List of English words of Greek origin


This is a list of some English words of Greek origin. Greek words make up some 25% of the English language, so this list is necessarily incomplete. Probably the earliest Greek word to make its way into English — though admittedly indirectly — is bishop, from the Greek episkopos. Unlike later borrowings, which came from a written, learned tradition, bishop was transmitted through vernaculars, so its English spelling does not reflect its Greek form. Other words from this early period include priest from presbyter and church from kyriakos Until the 16th century, the few Greek words that were absorbed into English came through their Latin derivatives. Most of the early borrowings are for expressions in theology for which there were no English equivalents. In the late 16th century an influx of Greek words were derived directly, in intellectual fields and the new science. In the 19th and 20th centuries a few learned words and phrases were introduced using a more or less direct transliteration of Ancient Greek (rather than the traditional Latin-based orthography) for instance nous, hoi polloi. Finally with the growth of tourism, some words, mainly reflecting aspects of current Greek life, have been introduced with orthography reflecting Modern Greek, for instance taverna.

Recognising words derived from Greek

It is useful to know which words are of Greek origin, since it gives a guide to likely spelling, pronunciation and inflection. In some cases, a word's spelling clearly shows its Greek origin. If it includes ph or includes y between consonants, it is likely to be Greek. If it includes rrh, phth, or chth, or starts with hy, ps-, pn-, or chr-, or the rarer pt-, ct-, chth-, rh-, x-, sth-, or bd-, then it is with very few exceptions Greek. Exceptions include: ptarmigan, scythe. In English, Greek prefixes and suffixes are usually attached to Greek stems, but some have become productive in English, and will combine with other stems, so we now have not only metaphor (good Greek word) and metamathematics (modern word using Greek roots), but also metalinguistic (Greek prefix, Latin stem). In clusters such as ps- at the start of a word the usual English pronunciation drops the first consonant; initial x is pronounced z. Ch is pronounced like k rather than as in "church" (e.g. character). Consecutive vowels are often pronounced separately rather than forming a single vowel sound or one of them becoming silent (e.g. hierarchy, contrast priest).

Plurals

The plurals of learned Greek-derived words sometimes follow the Greek rules: phenomenon, phenomena; tetrahedron, tetrahedra; but often do not: colon, colons not cola (except for the very rare technical term of rhetoric); pentathlon, pentathlons not pentathla; demon, demons not demones. Usage is mixed in some cases: schema, schemas or schemata; lexicon, lexicons or lexica. And there are misleading cases: pentagon is not an -on noun in Greek.

See also

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A

B

C

D

E

F

fantasy

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

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