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σκυτάλη
σκυτάλη σκῠτάλη (ᾰ), ἡ, a staff, cudgel, club, Anth. at Sparta, a staff or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches:—a strip of leather was rolled slantwise round it, on which the dispatches were written lengthwise, so that when unrolled they were unintelligible: commanders abroad had a staff of like thickness, round which they rolled these papers, and so were able to read the dispatches:—hence σκυτάλη came to mean a Spartan dispatch, Thuc., Xen.; and generally a message, Pind. deriv. uncertain

ShortDef

a staff, cudgel, club

Debugging

Headword:
σκυτάλη
Headword (normalized):
σκυτάλη
Headword (normalized/stripped):
σκυταλη
Intro Text:
σκυτάλη σκῠτάλη (ᾰ), ἡ, a staff, cudgel, club, Anth. at Sparta, a staff or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches:—a strip of leather was rolled slantwise round it, on which the dispatches were written lengthwise, so that when unrolled they were unintelligible: commanders abroad had a staff of like thickness, round which they rolled these papers, and so were able to read the dispatches:—hence σκυτάλη came to mean a Spartan dispatch, Thuc., Xen.; and generally a message, Pind. deriv. uncertain
IDX:
29856
URN:
urn:cite2:scaife-viewer:dictionary-entries.atlas_v1:middle-liddell.perseus-eng2-n29891
Key:
skuta/lh

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Citations (From Models)

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Data

{
  "content": "σκυτάλη\n σκῠτάλη (ᾰ), ἡ,\n a staff, cudgel, club, Anth.\n at Sparta, a staff or baton, used as a cypher for writing dispatches:—a strip of leather was rolled slantwise round it, on which the dispatches were written lengthwise, so that when unrolled they were unintelligible: commanders abroad had a staff of like thickness, round which they rolled these papers, and so were able to read the dispatches:—hence σκυτάλη came to mean a Spartan dispatch, Thuc., Xen.; and generally a message, Pind.\n deriv. uncertain",
  "key": "skuta/lh"
}