"Hello again Word Lovers!"
We plough on with Greek and start with types of people and relations between people:
Aner: (andros, anthropos) meaning man - words such as androgynous, philander and philanthropy
Gyne is the corresponding prefix for woman -for example misogyny and if we combine gyne and logia (study) we get the word gynaecology
Pais, pados: child giving us pedagogue pais + agogos "guide" (originally a slave who accompanied the child to school).
Gamos - marriage: monogamy with one, bigamy - with two polygamy -with many
Genos - family, race. This is seen in gentle, engender. We see this emerge in Spanish as well with gente meaning people. Gentile to mean of high rank or noble birth comes into Latin too. Gentleman can be seen as following this root. This is also seen in
Ethnos - race, ethnicity, ethnic
Demos - a people: democracy, epidemic, demographics
Archos - a word for chief but also old or primative - archais, archaeology, arch-enemy, archbishop
Numbers
Monos - one, alone : monoplane, monotone
Dis or di - two or twice or double : dichromatic, digraph
Amphi - (Latin ambi) about, around or both: ambidextrous, amphitheatre
Treis - three: triangle, trigonometry
Tetra - Four: Tetrahedron combined with hedra for seat, base or chair
Other numbers come through Latin including:
Deca - ten: decimate, decalogue, decimal, decibel
Greek fades from our number system although a thousand in Greek is Chilioi which we still see in kilogram or kilowatt for example
Academia
Academia was in fact a place, a grove where philosophers talked. The garden of the public gym in Athens
Philos - love of - Philosopher (Philos and Sophia) love of wisdom, bibliophile, love of books, Philadelphia the city of brotherly love (Philos - love and Adelphos - Brother)
Logos - word or study to create many words in English : theology, dialogue
Nomos - laws, science : astronomy, gastronomy, economy
Grapho - write: telegraph, lithograph
Hydor - water: hydraulics, hydrophobia, hydrant
Morph - form: metamorphosis -to change form, amorphous - to not have form (a - is no or none from Greek)
Neos - new, young, neolithic, (new stone age - lithos is stone) neophyte neo fascist
Pathos - suffering: allopathy, pathology, sympathy, empathy
Phaino - show, be visible: diaphanous, phenomenon, epiphany, fantastic
Phobos - for fear. The list of phobes is enormous but contrasts with phile for love. Check out our article on philes and their unusual obsessions
Phone - sound: telephone (sound from far away) symphony (all sounding together)
Phos - light: phosphorous, photograph
Physis - nature: physiognomy, physiology
Plasma - Form, cataplasm, protoplasm
Polis - city: policy, politics, metropolitan
Bios - life: biology, autobiography and amphibious (both kinds of life as a literal adaptation from the Greek prefix and suffix)
Ge - is earth: geography, geometry
Gramma - writing: monogram, grammar
Techne - art: technology, architect
Zoon - animal: zoology, protozoa, zodiac
Tithenai/Thesis - a place, placing or arrangement: Thesis, epithet, hypothesis, anathema
Explore the full Interesting Etymologies series archive here
As well as being the host of our Interesting Etymologies series, Charly Taylor is a stand up comedian and author. His latest offering is available now:
SkipDeLirio's Worst Ever Gig : A novel by Charly Taylor
Caesar’s army has returned from the long campaign in Gaul and the enemy has been all but defeated. Some of Pompey’s army, however, remains in Africa. Together with straggling Roman rebels and the local king Juba, they are gathering forces to prepare one last attack on what is now Caesar’s Rome. But there is one problem – a descendant of Scipio Africanus is fighting on the side of the Africans. And without a Scipio of their own, the superstitious Romans refuse to go to Africa to fight.
So Caesar sends out soldiers to find himself a Scipio. Luckily, there is a man of such name right there in Rome – a local drunkard and tavern entertainer distantly descended from the legendary warrior. Kidnapped solely on account of his ‘heritage’, the lowly clown is forced to lead out the troops in the battle of Thapsus. There, ‘history’ tells us, Scipio ‘disappears from the historical record’.
Until now.
This is the story of how ‘Nobody’ Skip DeLirio, with the cards finally all dealt in his favour, still managed to fuck it up. History will only take you so far. The rest is make-believe.
Order your copy here