Greek Element in English

The Greek influence in English is far smaller and much less important than the Latin. A knowledge of the Greek heritage helps us greatly to a full and accurate understanding of any language, enables us to understand technicalities that are almost universal.

As Greek civilization was older than the Roman, many Greek words came to us through Latin. There are examples of Greek words passing into Arabic or Persian and returning to Europe in another form (the word “apricot” came in this way).

Most of the first Greek words to enter the English vocabulary arrived after the Renaissance and were religious terms, terms of anatomy, natural history, mechanics, and they are still coming in to express new technicalities.

Along with the Latin element in English must in all propriety be considered the Greek, especially since with few exceptions the earliest Greek words as well as many at later periods, came through the medium of Latin, and Greek derivatives in English are more or less latinized in form.

Thus, devil, came from Greek and was latinized. The other word is church, which came through Latin, but which like most of the early Christian terms in Latin, is of Greek origin (kuriakon, “Lord’s house”).

Of the Latin Christian terms, brought to England by the early Roman missionaries, a great many were of Greek origin. Such words as abbot, monk, clerk, school bear testimony to the early organization of the Christian church among Greek-speaking people. The early indebtedness to the Greeks in the science of medicine is indicated by such words as dropsy, palsy, quinsy, tansy and treacle. But the importation of Greek words on a large scale did not begin until the time of the Revival of Learning. Since that time the influx of Greek words has been a continuous one. Modern science stimulated by a knowledge of earlier Greek science began by borrowing Greek names for Greek conceptions. In this way there became established a form of association between the Greek language and science, and the practice has become established of giving Greek names to conceptions arrived at by modern science. Great is the English debt to Greek in its technical nomenclature. The terms of literature and rhetoric may illustrate the point.

Of Greek origin are the following words: poetry, epic, lyric, drama, tragedy, comedy, bucolic, elegy, epigram, idyl, theatre, scene, melodrama, prologue, episode, epilogue, rhythm, ode, strophe, antistrophe, dactyl, anapest, etc. To Greek, rhetoric owes the terms: rhetoric, theme, thesis, topic, epitome, apthegm, emphasis, climax, apostrophe, metaphor, trope, phrase, paraphrase, paragraph, parenthesis, period, graphic, laconic, idiom, dialogue, apology, comma, colon, hyphen, synonym, anonymous, pseudonym, sarcam, etc.

Among the natural sciences for the sake of illustration we may take botany: botany, ecology, taxonomy, protoplasm, cytoplasm, stigma, anther, petal, cryptogram, spore, endogen, exogen, chlorophyll, parasite, epiphyte, geotropism, heliotropism, etc.

In the field of sports Greek has yielded such words as gymnastics, athlete, acrobat, trophy, stadium.

In physiology and medicine the number of Greek words is almost countless. From the earliest times any attempt to count such words as osteopath, and pyorrhea would be vain, since the immediate future is likely to bring into use a constant succession of new Greek words keeping pace with the progress in science.

A particularly interesting and valuable contribution of Greek to English is the series of personal names. Of Greek origin are such indispensable names as Alexander, Bernice, Catharine, Christopher, Cora, Dorothea, Eugene, Eunice, George, Helen, Homer, Ida, Irene, Leon, Margaret, Myron, Nicholas, Peter, Philip, Phyllis, Sophia, Stephen and Theodore.

The Greek alphabet (alpha – a, beta – b) had several double consonants. Many of these are familiar to us already if we can spell correctly: theme, thesis, rhythm, psychic, diarrhea, catarrh, architea, pheumonis, haemorrhage, emphasis, hyphen, pseudonym. Certain diphthongs – a typical Greek form – will also be noticed: oe, ae, eu.

The double consonant gives little difficulty as two English consonants represent it. The hard ch was a single letter in Greek and although no soft c existed we generally employ it to represent the Greek K. “Cycle”, for instance, came from “Kuklos”, and “cinema” from “kinema”, as it is still sometimes correctly spelt. Thus we recognise the conventional transcription of Greek words. Their origin is immediately recognized by their spelling: diphtheria, hydraulic, morphia, oligarch, bronchitis.

It became a general European convention that when a new word was adopted from Greek into English or any other modern language, it must be treated as if it had passed through a Latin channel. The Greek k, ai, ei, oi, u were transliterated, after Latin example, by c, æ, i, oe, u, y, and the aspirated initial r by rh. In the main, these rules are still adhered to, though there are some exceptions among modern scientific words. Greek adjectives are usually anglicized, like Latin adjectives, by the addition of the suffix -ous, -an, or –al: thus autonomus, diaphanes, are represented by autonomous, diaphanous.

Greek possesses an unlimited power of forming compound words and it has also a singularly complete and regular system of suffixes, by means of which a whole group of derivatives of obvious and precise meaning can be produced from any verb or noun. The capacities of the language for the expression of accurate distinctions had been cultivated to the highest point.

The structure of the Greek language is so well adapted for the formation of scientific terms that when a word is wanted to denote some conception peculiar to modern science, the most convenient way of obtaining it usually is to frame a new Greek compound or derivative.

It is to be noted that the modern scientific and technical words from this source are mostly of international currency. The custom of forming compounds from Greek elements prevails in all civilized countries.

The number of Greek prefixes in English is considerable though not great:

amphi – (both or around) – amphitheater a, an – (not, un) – amorphous ana – (back, again) – anachronism anti – (against) – antiseptic apo – (away) – apoplexy auto – (self) – auotomatic dia – (through) – diachronic dys – (bad) – dyspepsia ec, ex – (from, out of) – exodus endo – (within) – endocentric epi – (upon) – epigram eu – (well, good) – euphemism hemi – (half) – hemisphere hetero – (different) –heterogenous homo – (same) – homogenous

hyper – (above) – hyperbole hypo – (below) – hypothesis iso – (equal) – isoglossa kata – (down) – catastrophe meta – (after) – metaphysics neo – (new, young) – neologism palaeo – (old) – palaeolithic pan – (all) pantheism para – (besides) – paralinguistic peri – (around) – peripheral poly – (many) – polysemy pro – (before) – prologue proto – (first) – protoplasm pseudo – (false) – pseudonym sym, syn – (together) – synchronise

Numerical prefixes are: mono – monopoly di – diphthong tri – tripod tetra – tetrahedron penta – pentagon hexa – hexameter octo – octopus deka – dekalogue hecata – hecatomb kilo - kilogram

There are few suffixes: -ic didactic -ical ethical -ism theism -ta poeta -ista artista -amma telegramma -ema tema

There are a few nouns which will be found as prefixes:

hydro – (water) aero – (air) pyro – (fire)

bio – (life) geo – (earth)