Ctesiphon

From Latin Ctēsiphōn, from Ancient Greek Κτησιφῶν (Ktēsiphôn).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛsɪfɒn/, /ˈstɛsɪfɒn/

Ctesiphon

1. (historical) An ancient capital of Parthia and later of the Sassanid Persian Empire, on the Tigris near Baghdad in present-day Iraq, abandoned in the 7th and 8th centuries.
   • 1947, Robert Frost, “The Ingenuities of Debt”, in Steeple Bush:

     These I assume were words so deeply meant / They cut themselves in stone for permanent / Like trouble in the brow above the eyes: / ‘Take Care to Sell Your Horse before He Dies / The Art of Life Is Passing Losses on.’ / The city saying it was Ctesiphon, / Which may a little while by war and trade / Have kept from being caught with the decayed, / Infirm, worn-out, and broken on its hands; […]

• Sasanian Empire on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Siege of Ctesiphon (637) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Muslim conquest of Persia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• phonetics, sphenotic

• Ctēsifōn (Vulgate spelling)

From Ancient Greek Κτησιφῶν (Ktēsiphôn). In Old Latin, it was declined as Ctēsiphōn, Ctēsiphōnis.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkteː.si.pʰoːn/, [ˈkt̪eːs̠ɪpʰoːn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkte.si.fon/, [ˈkt̪ɛːs̬ifon]

Ctēsiphōn f sg (genitive Ctēsiphōntis); third declension

1. Ctesiphon (the ancient capital of Parthia, in modern Iraq)

Third-declension noun, with locative, singular only.

• “Ctesiphon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Ctesiphon in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.