Greek is spoken in Greece, Cyprus and Greek restaurants. But you also use Greek words or roots regularly in English. Here is a handy alphabetical list.
Letter of the alphabet - Greek - English (meaning)
a - anti - (old) antique; agony; amphora (clay vessel for storing wine)auto - (self) - automatic, automaton; axiom
b - bibl - bible - bibliography
c - catastrophe, chaos; criteria ; critical; cynicism
d - democracy - diabolic - dinosaur; diagnosis; dogma
e - eccentric; economic; emphatic; episode; epoch; eulogise
f - frenetic
g - gastronomic; genesis - birth - genes, genetic; generous
h - horo - hour, horoscope
i - idiom; ironic
j
k kaleidoscope (beautiful, eye); kinetic
l - logos - word -logic
m - marathon; melancholy; method
n - numismatic (relating to stamps). nemesis (Greek god)
o - organizer; orthodox
pan Greek god - panic, papyrus; phobia; phos - light (photographic); plethora; policy; poly; problem; protagonist
q (None. All the q words in my concise Oxford dictionary are from Latin.)
r
s - sarcastic; scandal; symposia/symposium; synagogue
t -tactic; tele - far; therapeutic; thesis; tonic
u
v
w
x xeno - stranger (xenophobia is fear of strangers) ; xylo (wood (xylophone)
y
z - zeal (zealous); Zeus (Greek God)
A representative of Greece, prime minister Xenophon Zelotos, gave a speech (if I remember rightly, according to my guide to the Thessalonika,( second scity of Greece) to the United Nations) in English and all the nouns and adjectives were Greek words or words of Greek origin and roots and component parts.
Wiki says
Two of his speeches in English at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development are considered to be historic and notable because they contained mainly terms of Greek origin.[6] Here are the texts:
1957
I always wished to address this Assembly in Greek, but realized that it would have been indeed "Greek" to all present in this room. I found out, however, that I could make my address in Greek which would still be English to everybody. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I shall do it now, using with the exception of articles and prepositions, only Greek words.
Kyrie, I eulogize the archons of the Panethnic Numismatic Thesaurus and the Ecumenical Trapeza for the orthodoxy of their axioms, methods and policies, although there is an episode of cacophony of the Trapeza with Hellas. With enthusiasm we dialogue and synagonize at the synods of our didymous organizations in which polymorphous economic ideas and dogmas are analyzed and synthesized. Our critical problems such as the numismatic plethora generate some agony and melancholy. This phenomenon is characteristic of our epoch. But, to my thesis, we have the dynamism to program therapeutic practices as a prophylaxis from chaos and catastrophe. In parallel, a Panethnic unhypocritical economic synergy and harmonization in a democratic climate is basic. I apologize for my eccentric monologue. I emphasize my euharistia to you, Kyrie to the eugenic and generous American Ethnos and to the organizers and protagonists of his Amphictyony and the gastronomic symposia.
1959
Kyrie, it is Zeus' anathema on our epoch for the dynamism of our economies and the heresy of our economic methods and policies that we should agonize the Scylla of numismatic plethora and the Charybdis of economic anaemia. It is not my idiosyncrasy to be ironic or sarcastic, but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatize numismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies have to be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between political, strategic and philanthropic scopes. Political magic has always been anti-economic. In an epoch characterized by monopolies, oligopolies, monopsonies, monopolistic antagonism and polymorphous inelasticities, our policies have to be more orthological. But this should not be metamorphosed into plethorophobia, which is endemic among academic economists. Numismatic symmetry should not hyper-antagonize economic acme. A greater harmonization between the practices of the economic and numismatic archons is basic. Parallel to this, we have to synchronize and harmonize more and more our economic and numismatic policies panethnically. These scopes are more practicable now, when the prognostics of the political and economic barometer are halcyonic. The history of our didymus organizations in this sphere has been didactic and their gnostic practices will always be a tonic to the polyonymous and idiomorphous ethnical economies. The genesis of the programmed organization will dynamize these policies. Therefore, I sympathize, although not without criticism on one or two themes, with the apostles and the hierarchy of our organs in their zeal to program orthodox economic and numismatic policies, although I have some logomachy with them. I apologize for having tyrannized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue, I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous autochthons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you, Kyrie, and the stenographers.
See also
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- ἀμυγδάλη amygdala, almond;
- ἀντίφωνα antiphon, anthem;
- ἀσϕόδελος asphodel, daffodil;
- αὐθεντικός authentic, effendi (αὐθέντης via Turkish);
- βάλσαμον balsam (probably itself a borrowing from Semitic), balm;
- βλάσφημος blasphemy, blame;
- βούτυρον butyr(ic), butter;
- διάβολος diabol(ic), devil;
- δραχμή drachma, dram, also dirhem via Arabic;
- ἔλαιον elaeo-, oil, olive, oleum;
- ἐλεημοσύνη eleemosynary, alms;
- ἐπίσκοπος episcop(al), bishop;
- ζῆλος zeal, jealous;
- καθέδρα cathedra(l), chair, chaise;
- κέρας/κέρατ- 'horn' keratin, carat via Arabic;
- κόλπος 'lap, womb, hollow, bay' colp(itis), gulf
- κυβερνᾶν cybernetics, govern
- πάπυρος papyrus, paper;
- πόδιον podium, pew;
- πρεσβύτερος presbyter, priest;
- πυξίς pyx(is), box;
- σκάνδαλον scandal, slander;
- τρίπους/τρίποδ- tripod, trivet;
- τύμπανον 'drum' tympanum 'eardrum', timbre, timpani;
- φρενετικός frenetic, frantic;
- χειρουργός chirurgical, surgeon;
- χορός chorus, choir;
- χρῖσμα chrism, cream;
- χρῑστιᾱνός Christian, christen, cretin?
- ὥρα horo(scope), hour.
Useful Websites
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/21-english-words-that-are-actually-greek-and-the-stories-behind-them
Etymological dictionary
https://www.etymonline.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophon_Zolotas
More Sources
https://www.etymonline.com/columns/post/sources
About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, speech trainer, teacher of English and other languages. Member of four Toastmasters International Clubs, one in the UK and three in Singapore. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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