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Interesting Etymologies 49.2 : Greek







"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:


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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.


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