Amerias was an ancient Macedonian

Ancient Macedonians

The Macedonians originated from inhabitants of the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, in the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axios...

 lexicographer, known for his compilation of a glossary titled Gloss

Gloss

A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....

ai ( , terms or words). Αnother of his works was called Rhizotomikos (), an etymological treatise.

Words of Amerias have survived in the writings of Hesychius

Hesychius of Alexandria

Hesychius of Alexandria , a grammarian who flourished probably in the 5th century CE, compiled the richest lexicon of unusual and obscure Greek words that has survived...

 and Athenaeus

Athenaeus

Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...

.

From the titles and the wording of Athenaeus, it is evident that Amerias did not write an exclusively Macedonian dictionary. He included in his Glossai a Homeric

Homeric Greek

Homeric Greek is the form of the Greek language that was used by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is an archaic version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects, such as Aeolic Greek. It later served as the basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry, typically in...

 vocabulary as well, as with most of the Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

n grammarians. The only marked Macedonian term, given by Hesychius, is sauadai, saudoi, silenoi

Silenus

In Greek mythology, Silenus was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus.-Evolution of the character:The original Silenus resembled a folklore man of the forest with the ears of a horse and sometimes also the tail and legs of a horse...

. Athenaeus calls him many times Amerias the Macedonian but it is Seleucus of Alexandria

Seleucus of Alexandria

Seleucus of Alexandria was a Roman-era Grammarian. He was nicknamed 'Homeric'. He was a sophist in Rome . He commented on pretty well all the poets, wrote a number of exegetical and miscellaneous works, the titles of which are given by Suidas . There are some other in significant persons of this...

 who is quoted with the Macedonian bread dramis, while Amerias in the same chapter is quoted with the bread ξηροπυρίτας, xeropyritas. The suffix -as indicates a Doric

Doric Greek

Doric or Dorian was a dialect of ancient Greek. Its variants were spoken in the southern and eastern Peloponnese, Crete, Rhodes, some islands in the southern Aegean Sea, some cities on the coasts of Asia Minor, Southern Italy, Sicily, Epirus and Macedon. Together with Northwest Greek, it forms the...

 word, as badas and rhappaulas but they are not reported as Macedonian; they may be, they may be not. Words that resemble the Macedonian sound-law of Hesychius are: badas (Attic batalos), kalithos (Attic khalis), grabion and kalarrhugai, while Bathale, pekhari, scheron, tetholos, hyphainein, as well the suffix -thos of kalithos, contradict it.

In any case, since Amerias is the only ancient proper grammarian and lexicographer, who is quoted as Macedonian, his Glossary is regarded generally as Macedonian at least of 4th to 3rd century BC.

Other sources

• Amerias der Makedone by Otto Hoffmann