4+1 words that have greek origins accompanied by small facts!
For Etymology Lovers—->Ancient& Modern Greek
4+1 words that have greek origins accompanied by small facts!
Here you are!
You speak Greek but you don’t know it
This article is specially written for those who love Modern Greek or even Ancient Greek. You will soon find out that English words you use in your everyday life are Greek!
The etymology is here, to show you how!
- Harmony: It derives from the Greek ἁρμονία harmonia, meaning “joint, agreement, concord”, from the verb ἁρμόζω harmozō, “(Ι) fit together, join”.
FACT: Did you know that the letter “h” in front of the word, that isn’t pronounced, was a diacritic above the first letter of the word in ancient greek (ἁ ρμόζω) in order to show the thickness in the accent?
The first one who used the word was one of the earliest philosophers, Heraclitus, who said that: “Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony”.
- Dilemma: It derives from di= “two” (in greek δύο) di- + lemma “premise, anything received or taken), from root of lambanein (in greek λαμβάνειν) “to take”. It meansa “choice between two undesirable alternatives”.
FACT: Ιf a human has no internal conflictions or he doesn’t accept external pressure, he is truly free. But the human being is tortured both from internal pressure and external pressure. So human cannot be considered truly free.
- Dialogue or dialog: The term dialogue stems from the Greek διάλογος (dialogos, conversation). Its roots are διά (dia: through) and λόγος (logos: speech, reason).
Socrates (=Σωκράτης)
FACT: Socrates was the first philosopher to use dialogue as a method to approach and extract truth from his interlocuter, the truth that doesn’t change and is above human and social circumstances.
- Politics: The term derives from the greek word poli (=πόλη), which means city and includes the set of actions and ideas related to public affairs, the governance of a city or a state.
Aristoteles (=Αριστοτέλης)
(Image from Wikipedia)
FACT: The English politics has its roots in the name of Aristotle‘s classic work, Politiká, which introduced the Greek term politiká (Πολιτικά, ‘affairs of the cities’).
- Dolphin: It comes from the ancient greek word delphis (=δελφύς) which means uterus, the place where each mammal grows.
(Image from Wikipedia)
FACT: The word is related to the word delphix (= δέλφαξ) which means little pig and rather describes the pig of the sea because of the similarity of the dolphin with it.