amphora

Noun

amphora (plural amphoras or amphorae or amphorai)

1. (historical) A large, two-handled vessel, especially a thin-necked clay vat used in ancient Greece and Rome for storing and transporting wine and oil.
   • By concurrent use of panel decoration and concentric-circle ornament, and by free employment of red paint, the fully developed style of the Geometric Period attains a wide range of rich and elaborate effects. These are best displayed on the necks and shoulders of the very large amphorai which are...1914, John L[inton] Myres, Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus, New York, N.Y., page 76
   • A complete set for a ten-man symposion (an ordinary size) with ten deep cups, ten shallow cups, two mixing-bowls, two wine-jugs, two hydriai, two amphorai would cost in the neighbourhood of forty drachmai, and that would not be an unreasonable price for a rich man for a special occasion.1973, T[homas] B[ertram] L[onsdale] Webster, Athenian Culture and Society, London: Batsford, →ISBN, page 137
2. (historical) A Roman unit of liquid measure reckoned as the volume of 80 Roman pounds of wine and equivalent to about 26 L although differing slightly over time.

   Synonyms:

   Roman amphora, quadrantal, amphora quadrantal

3. (historical) A Roman unit of ship capacity, similar to tonnage.
4. A lower valve of a fruit that opens transversely.