Greek word etymology thread

It's not conquering. It comes from Polis + Herkos, meaning "closing the city", ie laying siege. "Poliorcétique" is the techniques of siege.




French has a lot of greek roots, and many latin of course.

Somwhat similar meaning, although i was not conscious of the words it breaks up to, thanks :)

Infact "Herkos" seems to have dissappeared from use, at least at this moment i cannot think of any other word with that root.
 
So a 'cacodemon' is a bad demon? Well, thieves here are called 'cacos'. Maybe that's where it comes from!
 
So a 'cacodemon' is a bad demon? Well, thieves here are called 'cacos'. Maybe that's where it comes from!

That's very possible :)

Here are some more works i thought of:

Idolatry (i think it is also spelled Idololatry?) : comes from Eidolon (idol) and Latria (worship). Thus it is the worship of idols. An idol, i think, was a typically small replica of a deity, used for daily praying in the pre-christian world.

idiosyncracy: Comes from idea (idea) and syncroto, which is a verb that means "comprise/synthesize". Synkroto is itself a complex word, and probably breaks up to Syn (plus) and croteo, which i am not sure what it means, but it can be derived from that that it should mean "amass".

Hippopotamus: A very nice little word. I bet most of you didnt know it comes from Hippos (horse) and Potamos (river), thus making it a river-horse :D
 
Actually, I thought that it came from 'hipo' -under- + potamos, which I already knew to be a river from 'Mesopotamia'.
 
Wow classical hero, those are really very ancient :)

Hm, difficult to analyse too.

Catastrophe seems to come from Kata (has many meanings, but mostly means "towards") and Strophe, which means (at least in modern greek) "turn". Such terms do nto seem very intelligible in their etymology, but perhaps the ancients had other ideas about them.

I wasnt sure of Cataclysm either, but i looked at my dictionary and it says it comes from Kata and Klyzo (Κλύζω) the latter meaning "to fill with water". So a Cataclysm in its original sense is the covering of the earth with water :)
 
Ergo, Cataclysm= flood.

What about a Catalyst?
 
Catamite ?

Didnt know of this word, but i searched online now and it says that:

Etymology: Latin catamitus, from Catamitus Ganymede, from Etruscan Catmite, from Greek Ganymēdēs

As for Ganymede, Wikipedia has this to mention:

In Greek mythology, Ganymede, or Ganymedes (Greek: Γανυμήδης, Ganymēdēs), is a divine hero whose homeland was Troy. He was a prince, son of the eponymous Tros of Dardania and of Callirrhoe, and brother of Ilus and Assaracus. Ganymede was the most attractive of mortals, which led Zeus to abduct him, in the form of an eagle, to serve as cup-bearer to the gods. For the etymology of his name, Robert Graves' The Greek Myths offers ganyesthai + medea, "rejoicing in virility".
 
kata = down; strepho = I turn.

Therefore katastrepho is "I turn down" or "I turn round" or "I bring to an end" or "I die" in decreasing order of literalness.

Therefore katastrophe came to be a dramatic term for what you get at the end of a Greek tragedy.


Klyzo = I wash over (as in waves).
Therefore with the prefix kata (down) it comes to mean a deluge.
 
Ergo, Cataclysm= flood.

What about a Catalyst?

A Catalyst is an agent that has a crucial effect on the development of something. Comes from Cata and probably Lyo, but those two words together can mean "to destroy", which is exactly what another word of the same root, Catalyo, means. Lyo, in modern greek, means "untie; solve", but perhaps it had another meaning in ancient greek.
 
Time for some words made by non-greeks :)

Telephone. Comes from Tele (Remember Telemach?) which means "from afar" and Phone, which means voice. So it is a voice from afar, quite poetic :)

Btw Telemach should mean he who fights from a distance, keeps a distance when fighting.

Astronaut. Comes from Aster/Astron (Αστήρ) which means "Star" and Nautes (sailor). So it is a sailor of the stars :)
 
Oh please, a child would know those two.
 
From kinesis (move) and therapeytes (healer). I suspect these break into simpler words...do you know of any such further etymology? :)

I now checked the dictionary and it has nothing for therapeia (healing) apart from the information that it is an ancient word.

Another such word is Ch(e)iropractor,from Cheira (hand) and pratto (to act; possibly it has other meanings too in the ancient language) :)
 
Anything with 'therpay' or a similar word comes from that root.
Well i gave you Telemachos as well, from Mache (battle), as in Titanomachia ;)
And Gigantomachia, too ;)
 
Does 'tome' share anything with 'theme', i.e. the administrative/military divisions in the Byzantine Empire?
 
Back
Top Bottom