The

Greek language Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...

has contributed to the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

lexicon in five main ways: * vernacular borrowings, transmitted orally through

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...

directly into

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

, ''e.g.'', 'butter' (, from Latin < ), or through French, ''e.g.'', 'ochre'; * learned borrowings from

classical Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

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 Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

, ''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 Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

languages were not in direct contact until modern times, borrowings were necessarily indirect, coming either through

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

(through texts or through French and other

vernaculars A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

), or from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

texts, not the living

spoken language A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds or (depending on one's definition) manual gestures, as opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a language produced with the vocal tract in contrast with a si ...

.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

and its descendants, the

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

. 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 Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

and orthographic form has changed considerably. For instance, ''place'' was borrowed both by

and by French from Latin , itself borrowed from , 'broad (street)'; the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

have the same origin, and have been borrowed into English in parallel. The word ''

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

'' comes through the

Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

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 A ''cathedra'' is the raised throne of a bishop in the early Christian basilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop's throne. With time, the related term ''cathedral'' became synonymous with the "seat", or principa ...

'); * ''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 Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

's incorrect

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

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 Ouse may refer to: Places Rivers in England * River Ouse, Yorkshire * River Ouse, Sussex * River Great Ouse, Northamptonshire and East Anglia ** River Little Ouse, a tributary of the River Great Ouse Other places * Ouse, Tasmania, a town in Au ...

). 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 In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

and

Renaissance Latin Renaissance Latin is a name given to the distinctive form of Literary Latin style developed during the European Renaissance of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, particularly by the Renaissance humanism movement. Ad fontes ''Ad fontes' ...

. Some words were borrowed in essentially their original meaning, often transmitted through

Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later periods ...

: ''topic'', ''type'', ''physics'', ''iambic'', ''eta'', ''

necromancy Necromancy () is the practice of magic or black magic involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions, or by resurrection for the purpose of divination; imparting the means to foretell future events; ...

'', ''cosmopolite''. A few result from scribal errors: ''encyclopedia'' < 'the circle of learning' (not a compound in Greek); ''

acne Acne, also known as ''acne vulgaris'', is a long-term Cutaneous condition, skin condition that occurs when Keratinocyte, dead skin cells and Sebum, oil from the skin clog hair follicles. Typical features of the condition include comedo, black ...

'' < (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 A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...

'' < 'far-seeing', refers to an optical instrument for seeing far away rather than a person who can see far into the distance; * ''

phlogiston The phlogiston theory is a superseded scientific theory that postulated the existence of a fire-like element called phlogiston () contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion. The name comes from the Ancient Greek (''burni ...

'' < 'burnt thing', is a supposed fire-making potential rather than something which has been burned, or can be burned; and * ''bacterium'' < 'stick (

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

)', 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

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

s that have been coined by classical compound, compounding Greek roots and affixes to produce novel words which never existed in the Greek language: * ''

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

'' (1516; 'not' + 'place') * ''

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

'' (1669; + ) * ''

hydrodynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) and ...

'' (1738; + ) * ''

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

'' (1834; + ) * ''

oocyte An oocyte (, ), oöcyte, or ovocyte is a female gametocyte or germ cell involved in reproduction. In other words, it is an immature ovum, or egg cell. An oocyte is produced in a female fetus in the ovary during female gametogenesis. The female ...

'' (1895; + ) * ''

helicobacter ''Helicobacter'' is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria possessing a characteristic helical shape. They were initially considered to be members of the genus ''Campylobacter'', but in 1989, Goodwin ''et al.'' published sufficient reasons to justif ...

'' (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

, where they are considered to be

reborrowing Reborrowing is the process where a word travels from one language to another and then back to the originating language in a different form or with a different meaning. This path is indicated by A → B → A, where A is the originating language, an ...

s. Traditionally, these coinages were constructed using only Greek

morphemes A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone a ...

, ''e.g.'', ''

metamathematics Metamathematics is the study of mathematics itself using mathematical methods. This study produces metatheories, which are mathematical theories about other mathematical theories. Emphasis on metamathematics (and perhaps the creation of the ter ...

'', but increasingly, Greek, Latin, and other morphemes are combined. These

hybrid word A hybrid word or hybridism is a word that etymologically derives from at least two languages. Common hybrids The most common form of hybrid word in English combines Latin and Greek parts. Since many prefixes and suffixes in English are of Latin ...

s were formerly considered to be ' barbarisms', such as: * ''television'' ( + Latin ); * ''

metalinguistic Metalinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies language and its relationship to other cultural behaviors. It is the study of dialogue relationships between units of speech communication as manifestations and enactments of co-existence. ...

'' ( + Latin + + ); and * ''

garbology Garbology is the study of modern refuse and trash as well as the use of trash cans, compactors and various types of trash can liners. As an academic discipline it was pioneered at the University of Arizona and long directed by William Rathje. The ...

'' (English ''garbage'' + ). Some derivations are idiosyncratic, not following Greek compounding patterns, for example: * ''gas'' (< ) is irregular both in formation and in spelling; * ''

hadron In particle physics, a hadron (; grc, ἁδρός, hadrós; "stout, thick") is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong interaction. They are analogous to molecules that are held together by the ele ...

'' < with the suffix ''-on'', itself abstracted from Greek ''anion'' (); * ''

henotheism Henotheism is the worship of a single, supreme god that does not deny the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primiti ...

'' < 'one' + 'god', though ''eno-'' is not used as a prefix in Greek; * ''

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

'' < 'order' + ''-nomy'' ( 'study of'), where the "more etymological form" is ''taxinomy'', as found in , '

taxiarch Taxiarch, the anglicised form of ''taxiarchos'' or ''taxiarchēs'' ( el, ταξίαρχος or ταξιάρχης) is used in the Greek language to mean "brigadier". The term derives from ''táxis'', "order", in military context "an ordered forma ...

', and the neologism ''

taxidermy Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proce ...

''. Modern Greek uses in its reborrowing. * ''

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...

'' < 'psyche' + 'make manifest, reveal'; the regular formation would be ''psychodelotic''; * ''

telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

''; the regular formation would have been ''telegrapheme''; * ''

hecto- ''Hecto'' (symbol: h) is a decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of one hundred. It was adopted as a multiplier in 1795, and comes from the Greek , meaning "hundred". In 19th century English it was sometimes spelled "hecato", ...

kilo- Kilo is a decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting multiplication by one thousand (103). It is used in the International System of Units, where it has the symbol k, in lowercase. The prefix ''kilo'' is derived from the Greek word (), ...

myria- Myria- (symbol my) is a now obsolete decimal metric prefix denoting a factor of 104 (ten thousand). It originates from the Greek μύριοι (''mýrioi'') (myriad). The prefix was part of the original metric system adopted by France in 1795, bu ...

'', etymologically ''hecato-'', ''chilio-'', ''myrio-''; * ''

heuristic A heuristic (; ), or heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, ...

'', regular formation ''heuretic''; * ''

chrysalis A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

'', regular spelling ''chrysallis''; * ''

ptomaine Foodborne illness (also foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the spoilage of contaminated food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as well as prions (the agents of mad cow disease) ...

'', regular formation ''ptomatine''; * ''

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

'', ''

hydrant A hydrant is an outlet from a fluid main often consisting of an upright pipe with a valve attached, from which fluid (e.g. water or fuel) can be tapped. Depending on the fluid involved, the term may refer to: * Fire hydrant for firefighting water ...

'', ''

symbiont Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

''. Many

combining form Neoclassical compounds are compound words composed from combining forms (which act as affixes or stems) derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots. New Latin comprises many such words and is a substantial component of the technical an ...

s have specific technical meanings in

neologisms A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

, not predictable from the Greek sense: * ''-cyte'' or '' cyto-'' < 'container', means

biological cells The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of life forms. Every cell consists of a cytoplasm enclosed within a membrane, and contains many biomolecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA, as well as many small molecules of nutrients an ...

, not arbitrary containers. * '' -oma'' < , a generic

morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology. In English, morphemes are ...

forming

deverbal noun Deverbal nouns are nouns that are derived from verbs or verb phrases. The formation of deverbal nouns is a type of nominalization (noun formation). Examples of deverbal nouns in English include ''organization'' (derived from the verb ''organize''), ...

s, such as ''

diploma A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...

'' ('a folded thing') and ''

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...

'' ('greyness'), comes to have the very narrow meaning of 'tumor' or 'swelling', on the model of words like ''

carcinoma Carcinoma is a malignancy that develops from epithelial cells. Specifically, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that arises from cells originating in the endodermal, mesodermal ...

'' < . For example, ''

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

'' does not come from 'blackness', but rather from the modern combining forms ''melano-'' ('dark' n biology + ''-oma'' ('tumor'). * ''-itis'' < , a generic adjectival suffix; in medicine used to mean a disease characterized by inflammation: ''appendicitis'', ''conjunctivitis'', ..., and now facetiously generalized to mean "feverish excitement".Simeon Potter, ''Our language'', Penguin, 1950, p. 43 * ''-osis'' < , originally a state, condition, or process; in medicine, used for a disease. In standard

chemical nomenclature A chemical nomenclature is a set of rules to generate systematic names for chemical compounds. The nomenclature used most frequently worldwide is the one created and developed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The ...

, the numerical prefixes are "only loosely based on the corresponding Greek words", ''e.g.'' ''octaconta-'' is used for 80 instead of the Greek ''ogdoeconta-'' '80'. There are also "mixtures of Greek and Latin roots", ''e.g.'', ''nonaconta-'', for 90, is a blend of the Latin ''nona-'' for 9 and the Greek found in words such as ἐνενήκοντα ''enenekonta'' '90'. The Greek form is, however, used in the names of polygons in mathematics, though the names of

polyhedra In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices. A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all on t ...

are more idiosyncratic. Many Greek

affixes In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...

such as ''anti-'' and ''-ic'' have become

productive Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

in English, combining with arbitrary English words: ''antichoice'', ''Fascistic''. Some words in English have been reanalyzed as a base plus suffix, leading to suffixes based on Greek words, but which are not suffixes in Greek (''cf.''

libfix In linguistics, a libfix is a productive bound morpheme affix created by rebracketing and back-formation, often a generalization of a component of a blended or portmanteau word. For example, ''walkathon'' was coined in 1932 as a blend of ''walk'' ...

). Their meaning relates to the full word they were shortened from, not the Greek meaning: * ''-athon'' or ' (from the

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordswalkathon A walkathon (walk-a-thon), walking marathon or sponsored walk is a type of community or school fundraiser in which participants raise money by collecting donations or pledges for walking a predetermined distance or course. They are similar in for ...

'', from ''walk'' + '' (mar)athon''). * ''

-ase The suffix -ase is used in biochemistry to form names of enzymes. The most common way to name enzymes is to add this suffix onto the end of the substrate, ''e.g.'' an enzyme that breaks down peroxides may be called peroxidase; the enzyme that pro ...

'', used in chemistry for enzymes, is abstracted from ''

diastase A diastase (; from Greek διάστασις, "separation") is any one of a group of enzymes that catalyses the breakdown of starch into maltose. Alpha amylase degrades starch to a mixture of the disaccharide maltose; the trisaccharide maltotriose, ...

'', where -ασις is not a morpheme at all in Greek. * ''-on'' for elementary particles, from ''electron'': ''

lepton In particle physics, a lepton is an elementary particle of half-integer spin ( spin ) that does not undergo strong interactions. Two main classes of leptons exist: charged leptons (also known as the electron-like leptons or muons), and neutr ...

'', ''

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons beh ...

'', ''

phonon In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, Elasticity (physics), elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter physics, condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. A type of quasiparticle, a phon ...

'', ... * ''-nomics'' refers specifically to economics: ''

Reaganomics Reaganomics (; a portmanteau of ''Reagan'' and ''economics'' attributed to Paul Harvey), or Reaganism, refers to the neoliberal economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. These policies are commonly associat ...

''.

Through other languages

Some Greek words were borrowed through

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and then

. Many are learned: * ''

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

'' ( ''al-'' + or ) ** ''

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

'' is a

back-formation In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the c ...

from ''alchemist'' * ''

elixir ELIXIR (the European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information) is an initiative that will allow life science laboratories across Europe to share and store their research data as part of an organised network. Its goal is to bring t ...

'' (''al-'' + ) * ''

alembic An alembic (from ar, الإنبيق, al-inbīq, originating from grc, ἄμβιξ, ambix, 'cup, beaker') is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used for distillation of liquids. Description The complete disti ...

'' (''al-'' + ) However, others are popular: * '' bottarga'' () * ''

tajine A tajine or tagine ( ar, طاجين) is a North African dish, named after the earthenware pot in which it is cooked. It is also called or . Etymology The Arabic () is derived from the Berber 'shallow earthen pot', from Ancient Greek () ' ...

'' () * '' carat'' () * ''

talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

'' () * possibly ''

quintal The quintal or centner is a historical unit of mass in many countries which is usually defined as 100 base units, such as pounds or kilograms. It is a traditional unit of weight in France, Portugal, and Spain and their former colonies. It is com ...

'' ( < Latin ). A few words took other routes: * ''

seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

'' (a kind of fishing net) comes from a

West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...

form *''sagīna'', from Latin , from . * ''

effendi Effendi or effendy ( tr, efendi ; ota, افندی, efendi; originally from grc-x-medieval, αφέντης ) is a title of nobility meaning ''sir'', ''lord'' or ''master'', especially in the Ottoman Empire and the Caucasus''.'' The title it ...

'' comes from Turkish, borrowed from

Medieval Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...

(/afˈθendis/, 'lord'). * '' hora'' (the dance) comes from

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the He ...

, borrowed from 'dance'.

Vernacular or learned doublets

Some Greek words have given rise to etymological doublets, being borrowed both through a later learned, direct route, and earlier through an organic, indirect route:Walter William Skeat, ''A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'', "List of Doublets", p. 599ff
full text
* ''adamant'', ''diamond''; * ''amygdala'', ''almond''; * ''antiphon'', ''anthem''; * ''apothec(ary)'', ''boutique'' via French, ''bodega'' via Spanish * ''asphodel'', ''daffodil''; * ''authentic'', ''effendi'' (αὐθέντης via Turkish); * (probably itself a borrowing from Semitic) ''balsam'', ''balm''; * ''basis'', ''base'', ''bass'' (voice); * ''blasphemy'', ''blame''; * ''butyr(ic)'', ''butter''; * ''diabol(ic)'', ''devil''; * ''drachma'', ''dram'', ''

dirhem The dirham, dirhem or dirhm ( ar, درهم) is a silver unit of currency historically and currently used by several Arab and Arab influenced states. The term has also been used as a related unit of mass. Unit of mass The dirham was a un ...

'' via Arabic; * ''elaeo-'', ''oil'', ''olive'', ''oleum'', ''

latke A latke ( yi, לאַטקע ''latke''; sometimes romanized ''latka'', lit. "pancake") is a type of potato pancake or fritter in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine that is traditionally prepared to celebrate Hanukkah. Latkes can be made with ingredients ot ...

'' via Russian and Yiddish; * ''eleemosynary'', ''alms''; * ''episcop(al)'', ''bishop''; * ''zeal'', ''jealous''; * ''hemicrania'', ''migraine''; * ''thesaurus'', ''treasure'' * ''iota'', ''jot''; * ''cathedra(l)'', ''chair'', ''chaise''; * / 'horn' ''keratin'', ''carat'' via Arabic; * 'lap, womb, hollow, bay' ''colp(itis)'', ''gulf'' * ''cybernetics'', ''govern'' * ''papyrus'', ''paper''; * ''podium'', ''pew''; * ''presbyter'', ''priest''; * ''pyx(is)'', ''box''; * ''scandal'', ''slander''; * / ''tripod'', ''tripos'' (both learned); * 'drum' ''tympanum'' 'eardrum', ''timbre'', ''timpani''; * ''frenetic'', ''frantic''; * ''chirurgical'', ''surgeon''; * ''chorus'', ''choir''; * ''chrism'', ''cream''; * ''Christian'', ''christen'', ''cretin'' * ''horo(scope)'', ''hour''. Other doublets come from differentiation in the borrowing languages: * ''grammatic(al)'': ''grammar'', ''glamor'', ''grimoire''; * ''discus'': ''disc'', ''dish'', ''dais'', and ''desk''; * ''cither'': ''guitar'', ''zither'', ''gittern'', ''cittern'', ''etc.''; * ''crypt'': ''grotto'', ''(under)croft''; * ''parabola'': ''parable''; additional doublets in

give ''palaver'', ''parol'', and ''parole''; * ''phantasy'': ''fantasy''; ''fancy'' in 15th-century English.

From modern Greek

Finally, with the growth of tourism and emigration, some words reflecting modern Greek culture have been borrowed into English—many of them originally borrowings into Greek themselves: * ''

retsina Retsina ( el, Ρετσίνα) is a Greek white (or rosé) resinated wine, which has been made for at least 2,000 years. Its unique flavor is said to have originated from the practice of sealing wine vessels, particularly amphorae, with Alepp ...

'' * ''

ouzo Ouzo ( el, ούζο, ) is a dry anise-flavored aperitif that is widely consumed in Greece. It is made from rectified spirits that have undergone a process of distillation and flavoring. Its taste is similar to other anise liquors like pastis, s ...

'' * ''

souvlaki Souvlaki ( el, σουβλάκι, , ; plural: , ), is a popular Greek fast food consisting of small pieces of meat and sometimes vegetables grilled on a skewer. It is usually eaten straight off the skewer while still hot. It can be served with ...

'' (< Latin) * ''

taverna A taverna (Greek: ταβέρνα) is a small Greek restaurant that serves Greek cuisine. The taverna is an integral part of Greek culture and has become familiar to people from other countries who visit Greece, as well as through the establishmen ...

'' (< Italian) * ''

moussaka Moussaka (, , ) is an eggplant- or potato-based dish, often including ground meat, which is common in the Balkans and the Middle East, with many local and regional variations. The best-known version in Europe and the Americas is the Greek vari ...

'' (< Turkish < Arabic) * ''

baklava Baklava (, or ; ota, باقلوا ) is a layered pastry dessert made of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with syrup or honey. It was one of the most popular sweet pastries of Ottoman cuisine. The pre- Ottoman origin of the ...

'' (< Turkish) * ''

feta Feta ( el, φέτα, ) is a Greek brined white cheese made from sheep's milk or from a mixture of sheep and goat's milk. It is soft, with small or no holes, a compact touch, few cuts, and no skin. Crumbly with a slightly grainy texture, it is ...

'' (< Italian) * ''

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

'' (< Turkish) * ''

gyro Gyro may refer to: Science and technology * GYRO, a computer program for tokamak plasma simulation * Gyro Motor Company, an American aircraft engine manufacturer * ''Gyrodactylus salaris'', a parasite in salmon * Gyroscope, an orientation-sta ...

'' (the food, a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...

of Turkish ''

döner Doner kebab (, ; tr, döner or , ), also spelled döner kebab, is a type of kebab, made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Seasoned meat stacked in the shape of an inverted cone is turned slowly on the rotisserie, next to a vertical cook ...

'').

Greek as an intermediary

Many words from the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

were transmitted to the western languages through the Greek of the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

, often without morphological

regularization Regularization may refer to: * Regularization (linguistics) * Regularization (mathematics) * Regularization (physics) In physics, especially quantum field theory, regularization is a method of modifying observables which have singularities in ...

: * ''rabbi'' () * ''seraphim'' () * ''paradise'' ( <

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

) * ''pharaoh'' ( < Hebrew <

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

)

Written form of Greek words in English

Many Greek words, especially those borrowed through the literary tradition, are recognizable as such from their spelling. Latin had standard orthographies for Greek borrowings, including, but not limited to: * Greek was written as 'y' * as 'e' * as 'ch' * as 'ph' * as 'c' *

rough breathing In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( grc, δασὺ πνεῦμα, dasỳ pneûma or ''daseîa''; la, spīritus asper) character is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, d ...

s as 'h' * both and as 'i' These conventions, which originally reflected pronunciation, have carried over into English and other languages with historical orthography, like French. Crosby, Henry Lamar, and John Nevin Schaeffer. 1928. ''An Introduction to Greek''. section 66. They make it possible to recognize words of Greek origin, and give hints as to their pronunciation and

inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...

. The

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

of some digraphs is rendered in various ways in English. The

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...

s and may be spelled in three different ways in English: # the Latinate digraphs '' ae'' and '' oe''; # the ligatures '' æ'' and '' œ''; and # the simple letter ''e''. The ligatures have largely fallen out of use worldwide; the digraphs are uncommon in American usage, but remain common in British usage. The spelling depends mostly on the variety of English, not on the particular word. Examples include: ''encyclopaedia'' / ''encyclopædia'' / ''encyclopedia''; ''haemoglobin'' / ''hæmoglobin'' / ''hemoglobin''; and ''oedema'' / ''œdema'' / ''edema''. Some words are almost always written with the digraph or ligature: ''amoeba'' / ''amœba'', rarely ''ameba''; ''Oedipus'' / ''Œdipus'', rarely ''Edipus''; others are almost always written with the single letter: ''sphære'' and ''hæresie'' were obsolete by 1700; ''phænomenon'' by 1800; ''phænotype'' and ''phænol'' by 1930. The verbal ending is spelled ''-ize'' in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

, and ''-ise'' or ''-ize'' in

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

. Since the 19th century, a few learned words were introduced using a direct transliteration of Ancient Greek and including the Greek endings, rather than the traditional Latin-based spelling: ''

nous ''Nous'', or Greek νοῦς (, ), sometimes equated to intellect or intelligence, is a concept from classical philosophy for the faculty of the human mind necessary for understanding what is true or real. Alternative English terms used in p ...

'' (νοῦς), ''

koine Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

'' (κοινή), ''

hoi polloi Hoi polloi (; ) is an expression from Greek that means "the many" or, in the strictest sense, "the people". In English, it has been given a negative connotation to signify the masses. Synonyms for ''hoi polloi'' include "the plebs" (plebeians) ...

'' (οἱ πολλοί), ''kudos'' (κύδος), '' moron'' (μωρόν), ''

kubernetes Kubernetes (, commonly stylized as K8s) is an open-source container orchestration system for automating software deployment, scaling, and management. Google originally designed Kubernetes, but the Cloud Native Computing Foundation now maintains ...

'' (κυβερνήτης). For this reason, the Ancient Greek digraph is rendered differently in different words—as ''i'', following the standard Latin form: ''idol'' < εἴδωλον; or as ''ei'',

transliterating Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

the Greek directly: ''eidetic'' (< εἰδητικός), ''deixis'', ''seismic''. Most plurals of words ending in ''-is'' are ''-es'' (pronounced ːz, using the regular Latin plural rather than the Greek ''-εις'': ''crises'', ''analyses'', ''bases'', with only a few didactic words having English plurals in ''-eis'': ''poleis'', ''necropoleis'', and ''acropoleis'' (though ''acropolises'' is by far the most common English plural). Most learned borrowings and coinages follow the Latin system, but there are some irregularities: * ''

eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying th ...

'' (''cf.'' ''

''); * ''

kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a regular symmetrical pattern when v ...

'' (the regular spelling would be ''calidoscope'') * ''kinetic'' (''cf.'' ''cinematography''); * ''

krypton Krypton (from grc, κρυπτός, translit=kryptos 'the hidden one') is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and atomic number 36. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas that occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere and is often ...

'' (''cf.'' ''cryptic''); * ''acolyte'' (< ; would be the etymological spelling, but , , are all found in Latin); * ''

stoichiometry Stoichiometry refers to the relationship between the quantities of reactants and products before, during, and following chemical reactions. Stoichiometry is founded on the law of conservation of mass where the total mass of the reactants equal ...

'' (< ; regular spelling would be ). * ''

aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also be a nidus (s ...

'' was formerly often spelled ''aneurism'' on the assumption that it uses the usual ''-ism'' ending. Some words whose spelling in French and

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

did not reflect their Greco-Latin origins were refashioned with etymological spellings in the 16th and 17th centuries: ''caracter'' became ''character'' and ''quire'' became ''choir''. In some cases, a word's spelling clearly shows its Greek origin: * If it includes ''ph'' pronounced as /f/ or ''y'' between consonants, it is very likely Greek, with some exceptions, such as ''nephew'', ''cipher'', ''triumph''. * If it includes ''rrh'', ''phth'', or ''chth''; or starts with ''hy-'', ''ps-'', ''pn-'', or ''chr-''; or the rarer ''pt-'', ''ct-'', ''chth-'', ''rh-'', ''x-'', ''sth-'', ''mn-'', ''tm-'', ''gn-'' or ''bd-'', then it is Greek, with some exceptions: ''gnat'', ''gnaw'', ''gneiss''. Other exceptions include: * ''ptarmigan'' is from a

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

word, the ''p'' having been added by

false etymology A false etymology (fake etymology, popular etymology, etymythology, pseudo-etymology, or par(a)etymology) is a popular but false belief about the origin or derivation of a specific word. It is sometimes called a folk etymology, but this is also a ...

; * ''style'' is probably written with a 'y' because the Greek word 'column' (as in ''

peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=fou ...

'', 'surrounded by columns') and the Latin word ''stilus,'' 'stake, pointed instrument', were confused. * ''trophy'', though ultimately of Greek origin, did not have a but a in its Greek form, .

Pronunciation

In clusters such as ''ps-'', ''pn-'', and ''gn-'' which are not allowed by English phonotactics, the usual English pronunciation drops the first

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...

(''e.g.'', psychology) at the start of a word; compare ''gnostic'' ɒstɪkand ''agnostic'' �gnɒstɪk there are a few exceptions: ''

tmesis In its strictest sense, tmesis (; plural tmeses ; Ancient Greek: ''tmēsis'' "a cutting" < ''temnō'', "I cut") is a word compound that ...

'' (ə)miːsɪs Initial ''x-'' is pronounced ''z''. ''Ch'' is pronounced like ''k'' rather than as in "church": ''e.g.'', character, chaos. The consecutive vowel letters 'ea' are generally pronounced separately rather than forming a single vowel sound when transcribing a Greek εα, which was not a digraph, but simply a sequence of two vowels with

hiatus Hiatus may refer to: *Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure *Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species ''Hiatus fulvipes'' *Globa ...

, as in ''genealogy'' or ''pancreas'' (''cf.'', however, ''ocean'', ωκεανός); ''zeal'' (earlier ''zele'') comes irregularly from the η in ζήλος. Some sound sequences in English are only found in borrowings from Greek, notably initial sequences of two

fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...

s, as in ''sphere''. Most initial /z/ sounds are found in Greek borrowings. Hickey, Raymond. "Phonological change in English." In ''The Cambridge Handbook of English Historical Linguistics'' 12.10, edited by M. Kytö and P. Pahta. The stress on borrowings via Latin which keep their Latin form generally follows the traditional English pronunciation of Latin, which depends on the syllable structure in ''Latin'', not in Greek. For example, in Greek, both ὑπόθεσις (''hypothesis'') and ἐξήγησις (''exegesis'') are accented on the antepenult, and indeed the penult has a long vowel in ''exegesis''; but because the penult of Latin ''exegēsis'' is Syllable weight, heavy by Latin rules, the accent falls on the penult in Latin and therefore in English.

Inflectional endings and plurals

Though many English words derived from Greek through the literary route drop the inflectional endings (''tripod'', ''zoology'', ''pentagon'') or use Latin endings (''papyrus'', ''mausoleum''), some preserve the Greek endings: * -ον: ''phenomenon'', ''criterion'', ''neuron'', ''lexicon''; * -∅: ''plasma'', ''drama'', ''dilemma'', ''trauma'' (''-ma'' is derivational, not inflectional); * -ος: ''chaos'', ''ethos'', ''asbestos'', ''pathos'', ''cosmos''; * -ς: ''climax'' (ξ ''x'' = ''k'' + ''s''), ''helix'', ''larynx'', ''eros'', ''pancreas'', ''atlas''; * -η: ''catastrophe'', ''agape'', ''psyche''; * -ις: ''analysis'', ''basis'', ''crisis'', ''emphasis''; * -ης: ''diabetes'', ''herpes'', ''isosceles''. In cases like ''scene'', ''zone'', ''fame'', though the Greek words ended in -η, the silent English ''e'' is not derived from it. In the case of Greek endings, the plurals sometimes follow the Ancient Greek nouns, Greek rules: ''phenomenon, phenomena''; ''tetrahedron, tetrahedra''; ''crisis, crises''; ''hypothesis, hypotheses''; ''polis, poleis''; ''stigma, stigmata''; ''topos, topoi''; ''cyclops, cyclopes''; but often do not: ''colon, colons'' not ''*cola'' (except for the colon (rhetoric), very rare technical term of rhetoric); ''pentathlon, pentathlons'' not ''*pentathla''; ''demon, demons'' not ''*demones''; ''climaxes'', not . Usage is mixed in some cases: ''schema, schemas'' or ''schemata''; ''lexicon, lexicons'' or ''lexica''; ''helix, helixes'' or ''helices''; ''sphinx, sphinges'' or ''sphinxes''; ''clitoris, clitorises'' or ''clitorides''. And there are misleading cases: ''pentagon'' comes from Greek ''pentagonon'', so its plural cannot be ; it is ''pentagons''—the Greek form would be ''*pentagona'' (''cf.'' English plurals#Irregular plurals from Latin and Greek, Plurals from Latin and Greek).

Verbs

A few dozen English verbs are derived from the corresponding Greek verbs; examples are ''baptize'', ''blame'' and ''blaspheme'', ''stigmatize'', ''ostracize'', and ''cauterize''. In addition, the Greek verbal suffix ''-ize'' is productive in Latin, the

, and English: words like ''metabolize'', though composed of a Greek root and a Greek suffix, are modern compounds. A few of these also existed in Ancient Greek, such as ''crystallize'', ''characterize'', and ''democratize'', but were probably coined independently in modern languages. This is particularly clear in cases like ''allegorize'' and ''synergize'', where the Greek verbs ἀλληγορεῖν and συνεργεῖν do not end in ''-ize'' at all. Some English verbs with ultimate Greek etymologies, like ''pause'' and ''cycle'', were formed as denominal verbs in English, even though there are corresponding Greek verbs, παῦειν/παυσ- and κυκλεῖν.

Borrowings and cognates

Greek and English share many Indo-European languages, Indo-European cognates. In some cases, the cognates can be confused with borrowings. For example, the English ''mouse'' is cognate with Greek /mys/ and Latin , all from an Indo-European word ''*mūs''; they are not borrowings. Similarly, ''acre'' is cognate to Latin and Greek , but not a borrowing; the prefix ''agro-'' is a borrowing from Greek, and the prefix ''agri-'' a borrowing from Latin.

Phrases

Many :Latin words and phrases, Latin phrases are used verbatim in English texts—''et cetera'' (etc.), ''ad nauseam'', ''modus operandi'' (M.O.), ''ad hoc'', ''in flagrante delicto'', ''mea culpa'', and so on—but this is rarer for :Greek words and phrases, Greek phrases or expressions: * ''

'' 'the many' * ''eureka (word), eureka'' 'I have found [it]' * ''kalos kagathos'' 'beautiful and virtuous' * ''hapax legomenon'' 'once said' * ''kyrie eleison'' 'Lord, have mercy'

Calques and translations

Greek technical terminology was often

d in Latin rather than borrowed,Fruyt, Michèle. "Latin Vocabulary." In ''A Companion to the Latin Language'', edited by James Clackson, J. Clackson. p. 152. and then borrowed from Latin into English. Examples include: * (grammatical) ''Grammatical case, case'', from ''casus'' ('an event', something that has fallen'), a semantic calque of Greek πτώσις ('a fall'); * nominative case, ''nominative'', from ''nōminātīvus'', a translation of Greek ὀνομαστική; * ''adverb'', a morphological calque of Greek ἐπίρρημα as ''ad-'' + ''verbum''; * ''magnanimous'', from Greek μεγάθυμος (Literal translation, lit. 'great spirit'); * ''essence'', from ''essentia'', which was constructed from the notional present participle ''*essens'', imitating Greek οὐσία. * ''Substance'', from ''substantia'', a calque of Greek υπόστασις (''cf.'' hypostasis (philosophy and religion), hypostasis); * Cicero coined ''moral'' on analogy with Greek ηθικός. * ''Recant'' is modeled on παλινῳδεῖν. Greek phrases were also calqued in Latin, then borrowed or translated into English: * English ''literary topos, commonplace'' is a calque of , itself a calque of Greek κοινός τόπος. * 'god out of the machine' was calqued from the Greek ''apò mēkhanês theós'' (ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός). * is a short form of ''Dioscorides''' ''De Materia Medica'', from . * ' (Q.E.D.) is a calque of . * ''subject matter'' is a calque of , itself a calque of Aristotle's phrase "." * ''wisdom tooth'' came to English from , from Arabic , from , used by Hippocrates. * ''political animal'' is from (in Aristotle's Politics (Aristotle), Politics). * ''quintessence'' is Post-Classical Latin language, post-classical , from Greek . The Greek word has come into English both in borrowed forms like ''evangelical'' and the form ''gospel'', an English calque (Old English 'good tidings') of , itself a calque of the Greek.

Statistics

The contribution of Greek to the English vocabulary can be quantified in two ways, Type-token distinction, ''type'' and ''token'' frequencies: type frequency is the proportion of distinct words; token frequency is the proportion of words in actual texts. Since most words of Greek origin are specialized technical and scientific coinages, the type frequency is considerably higher than the token frequency. And the type frequency in a large word list will be larger than that in a small word list. In a typical English dictionary of 80,000 words, which corresponds very roughly to the vocabulary of an educated English speaker, about 5% of the words are borrowed from Greek.

Most common

Of the 500 most common words in English, 18 (3.6%) are of Greek origin: ''place'' (rank 115), ''problem'' (121), ''school'' (147), ''system'' (180), ''program'' (241), ''idea'' (252), ''story'' (307), ''base'' (328), ''center'' (335), ''period'' (383), ''history'' (386), ''type'' (390), ''music'' (393), ''political'' (395), ''policy'' (400), ''paper'' (426), ''phone'' (480), ''economic'' (494).New General Service List

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References

Citations

Sources

* Gaidatzi, Theopoula. July 1985.
Greek loanwords in English
(M.A. thesis). University of Leeds * Konstantinidis, Aristidis. 2006. ''Η Οικουμενική Διάσταση της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας'' [''The Universal Reach of the Greek Language'']. Athens: Self-publishing, self-published. . * Krill, Richard M. 1990. ''Greek and Latin in English Today''. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. . * March, F. A. 1893.
The Influence of the Greeks on the English Language
" ''The Chautauquan'' 16(6):660–66. * —— 1893.
Greek in the English of Modern Science
" ''The Chautauquan'' 17(1):20–23. * Scheler, Manfred. 1977. ''Der englische Wortschatz'' [''English vocabulary'']. Berlin: Schmidt. * ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (3rd ed.)

External links

Mathematical Words: Origins and Sources
(John Aldrich, University of Southampton) {{English words of foreign origin Greek language, English Lists of English words of foreign origin, Greek

Indirect and direct borrowings

Vernacular borrowings

Romance languages

Other

Learned borrowings

Usage in neologisms

Through other languages

Vernacular or learned doublets

From modern Greek

Greek as an intermediary

Written form of Greek words in English

Pronunciation

Inflectional endings and plurals

Verbs

Borrowings and cognates

Phrases

Calques and translations

Statistics

Most common

See also

References

Citations

Sources

External links