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Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary: The New Testament Greek word: ληνος
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Source: https://www.abarim-publications.com/DictionaryG/l/l-et-n-o-sfin.html

ληνος

Abarim Publications' online Biblical Greek Dictionary

ληνος

The noun ληνος (lenos) describes a large through, for cattle to drink from (as in Septuagint's version of Genesis 30:38), or to collect grapes in to tread them into wine (which is the sole meaning of our word in the New Testament: it is used 5 times in 4 verses; see full concordance).

The core idea of this word is receiving or collecting. In rare and poetic occasions in the classics, it could also describe the socket of a ship's mast, a coffin or even the lower parts of the nose.

It's unclear where this word comes from, but here at Abarim Publications we privately suspect relations with the Hebrew word לון (lun), to spend the night in a public inn.

From this word derives:

  • Together with υπο (hupo), meaning under, beneath, through: the noun υποληνιον (hupolenion), which describes the juice receptacle underneath the vat in which grapes are trodden into wine. This word occurs in Mark 12:1 only.