hepatizon

From the Latin hēpatizon, from the Ancient Greek ἡπᾰτῐ́ζον (hēpătĭ́zon), from ἡπᾰτῐ́ζων (hēpătĭ́zōn, “liver-coloured”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌhɛpəˈtaɪ̯zɒn/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌhɛpəˈtaɪ̯zɑn/^[1]

hepatizon (uncountable)

1. A valuable metal alloy in antiquity, thought to have been an alloy of copper with gold and silver, mixed and treated to produce a material with a dark purplish patina.
2. chloasma

• hepatizon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From the Ancient Greek ἡπᾰτῐ́ζον (hēpătĭ́zon), neuter of ἡπᾰτῐ́ζων (hēpătĭ́zōn, “liver-coloured”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [heː.paˈtɪz.zɔn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [e.paˈt̪id̪.d̪͡z̪on]

hēpatizon n sg (genitive hēpatizontis); third declension

1. liver-coloured Corinthian bronze
   • C.E. 79, Pliny the Elder, chapter IV, in Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff, editor, Naturalis Historia [Natural History], Book XXXIV, Leipzig: Teubner, published 1906:

     praeter haec est cuius ratio non potest reddi, quamquam hominis manu est; at fortuna temperatur in simulacris signisque illud suo colore pretiosum ad iocineris imaginem vergens, quod ideo hepatizon appellant, procul a corinthio, longe tamen ante aegineticum atque deliacum, quae diu optinuere principatum.

     Besides these, there is another mixture, the composition of which it is impossible to describe, for although it has been formed into images and statues by the hand of man, it is chance that rules in the formation of the compound. This last is highly prized for its colour, which approaches to that of liver, and it is on this account that it is called "hepatizon:" it is far inferior to the Corinthian metal, but much superior to the Æginetan and Delian, which long held the first rank.[1]

• This word is attested only in the nominative singular; the remaining declension is hypothetical.

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem), singular only.

• English: hepatizon

• “hēpătīzon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• hēpătizŏn in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 741/1.
• “hēpatizon” on page 790/3 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)