Art & MusicGreek → English
Byzantine
/ˈbɪzəntiːn/adjective
Belonging to the eastern Roman empire and its art, or needlessly intricate.
The Greek roots
Βυζάντιον
Byzántion
Byzantium
Literally: “of Byzantium”
Follow a root:Βυζάντιον1 word
The story of the word
Byzas of Megara is said to have founded Βυζάντιον around 660 BC; Constantine refounded the town as his capital in 330 AD, and its inhabitants went on calling themselves Romans to the end. Byzantine as a label for the empire is a Western scholarly invention of the sixteenth century onwards, never a name they used of themselves. In architecture it means the pendentive dome, Hagia Sophia being the model, and the sense of needless complexity comes from Western impatience with the court's ceremony and paperwork.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 18th century
Same family
Byzantiumbyzantinist
In a sentence
The chapel has a Byzantine dome on four squinches.
Getting a permit involved a byzantine chain of offices.