asarotum

[ as-uh-roh-tuhm ]

noun

, plural as·a·ro·ta [as-, uh, -, roh, -t, uh].

1. (in ancient Roman architecture) a painted pavement.

Word History and Origins

Origin of asarotum¹

Latinization of neuter singular of Greek asárōtos literally, unswept (once in Pliny, designating a floor paved in mosaic resembling table scraps), equivalent to a- a- ⁶ + sarō-, verbid stem of saroûn to sweep clean + -tos verbal adjective suffix

Example Sentences

When I had read those inscriptions, I admired the beauty of the temple, and particularly the disposition of its pavement, with which no work that is now, or has been under the cope of heaven, can justly be compared; not that of the Temple of Fortune at Praeneste in Sylla's time, or the pavement of the Greeks, called asarotum, laid by Sosistratus at Pergamus.

From Project Gutenberg