Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small building of ancient Greece and Rome used for public performances of music and poetry.
- n. A contemporary theater or concert hall.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In anc. Gr. arch., one of a class of buildings akin to theaters, designed primarily for the public performance of musical contests of various kinds. The earliest odeum of which anything is known (no trace having as yet been found of the still older one near the Pythium and the fountain Callirrhoë) is that of Pericles on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis of Athens, described as of circular plan, with numerous seats, and a lofty, conical, tent-likeroof supported by many columns. Later examples, as the great Odeum of Herodes Atticus at Athens, and the Odeum at Patras, resembled very closely in plan and in details the fully developed Roman theater. See cut under
cavea . - n. Hence At the present day, a name sometimes given to a theater, or to a hall or other structure devoted to musical or dramatic representations.
Wiktionary
- n. Alternative form of odeon.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. See odeon.
Etymologies
- Latin ōdēum, from Greek ōideion, from aoidē, ōidē, song; see ode. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Their work has produced, however, extraordinary discoveries, including a marble odeum, or small theater, of Roman Imperial date and a contemporary bath complex, both of which have no parallels at any other site in Egypt.”
“In its general form and arrangements the odeum was very similar to the theatre.”
“The odeum was much smaller than the theatre, and it was roofed over.”
“A councillor then proposed that the convent of St. Cecilia, or the now deserted and dilapidated odeum should be given up to them; but Horapollo objected explaining very clearly that such a crowd of sick in the midst of the city would be highly dangerous to the healthy citizens.”
“We saw the odeum, a small theatre dating from AD150, which was used for musical performances and meetings of the town council.”
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“Hatred; dislike; as, his conduct brought him into odium, or, brought odium upon him. odeum: (Latin: concert hall, from Greek oideion, "school of music") benjamin wrote: odeum: (Latin: concert hall, from Greek oideion, "school of music")”
“A few other words that share the same root as odeum are ode, comedy, and tragedy.”
“From Latin odeum, from Greek oideion, from oide (song)”
“a gallery or loft of wood or stone, existing as early as the eleventh century and used, instead of the cancelli, to separate the choir from the nave; it was called the lectorium, or odeum, as the loft where the singers were, and doxale from the singing of the doxologies.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘odeum’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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phrontistery - o
from phrontistery.info
oakum, oakus, oast, obambulate, obdormition, obduracy, obedible, obedientiary, obeism, obeliscolychny, obelize, obelus and 504 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, O
opacity, opaline, olfactory, orthoepy, orthoepy, oleaginous, obloquy, oasitic, obtrude, orthotic, overweening, ostinato and 125 more...
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a way
an ode and see
how, manner, path, mode, course, fashion, jostle, wend, easement, hardment, passage, anywise and 95 more...
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freerice vocab
wrong answers + attractive new vocab
parturition, lyophilization, pharisaic, ligneous, hoyden, hyaloid, frangible, anthropophagous, edentulous, candent, sarcoid, intumescence and 33 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for odeum.
rolig This is the source of the name Odeon (Odéon), which was given to major theaters in Paris, Vienna, and other European capitals.
Not to be confused with odium! Jan 1, 2011
Telofy “The rain, which had already grown fitful, did not truly cease; but for a very short time the light of the waning moon (high overhead and, though hardly more than half full, very bright) fell upon the giant's courtyard just as the light from one of the largest luminaries in the odeum in the oneiric level of the House Absolute used to fall upon the stage.”
—Gene Wolfe, The Sword of the Lictor Jan 1, 2011