Middle English Dictionary Entry
olimpias n.
Entry Info
| Forms | olimpias n. Pl. olimpiades. |
| Etymology | L olympias, from Gr. |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
(a) The Olympic games of antiquity; (b) a fierce battle or competition; (c) an olympiad, a period of four years between celebrations of the Olympic games, by which the ancient Greeks computed time.
Associated quotations
a
- a1456(a1402) *Trev.Nicod.(Add 16165)94b : Some tyme þe Greekes maden Ioustes and tournamentes and oþer pleyes of maystryes and of strenkeþe oones in fyve yere vnder þe hille called Olympias and cleped þe playes Olympias.
b
- c1450(?a1402) *?Trev.Reg.Princ.(Dgb 233)5a : In olympiadiz, that is to menyng, in the strong bataill.
c
- (a1387) Trev.Higd.(StJ-C H.1)4.277 : Þe Grees bygynneþ þe ȝere wiþ Olympias.
- (a1398) *Trev.Barth.(Add 27944)122b/a : Þe grees acountiþ tyme and ȝeres fro þe firste olimpias, and cristene men fro þe incarnacioun of oure lord.
- (a1398) *Trev.Barth.(Add 27944)122b/b : Þe Grees..ordeynede..to haue eueriche fyue ȝere onys gret solempnite and dedis at þe foot of the hille þat hatte mons olympus, and clepid þe firste fiue ȝere þe firste olympias..and rekeneþ here ȝeres by ȝeres of Olimpias.
- c1450(?a1422) Lydg.LOL (Dur-U Cosin V.2.16)3.19 : In the yere by computacion Fourty and two of Octouian..and of Olympyades, In the hundred nynty yere and thre.
- a1456(a1402) *Trev.Nicod.(Add 16165)94b : Cryst dyed in þe ferthe yere of þe Olympias two hundred and tweyne.