Meanings
- no pluralA plain or ornamented band of fabric, broad in the middle and narrow at the ends, and fastened in the front, used in Ancient Greece to support the hair behind the head.
Female head, in an opisthosphendone and antefixal ornament.
1851, B[ram] Hertz, Catalogue of the Collection of Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Indian, Peruvian and Mexican Antiquities, London: […], page 1205 more examples
[…] her hair, which lightly floats back with her onward movement, is confined in an opisthosphendone and stephane.
1888, Cecil [Harcourt] Smith, “Two Vase Pictures of Sacrifices”, in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, volume IX, London: […] [T]he Council, […] Macmillan and Co., […], page 7It is characteristically broad in front and narrow behind, being thus opposite in its arrangement to the opisthosphendone.
1890–1891, “sphendone (sfen´dọ̄-nē), n.”, in William Dwight Whitney, editor, The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 5823, column 1Her hair is drawn back from the face in a wavy mass, and confined with an opisthosphendone knotted over the forehead.
1899, William Henry Forman, The Forman Collection. Catalogue of the Egyptian, Greek & Roman Antiquities and Objects of Art of the Renaissance, &c. in Gold, Silver, Ivory, &c., Dryden Press, page 28The hair is arranged in loose flying locks, and she wears an opisthosphendone, a band or kerchief with which the hair was caught up behind, and an earring in the shape of a pendant rosette.
1915, Gisela M[arie] A[ugusta] Richter, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes, New York, N.Y., page 257The mitre was of wool; the opisthosphendone was the part of it wrapping the back-hair; it was sling-shaped.
1926, Paul Louis de Giafferri, The History of the Feminine Costume of the World, from the Year 5318 B.C. to Our Century, page 91, column 1
Origin
- Ancient Greekὀπισθοσφενδόνη
- Englishopisthosphendone
From Ancient Greek ὀπισθοσφενδόνη (opisthosphendónē), from ὄπισθεν (ópisthen, “behind”) + σφενδόνη (sphendónē, “sling”).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
opisthosphendone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/opisthosphendone
“opisthosphendone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/opisthosphendone. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “opisthosphendone,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/opisthosphendone.
Source: opisthosphendone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.