obolus

plural oboli · plural oboluses · alternative obolos

1. Ancient GreeceA silver coin minted in Ancient Greece, valued at a sixth of a drachma.

   I remember one of these who, having received a pretty large sum of money, gave me, when I begged an obolus, a whole talent; on which his friend having reproved him, he answered, with an oath, ‘Why not? Have I not fifty left?’

   1749, Henry Fielding, A Journey from This World to the Next

   1 more example

   In like manner, "as the Greeks gave the dead man the obolus for Charon's toll [Charon's obol], and the old Prussians furnished him with spending money, to buy refreshment on his weary journey, so to this day German peasants bury a corpse with money in his mouth or hand," and this is also said to be one of the regular ceremonies of an Irish wake.

   1872, John Fiske, “The Primeval Ghost-World”, in Myths and Myth-Makers

2. historicalA unit of weight, equal to one-sixth of a drachma.

   Dav. […] And after that I met the boy of Chremes With fishes, and an obolus of herbs.

   1870, John Benson Coles Rose, transl., Andria, translation of original by Publius Terentius Afer, Act II, scene 2, page 21

plural oboli · plural oboluses

1. alternativeAlternative form of obelus.

   The Globe editors have marked it with the obolus according to their explanation in the preface: "Whenever a lacuna occurs too great to be filled out with any approach to certainty by conjecture, we have marked the passage with an obolus (†)".

   1914, Charles David Stewart, “The Principles of Government”, in Some Textual Difficulties in Shakespeare, page 27