pancratium

American  

[pan-kray-shee-uhm] / pænˈkreɪ ʃi əm /

noun

• pancratia
  plural

1. (in ancient Greece) an athletic contest combining wrestling and boxing.

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pancratium British  

/ pænˈkreɪʃɪəm /

noun

1. (in ancient Greece) a wrestling and boxing contest

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pancratic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pancratia
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of pancratium

1595–1605; < Latin < Greek pankrátion all-power exercise (noun use of neuter adj.), equivalent to pan- pan- + krát ( os ) strength, mastery + -ion, neuter of -ios adj. suffix

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pancratium

How far he surpassed his adversaries is shown by his wishing to contend in both wrestling and pancratium at Olympia, and by his winning victories in both at the Capitolina.

From Dio's Rome, Volume 6 An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During The Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus And Alexander Severus by Herbert Baldwin Foster

And the same holds in boxing and in the pancratium?

From Charmides by Benjamin Jowett

Athletes struggled in the pancratium at many different points in the city.

From Dio's Rome, Volume 4 An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form by Herbert Baldwin Foster

The Lacedaemonians forbid their young men to contend in the pancratium, or with the caestus, in which games the defeated party has to acknowledge himself beaten.

From L. Annaeus Seneca on Benefits by Aubrey Stewart

Reference is here made by Corvinus to the pancratium, an athletic exercise among the Romans, which combined all personal contests, such as boxing, wrestling, etc.

From De La Salle Fifth Reader by Christian Brothers

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