weiss, "The Etymology of Latin lībra", conference paper presented at the SCS Greek and Latin Linguistics Panel on January 5, 2021
* ↑ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “λίτρα”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 867

### Further reading

* “λίτρα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “λίτρα”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
* λίτρα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
* G3046 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
* λίτρα in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
* “λίτρα”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

## Greek
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /liˈtɾa/
* Hyphenation: λί‧τρα
* Homophone: λύτρα (lýtra)

### Etymology 1
#### Noun

λίτρα • (lítra) n
* nominative/accusative/vocative plural of λίτρο (lítro)

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

λίτρα • (lítra) f (plural λίτρες)
* Obsolete form of λίτρο (lítro).