Quick Definition
ἀρτέμων, ονος, ὁ n.m. a foresail, set on the bow
Strong's Definition
from a derivative of 737; properly, something ready (or else more remotely from 142 (compare 740); something hung up), i.e. (specially) the topsail (rather foresail or jib) of a vessel
KJV Usage: mainsail
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament
noun, m. | -ωνος
6.49 · Artifacts · Boats and Parts of Boats
sail a cloth attached above a boat in such a way as to catch the wind and thus propel the boat through the water In ACT 27:40 (the only occurrence of ἀρτέμων in the NT) the reference may be to the foresail, that is, a relatively small sail toward the prow of the ship. A sail may be described in some languages as ‘a piece of cloth to make the ship move’ or ‘cloth on the ship to catch the wind.’
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
ἀρτέμων, -ovos (LT Tr WH -avos, cf. W. 8 9,1d.; [B. 24 (22)]), 6, top-sail [or foresail?] of a ship: Acts xxvii. 40; cf. Meyer ad loc.; [esp. Smith, Voyage and Shipwr. of St. Paul, p. 192 sq.; Graser in the Philologus, 3d suppl. 1865, p. 201 sqq. ].
Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary
ἀρτέμων artemōn 1x
a topsail, foresail; or, according to others, the dolon of Pliny and Pollux, a small sail near the bow of the ship, which was hoisted when the wind was too strong to use the larger sails, Acts 27:40*
Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon
*† ἀρτέμων, -ωνος (Rec. -ονος), ὁ
(< ἀρτάω, to fasten to),
a fore-sail or top-sail: Ac 27:40 (v. DB, ext., 366b, 399a; MM, s.v.).†
Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT
ἀρτέμων. What particular sail is to be understood by ἀ. in Ac 274° is uncertain. Sir W. M. Ramsay (Hastings’ D&B V. p. 399) refers to the case mentioned by Juvenal (Sa¢ 1259) where a disabled ship made its way into harbour welo prorva suo, which the scholiast explains avtemone solo. According to this, the ἀρτέμων would be a sail set on the bow. See also Breusing Die Nautik der Alten, p. 79 f. (cited by Preuschen, ad Ac 274° in HZN7).
Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon
ἀρτέμων (artemōn) — foresail. ἀρτέμ-ων, ονος, ὁ, (ἀρτάω) foresail of a ship, [NT+6th c.AD+]
II. principal pulley in a system, [Refs 1st c.BC+]