cothon

C3O1T1H4O1N1

noun

An artificial, protected harbor in a Phoenician city, especially and originally the one in Carthage.

OriginAncient Greek κώθων →
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Meanings

nouncothon (plural cothons)

plural cothons

  1. An artificial, protected harbor in a Phoenician city, especially and originally the one in Carthage.

    It resembles the Phoenician cothons'.

    1999, Ancient Infrastructure: Remarkable Roads, Mines, Walls, Mounds, Stone Circles : a Catalog of Archeological Anomalies
    2 more examples

    The cothons at Carthage, during the Punic wars, are said to have held over two hundred ships. The small size of the Motya cothon may be accounted for by […]

    1965, Helen Hill Miller, Sicily and the Western Colonies of Greece, New York: Scribner

    Cothons - artificial inner harbours, or perhaps rather docks and repair basins - are another architectural feature ascribed to Phoenician and Punic towns […]

    1973, Rivista Di Studi Fenici, volume 1, page 142

Origin

  1. Ancient Greekκώθων
  2. Englishcothon

From Ancient Greek κώθων (kṓthōn), rendering a Phoenician term meaning something like "excavated". (Cothon was the name of the island in Carthage's artificial harbor, namesake of the type.)

More words from Ancient Greek

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Cite this entry
APA

cothon. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cothon

MLA

“cothon.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cothon. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cothon,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cothon.

Source: cothon on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.