Questions tagged [greek]
Topics related to the Greek roots of English, Greek loanwords, and etymologies thereof.
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Specialty / academic word for "mind-breaking"
This will have to be an imperfect premise, given my memory is a bit hazy on the details. What I recall is some PhD was talking about interesting words that came from Greek, one of which meant "to ...
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“Crone” and “Crony”
Looking at the etymology of crone, a derogatory term for an old frail woman, we see it is a Late Middle English word, derived from Middle Dutch croonje, caroonje ‘carcass, old ewe’ with possible ties ...
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What is an English term for "an event that triggers a chain of events, ultimately to downfall"? [duplicate]
I'm trying to incorporate more technical literary terms into my Macbeth revision for my upcoming exam. I've discovered terms such as Hamartia, Catharsis, Peripeteia, etc.
What would be a good word to ...
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Seeking an alternate way of referring to a "15-year ordeal"
Triskaidekaphobia has become a recognized, economical alternative to fear of the number thirteen. Is there anything that could convey a comparably concise impression of a decade-and-a-half ordeal? ...
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Nous vs Noos in English [closed]
While searching online I found that nous is a Greek term that means intellect, intelligence, mind...etc. Also, in some sources, I found that noos is an alternative spelling of nous.
Is "nous"...
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What Greek preposition is in “exorcism”, “ek” or “ex”?
I realize this may not be typical for this forum, but I have seen the term translated to English in another post.
I find exorcism explained with "ek" with the verb "horkizo”
The word “...
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English verbs derived from ἄρχω (árkhō)?
I'm a historian, so this isn't my speciality. I'm looking into the etymology of "to lead" and related verbs. Since there are numerous verbs with some similarity but vastly different ...
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Should we pronounce "Macedonia" with a hard k?
I know that many words loaned from Greek to English have gone through a transition from a hard-k kappa to a soft sibilant sound. For example, English "cybernetics" comes from Greek "...
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Is there a difference between the adverbs “Melancholily” and “Melancholically”?
Melancholia is an old and quite beautiful word which describes a depressed state. It was used as a noun in the same way that “depression” is currently used - and in the medical field was a diagnosis ...
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Why 'd' in 'Aeneid'?
The Latin poem Aeneis is Aeneid in English. How did the last d come about?
A few suspects by quick search:
/ð/ → /d/ shift in English, but there must be a shift /s/ → /ð/.
It seems romance languages ...
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I'm looking for a word that describes a thing that looks like another thing (both inanimate). Is there one…?
I thought up pragmamorphism but somebody beat me to the punch with an anthropocentric definition that I was trying to avoid. I’ve looked at a couple of other Ancient Greek word constructs, but outside ...
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Why do so many prefixes end with -o? (Visio, linguo) [closed]
At first I was wondering about “Deleuzoguattarian” but then I saw the Wiktionary list: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_prefixes which is quite striking.
The answers in Origin of ...
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Among these translations of the Bible, which one has the meaning of being intoxicated?
Biblehub contains various translations of John 2:10. For example, in https://biblehub.com/john/2-10.htm. Some translations use phrases like:
too much to drink
a lot to drink
drunk freely
are drunk
...
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Semantic connection behind the etymology of "category?"
Ancient Greek had agora, from which they got the verb agorevo, meaning to speak in public assembly. From this in turn they derived kategoreo, meaning to speak against someone, to accuse someone of ...
user16723
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Neolog / prefix for use with bubble+ology [closed]
I want to coin a word that means the study of financial bubbles. After learning that Bubbleology is some kind of metropolitan tea beverage, my immediate hunch of "Bubbleology" lost a great ...
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When did the word "demon" (for evil spirit) come into popular usage in the English language?
The English word "demon" has been found throughout the New Testament in modern bible translations since the 19th century. However, in the 16th and 17th century and earlier (Tyndale Bible, ...
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Is there a term to describe a human who has been turned into an animal by some external force or actor?
I am compiling a database of deities, mythological creatures, fairy tale or folkloric beings, and other similar entities, complete with categorisation based on various factors. In doing so, I have ...
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Synonyms for "impact ventilation" and "cross ventilation" of (West) Germanic roots (dead / alive / old / new)
A German "end of the year" 2020 overview of absurdities and rather funny trends mentions British "Corona talk" about the German words
Stoßlüften = impact ventilation,
Querlüften = ...
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Why do some words containing a form of “philia” have it at the beginning and some have it at the end?
There are words like “philosophy”, “philology”, “philanthropy”; these have a form of “philia” at the beginning. Why don't these words have it at the end?
Also, there are words like “haemophilia”, “...
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A toned down term to replace "orthodoxy" in sociology of art
I think this community could help me a lot. In sociology of culture the term orthodoxy refers to ideas held by most and imposed by cultural institutions, so that the "doxa", or opinion, is ...
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What does the -mate suffix mean and where does it come from?
What does the suffix "-mate" mean? It makes a word into a verb, like with automate or decimate, but does it actually have a meaning? Is it perhaps Greek for "to make" or something?
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Is using the plural form (in place of the original singular) of these Latin/Greek loan words acceptable?
The following Latin/Greek singular vs. plural errors make me cringe every time:
bacterium - bacteria
criterion - criteria
millennium - millennia
phenomenon - phenomena
It's extremely typical for an ...
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Word for "of or to do with groups"
I appreciate this is somewhat arbitrary, but humour me! I am trying to come up with a term that describes the following...
I am working with "groups" of people. This is the informal definition, ...
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What is the proper prefix meaning "bone" or "skeleton"?
There are many borrowed words from Greek and Latin that are used as prefixes in English.
Examples: pyro- relating to fire, hydro- relating to water, geo- relating to the earth etc.
What is the ...
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Latin/Greek morpheme meaning 'fundamental'?
Is there a Latin or Greek prefix or suffix out there that can be added to a word to make it mean the fundamental from which everything is derived?
Here's an example. You've got linguistics, that is ...
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Numeral prefixes of tidal constituents [closed]
If tidal constituents with frequencies of one, two, three, and four cycles per day (respectively, periods of one, a half, a third, and a fourth of a day) were to be termed systematically based on ...
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Where did the English 'indefinite article' come from, and why?
I came across a previous question (Why does English have an indefinite article ?) about the origins of the English indefinite article which question was closed due to it being posed in an - ironically ...
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Word for knowing what to do and not doing it
I think most will agree it's a really common human condition:
Knowing what to do and not doing it.
I recently found a word that describes this condition and now have lost that word. I would ...
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What is the Greek etymology for "-on" in words like "proton" and "neutron"? [closed]
Google says "proton" is from "protos" and "-on" ("first" + "being"), or "πρῶτος" and "?". What is the "-on" in Greek, is it "ὤν" or "ἐν" or something?
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Term for anticipating counterarguments and rebutting them
There's this term for the rhetorical device of anticipating counterarguments and rebutting them, but I simply can't remember it.
Now I know what you're thinking - did you try googling it? Well I did,...
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Why doesn't English employ an H in front of Ares?
While watching the movie The Martian, a question arose regarding the name Ares:
Greek Gods were metaphrased into Latin when Romans took over. Ares (from the Greek Άρης) was now named Mars, and so on. ...
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Spelling of helium vs beryllium
Why is one of those spelled with a single L and not the other?
For the etymology of Beryllium name it's unclear but could be either Greek or Latin, and Helium is named after Helios (so Greek here).
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Does "angular cheilitis" have any more commonly used synonyms than "perlèche" or "rhagades" which regular people would recognize?
The field of medical pathology uses the term angular cheilitis. I’m looking for a common word or phrase to use in place of this highly specialized technical term that I fear is likely to be known only ...
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How can James Joyce's 'word' “egourge” be seen, via Greek, as “worker for the self” or "self-employed"?
In Finnegans Wake, James Joyce uses the 'word' egourge (p.g. 49-50), which syntactically yields ego-urge, which makes sense semantically.
Finnwake.com claims that egourge also derives from "egoourgos ...
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How did a Greek 'table' become an English 'trapeze'?
I had cause to investigate the word trapeza in Greek and I was intrigued as to how it had evolved into the meaning of 'trapeze' as we use it in modern English.
How did this happen ?
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What rules govern the romanisation of Greek υ
English is troubled by what appears to be an unsystematic plethora of spelling rules, not to mention the rules for pronunciation. In general, there seems to be a consensus on how Greek and Latin is ...
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Connection between the words Apollo, Apollyon, and Apologise [closed]
I've tried researching this topic before, in re Apollo, the Greek god son of Leto and Zeus and twin brother of Artemis, and its possible connection with the "angel of the bottomless pit" as referenced ...
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In search of the origins of term censor, I hit a dead end stuck with the greek term, to censor, λογοκρίνω
I have been looking in OED for a history that makes sense, yet, I just find crumbs, and I can not piece the history of this term. I am hitting a dead end researching the greek term to censor, named ...
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What is the opposite of "eschatology"?
Eschatology is the study or philosophy of formation of ideas about the end of things, apparently derived from the Greek ἔσχατος meaning "last" and -λογία meaning "study of".
What ...
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What's the relationship of Ursa Minor/Little Dipper to dogs? [closed]
Recently happened again upon the word "cynosure" and noted it's Greek etymology, e.g. from Wordsmith.org:
Originally the term was applied to the constellation Ursa Minor or the North Star (Polaris) ...
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Fill in the blank: "I say this with no _____ of pride" (Answer was "modicum")
To help make this all make sense, there is a word I am looking for--I can hear it in my mind and I can say it with my lips. But I can find no source.
The phrase I hear is, "I say this with no ...
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Shouldn't “some of the phenomenon” be plural?
The paragraph:
Our team conducts fundamental research in Philosophy, trying to push
the boundaries of what is possible with new techniques, and also trying
to understand and formalize some of ...
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What is the word for when something is currently unavailable?
I think it starts with L (also maybe latin origin)
For example I'm waiting to get a package but I'm not even sure package has been even sent. So package is in L... (maybe not best example, I'm not ...
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Opposite of '-cracy/-archy'?
Something + -cracy/-archy (“strength, power”) produces a word meaning ‘rule by those who are/have/were whatever the something is’. For example, ‘plutocracy’ is pluto- (“wealth”) + -cracy and means ‘...
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'Androcracy'/'gynocracy' are hyponyms of, and 'oligocracy'/'oligarchy' is a hypernym of, what term?
What is the term for an oligocratic/oligarchic political system—one in which power is held by a subset of the overall population—where the power allocation is based on one's sex?
A society run by men ...
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Status of 'hypophora' as a word
I participate in other SE forums where it's common practice for experienced or knowledgeable participants to simultaneously submit both a question and an answer. This can be very helpful in technical ...
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Is there an etymological explanation for the silent ‘g’ in “paradigm”?
Whenever I come across the word paradigm, I have to make a small conscious effort not to pronounce the letter ‘g’.
In Italian, it is spelled paradigma and each letter is individually pronounced i.e. ...
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The etymology of 'substance'. Does it mean 'sub'-'stance'?
I am aware of the etymological fallacy and aware that the fallacy itself, also, does not always hold good. In other words, a word's pedigree may, or may not, be the reason it means what it means, ...
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English equivalent of Greek "Έλα ντε;"
I kind of use this phrase a lot when speaking Greek, and sometimes I feel the need to say it when speaking English as well but cannot think of a good candidate, as a non native English speaker, I also ...
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Pronouncing "collacon"
What might be the correct pronunciation of the word collacon: KOL.a.kon or KOL.a.son? A collacon being a compilation of brief details related to a subject. Seemingly coined (collection + laconia = ...
