opisthosphendone

noun

A 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.

Scrabble 27

Meanings

nounopisthosphendone (plural not attested)
  1. 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 120
    5 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 7

    It 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 1

    Her 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 28

    The 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 257

    The 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

  1. Ancient Greekὀπισθοσφενδόνη
  2. Englishopisthosphendone

From Ancient Greek ὀπισθοσφενδόνη (opisthosphendónē), from ὄπισθεν (ópisthen, “behind”) + σφενδόνη (sphendónē, “sling”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

opisthosphendone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/opisthosphendone

MLA

“opisthosphendone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/opisthosphendone. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “opisthosphendone,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/opisthosphendone.

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