Word Summary
Syrtis: "shoal", Syrtis, the name of two large sandbanks on the Lybian coast
Original Word: ΣύρτιςTransliteration: Syrtis
Phonetic Spelling: (soor'-tis)
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Short Definition: "shoal", Syrtis, the name of two large sandbanks on the Lybian coast
Meaning: Syrtis -- "shoal", the name of two large sandbanks on the Lybian coast
Strong's Concordance
quicksands, Syrtis
From suro; a shoal (from the sand drawn thither by the waves), i.e. The Syrtis Major or great bay on the north coast of Africa -- quicksands.
see GREEK suro
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 4950: ΣύρτιςΣύρτις (Lachmann
Σύρτις; cf.
Tdf. Proleg., p. 103;
Chandler § 650),
Συρτισεως, accusative
Σύρτιν,
ἡ (
σύρω, which see (others from Arabic
sert, i. e. 'desert'; others besides, see
Pape, Eigennamen, under the word)),
Syrtis, the name of two places in the African or Libyan Sea between Carthage and Cyrenaica, full of shallows and sandbanks, and therefore destructive to ships; the western Syrtis, between the islands Cercina and Meninx (or the promontories of Zeitha and Brachodes), was called
Syrtis minor, the eastern (extending from the promontory of Cephalae on the
Winers Grammar, to that of Boreum on the E.) was called
Syrtis major (sinus Psyllicus); this latter must be the one referred to in
Acts 27:17, for upon this the ship in which Paul was sailing might easily be cast after leaving Crete. (Cf.
B. D. under the word
.)