Etymology: < classical Latin amphitheātrum (also amphitheāter) oval or circular theatre having the stage or arena in the centre (1st cent. b.c.) < Hellenistic Greek ἀμϕιθέατρον (1st cent. b.c.) < ancient Greek ἀμϕι- amphi- prefix + θέατρον theatre n. Compare Middle French amphitheatre (13th cent. in Old French as afiteatre; French amphithéatre), Spanish anfiteatro (c1270 as amphitheatro), Portuguese anfiteatro (15th cent.), Italian anfiteatro (1565), and also Middle High German amphitheatrum (German Amphitheater, †Amphitheatrum).A Roman theatre was semicircular in shape; the oval structure of the amphitheatre resembled two such theatres joined together. The Latin and Greek words both first appear during the reign of the Emperor Augustus, in the 1st cent. b.c. Previously classical Latin spectācula (plural: see spectacle n.¹) was used to denote a building of this type (e.g. with reference to the earliest preserved amphitheatre, in Pompeii). It is generally agreed that the type of building and the games that took place in it were of Italic origin; there is no precedent in Greece. In the Old English form anfiteatra after the Latin nominative and accusative plural form amphitheātra.

Etymology: < amphitheatre n.