scytale

== English == === Alternative forms === skytale === Etymology === From Latin scytale (“cylinder used for encoding and decoding”), from Ancient Greek σκυτάλη (skutálē, “club, baton, cylinder used for encoding and decoding”). === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈsɪtəliː/, /ˈskɪt-/ === Noun === scytale (plural scytales) (historical) A cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it on which a message is written, used for cryptography by the ancient Spartans. ==== Related terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === Anagrams === acetyls == Latin == === Etymology === From Ancient Greek σκυτάλη (skutálē, “club, baton, cylinder used for encoding and decoding messages”). === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈsky.ta.ɫeː] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈʃiː.ta.le] === Noun === scytalē f (genitive scytalēs); first declension (historical) scytale (cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it on which a message is written) a type of snake ==== Declension ==== First-declension noun (feminine, Greek-type, nominative singular in -ē). ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== → English: scytale === References === “scytale”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers “scytale”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin