Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A two-handled jar with a narrow neck used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to carry wine or oil.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Among the Greeks and Romans, a vessel, usually tall and slender, having two handles or ears, a narrow neck, and generally a sharp-pointed base for insertion into a stand or into the ground: used for holding wine, oil, honey, grain, etc.
- noun A liquid measure of the Greeks and Romans.
- noun In botany, the permanent basal portion of a pyxidium.
- noun [capitalized] [NL.] In zoology: A genus of Polygastrica. Ehrenberg. A genus of coleopterous insects. Wollaston.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Among the ancients, a two-handled vessel, tapering at the bottom, used for holding wine, oil, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun countable A two
handled jar with anarrow neck that was used inancient times to store or carrywine oroils .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an ancient jar with two handles and a narrow neck; used to hold oil or wine
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A single character combining a question mark and an exclamation - called an interrobang - didn't catch on because it doesn't read well in small sizes and never made it to standard keyboards, while, thanks to email addresses, the @, also known as an amphora, has become ubiquitous.
NPR Topics: News 2011
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A single character combining a question mark and an exclamation - called an interrobang - didn't catch on because it doesn't read well in small sizes and never made it to standard keyboards, while, thanks to email addresses, the @, also known as an amphora, has become ubiquitous.
NPR Topics: News 2011
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Created in 1963, the cup was either originally supposed to be called the "amphora" cup or be a play on that word.
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It's home to one of the most influential innovative winemakers around, Francesco Gravner, who has resurrected old, militantly natural techniques, such as amphora maturation.
Barry Yourgrau: With the World's Best Young Chefs -- "Cooking It Raw" in Pasolini Country 2010
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I remembered this one more or less, with the grapes and the "amphora".
More about egg symbols in Etruria and the rest of the classical world 2009
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The @ symbol was also used as an abbreviation for "amphora", the unit of measurement used to determine the amount held by the large terra cotta jars that were used to ship grain, spices and wine. discovered this use of the @ symbol in a letter written in 1536 by a Florentine trader named Francesco Lapi.
TheNextWeb.com 2008
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"amphora," a measuring device used by local tradesmen.
NYT > Home Page By ALICE RAWSTHORN 2010
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"amphora," a measuring device used by local tradesmen.
NYT > Home Page By ALICE RAWSTHORN 2010
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Arp's painted-wood bas-relief "La Femme-amphore" (1929), in which a small figurative form, like a kernel, floats through the womb-like bowl of an amphora, speaks to Brancusi's curled-up ovoid "The Newborn (Version I)" (1920).
The Shape of Things Lance Esplund 2011
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Then she remembered seeing her last colored amphora, the last trace of her artwork, in pieces on the floor in the entryway.
Klondike Kelli Trapnell 2011
reesetee commented on the word amphora
A historic unit of volume of an or or jar of the same name--tall, with handles near the top on both sides. Amphoras were the containers of choice for shipping wine and other commodities in ancient Greece and Rome. The Greek amphora is believed to have held held about 38.8 liters; the Roman amphora was believed to have held about 25.5 liters.
November 6, 2007
itsina commented on the word amphora
"You obtain an amphora of Bacchus' wine!" -Final Fantasy XII
January 14, 2009