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megaron

[meg-uh-ron]
noun, plural meg·a·ra [meg-er-uh] /ˈmɛg ər ə/, meg·a·rons. (in pre-Hellenic Greek architecture)
  1. a building or semi-independent unit of a building, generally used as a living apartment and typically having a square or broadly rectangular principal chamber with a porch, often of columns in antis, and sometimes an antichamber or other small compartments.
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Origin of megaron

First recorded in 1875–80, megaron is from the Greek word mégaron (in Homer) the principal living quarters of a palace
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for megaron

Historical Examples

  • But if doma here be not equivalent to megaron, what room can it possibly be?

    Homer and His Age

    Andrew Lang

  • They sleep mucho domou; that is, not in a separate recess in the house, but in a recess of the great hall or megaron.

  • There can be little doubt that this circle indicates the position of the hearth in the centre of the megaron.

    Storyology

    Benjamin Taylor

  • In the oldest time it was not only symbolically but actually the centre of the house, and especially of the megaron.

    Storyology

    Benjamin Taylor

British Dictionary definitions for megaron

megaron

noun plural -ra (-rə)
  1. a tripartite rectangular room containing a central hearth surrounded by four pillars, found in Bronze Age Greece and Asia Minor
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Word Origin

from Greek, literally: hall, from megas large
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012