English words of Greek origin

The Greek language has contributed to the English lexicon in five main ways:
* vernacular borrowings, transmitted orally through Vulgar Latin directly into Old English, ''e.g.'', 'butter' (, from Latin < ), or through French, ''e.g.'', 'ochre';
* learned borrowings from classical Greek texts, often via Latin, ''e.g.'', 'physics' (< Latin < );
* a few borrowings transmitted through other languages, notably Arabic scientific and philosophical writing, ''e.g.'', 'alchemy' (< );
* direct borrowings from Modern Greek, ''e.g.'', 'ouzo' ();
* neologisms (coinages) in post-classical Latin or modern languages using classical Greek roots, ''e.g.'', 'telephone' (< + ) or a mixture of Greek and other roots, ''e.g.'', 'television' (< Greek + English ''vision'' < Latin ); these are often shared among the modern European languages, including Modern Greek.

Of these, the neologisms are by far the most numerous.

Indirect and direct borrowings

Since the living Greek and English languages were not in direct contact until modern times, borrowings were necessarily indirect, coming either through Latin (through texts or through French and other vernaculars), or from Ancient Greek texts, not the living spoken language.Tom McArthur, ed., ''The Oxford companion to the English language'', 1992, , ''s.v.'' 'Greek', p. 453-454

Vernacular borrowings

Romance languages

Some Greek words were borrowed into Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. English often received these words from French. Some have remained very close to the Greek original, ''e.g.,'' ''lamp'' (Latin ; Greek ). In others, the phonetic and orthographic form has changed considerably. For instance, ''place'' was borrowed both by Old English and by French from Latin , itself borrowed from , 'broad (street)'; the Italian and Spanish have the same origin, and have been borrowed into English in parallel.

The word ''olive'' comes through the Romance from the Latin , which in turn comes from the archaic Greek ''elaíwā'' (). A later Greek word, ''boútȳron'' (), becomes Latin and eventually English ''butter''. A large group of early borrowings, again transmitted first through Latin, then through various vernaculars, comes from Christian vocabulary:

* ''chair'' << (''cf.'' ' cathedra');
* ''bishop'' << ''epískopos'' ( 'overseer');
* ''priest'' << ''presbýteros'' ( 'elder'); and

In some cases, the orthography of these words was later changed to reflect the Greek—and Latin—spelling: ''e.g.'', ''quire'' was respelled as ''choir'' in the 17th century. Sometimes this was done incorrectly: ''ache'' is from a Germanic root; the spelling ''ache'' reflects Samuel Johnson's incorrect etymology from .

Other

Exceptionally, ''church'' came into Old English as ''cirice'', ''circe'' via a West Germanic language. The Greek form was probably ''kȳriakḗ'' 'oikía''( 'lord's ouse). In contrast, the Romance languages generally used the Latin words or , both borrowed from Greek.

Learned borrowings

Many more words were borrowed by scholars writing in Medieval and Renaissance Latin. Some words were borrowed in essentially their original meaning, often transmitted through Classical Latin: ''topic'', ''type'', ''physics'', ''iambic'', ''eta'', '' necromancy'', ''cosmopolite''. A few result from scribal errors: ''encyclopedia'' < 'the circle of learning' (not a compound in Greek); ''acne'' < (erroneous) < 'high point, acme'. Some kept their Latin form, ''e.g.'', ''podium'' < .

Others were borrowed unchanged as technical terms, but with specific, novel meanings:

* ''telescope'' < 'far-seeing', refers to an optical instrument for seeing far away rather than a person who can see far into the distance;
* '' phlogiston'' < 'burnt thing', is a supposed fire-making potential rather than something which has been burned, or can be burned; and
* ''bacterium'' < 'stick (diminutive)', is a kind of microorganism rather than a small stick or staff.

Usage in neologisms

But by far the largest Greek contribution to English vocabulary is the huge number of scientific, medical, and technical neologisms that have been coined by classical compound, compounding Greek roots and affixes to produce novel words which never existed in the Greek language:

* '' utopia'' (1516; 'not' + 'place')
* ''zoology'' (1669; + )
* '' hydrodynamics'' (1738; + )
* ''photography'' (1834; + )
* ''oocyte'' (1895; + )
* '' helicobacter'' (1989; + )

So it is really the combining forms of Greek roots and affixes that are borrowed, not the words. Neologisms using these elements are coined in all the European languages, and spread to the others freely—including to Modern Greek, where they are considered to be reborrowings. Traditionally, these coinages were constructed using only Greek morphemes, ''e.g.'', '' metamathematics'', but increasingly, Greek, Latin, and other morphemes are combined. These hybrid words were formerly considered to be ' barbarisms', such as:

* ''television'' ( + Latin );
* '' metalinguistic'' ( + Latin + + ); and
* '' garbology'' (English ''garbage'' + ).

Some derivations are idiosyncratic, not following Greek compounding patterns, for example:
* ''gas'' (< ) is irregular both in formation and in spelling;
* '' hadron'' < with the suffix ''-on'', itself abstracted from Greek ''anion'' ();
* '' henotheism'' < 'one' + 'god', though ''eno-'' is not used as a prefix in Greek;
* '' taxonomy'' < 'order' + ''-nomy'' ( 'study of'), where the "more etymological form" is ''taxinomy'', as found in , ' taxiarch', and the neologism '' taxidermy''. Modern Greek uses in its reborrowing.
* '' psychedelic'' < 'psyche' + 'make manifest, reveal'; the regular formation would be ''psychodelotic'';
* ''telegram''; the regular formation would have been ''telegrapheme'';
* '' hecto-, kilo-, myria-'', etymologically ''hecato-'', ''chilio-'', ''myrio-'';
* ''heuristic'', regular formation ''heuretic'';
* '' chrysalis'', regular spelling ''chrysallis'';
* '' ptomaine'', regular formation ''ptomatine'';
* ''kerosene'', '' hydrant'', ''symbiont''.

Many combining forms have specific technical meanings in neologisms, not predictable from the Greek sense:
* ''-cyte'' or ''cyto-'' < 'container', means biological cells, not arbitrary containers.
* ''-oma

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