Greek words in English

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'' (), became 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')
In some cases, the orthography of these words was later changed to reflect the Greek—and Latin—spelling: ''e.g.'', ''quire'' was respelled ''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 (French ''église''; Italian ''chiesa;'' Spanish ''iglesia'') or (Romanian ''biserica''), 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 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 the usual Greek compounding patterns, for example:
* ''hadron'' < with the suffix ''-on'', itself abstracted from Greek ''anion'' ();
* ''henotheism'' < 'one' + 'god', though ' is not used as a prefix in Greek;
* ''taxonomy'' < 'order' + ''-nomy'' ( 'study of'), where the "more etymological form" is ', as found in , 'taxiarch', and the neologism ''taxidermy''. Modern Greek uses in its reborrowing.
* '' psychedelic'' < 'psyche' + 'make manifest, reveal'; the regular formation would be ' or ';
* ''telegram''; the regular formation would have been ';
* ''heuristic'', regular formation ';
* ''chrysalis'', regular spelling ';
* '' ptomaine'', regular formation ';
* ''kerosene'', '' hydrant'', ''symbiont''.

Many combining forms have specific technical meanings in neologisms, not predictable from the Greek sense (''cf.'' libfix):
* ''-cyte'' or '' cyto-'' < 'container', means biological cells, not arbitrary containers.
* '' -oma'' < , a generic morpheme forming deverbal nouns, such as ''diploma'' ('a folded thing') and ''glaucoma'' ('greyness'), comes to have the very narrow meaning of 'tumor' or 'swelling', on the model of words like ''carcinoma'' < . For example, ''melanoma'' 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.
* ''petro-'' < πέτρο- 'rock'; used to mean petroleum, as in ''petrodollars''.
* ''syn- < συν-'' 'with'; refers to synthesis or synthesizers: ''syngas, Synclavier.''

And some borrowings are modified in fairly arbitrary ways:
* ''gas'' (< chaos) is irregular both in formation and in spelling;
* ''hecto-, kilo-, myria-'', etymologically ', ', ';
In standard chemical nomenclature, 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 are more idiosyncratic.

Many Greek affixes such as ''anti-'' and ''-ic'' have become productive in English, combining with arbitrary English words: ''antichoice'', ''Fascistic''.

Some words in English have been reanalyzed as a base plus affix, leading to affixes based on Greek words, but which are not affixes in Greek (''cf.'' libfix). Their meaning relates to the full word they were shortened from, not the Greek meaning:
* ''-athon'' or ' (from the portmanteau word '' walkathon'', from ''walk'' + '' (mar)athon'').
* ''-ase'', used in chemistry for enzymes, is abstracted from ''diastase'', where -ασις is not a morpheme at all in Greek.
* ''-on'' for elementary particles, from ''electron'': ''lepton'', ''neutron'', ''phonon'', ...
* ''-nomics'' refers specifically to economics: ''Reaganomics''.
* ''heli-'' and ''-copter'' from ''helico-pter'' 'spiral-wing'
''Nostalgia'' was coined by a 17th-century German author as a Latin calque of German ''Heimweh.''

Through other languages

Some Greek words were borrowed through Arabic and then Romance. Many are learned:
* ''alchemy'' ( ''al-'' + or )
** ''chemist'' is a back-formation from ''alchemist''
* ''elixir'' (''al-'' + )
* ''alembic'' (''al-'' + )

Others are popular:
* ''bottarga'' ()
* '' tajine'' ()
* '' carat'' ()
* ''talisman'' ()
* possibly ''quintal'' ( < Latin ).

A few words took other routes:
* ''seine'' (a kind of fishing net) comes from a West Germanic form *''sagīna'', from Latin , from .
* ''effendi'' comes from Turkish, borrowed from Medieval Greek (/afˈθendis/, 'lord').
* '' hora'' (the dance) comes from Romanian and Modern Hebrew, borrowed from 'dance'.

Vernacular and 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'' via Arabic;
* ''elaeo-'', ''oil'', ''olive'', ''oleum'', ''latke'' via Russian and Yiddish;
* ''eleemosynary'', ''alms'';
* ''episcop(al)'', ''bishop'';
* ''zeal'', ''jealous'';
* ''hemicrania'', ''migraine'';
* ''thesaurus'', ''treasure'';
* ''iota'', ''jot'';

* ''cathedra(l)'', ''chair'', ''chaise'';
* ''cannabis'', ''canvas'';
* / 'horn' ''keratin'', ''carat'' via Arabic;
* 'lap, womb, hollow, bay' ''colp(itis)'', ''gulf'';
* ''cybernetics'', ''govern'';
* ''papyrus'', ''paper'';
* ''parochial'', ''parish'';
* ''podium'', ''pew'';
* ''presbyter'', ''priest'';
* ''pyx(is)'', ''box'';
* ''scandal'', ''slander'';
* / ''tripod'', ''tripos'' (both learned);
* 'drum' ''tympanum'' 'eardrum', ''timbre'', ''timpani'';
* ''frenetic'', ''frantic'';
* ''chirurgical'', ''surgeon'';
* ''chorus'', ''choir'', ''hora'' (via Turkish, Romanian, and modern Hebrew);
* ''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 Romance give ''palaver'', ''parol'', and ''parole'';
* ''phantasy'', ''fantasy'', ''fantasia''; ''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''
* ''ouzo''
* ''souvlaki'' (< Latin)
* ''taverna'' (< Italian)
* '' moussaka'' (< Turkish < Arabic)

* ''baklava'' (< Turkish)
* ''feta'' (< Italian)
* ''bouzouki'' (< Turkish)
* '' gyro'' (the food, a calque of Turkish '' döner'').

Greek as an intermediary

Many words from the Hebrew Bible, often without morphological regularization:
* ''rabbi'' ()
* ''seraphim'' ()
* ''paradise'' ( < Hebrew < Persian)
* ''pharaoh'' ( < Hebrew < Egyptian)

Written form of Greek words in English

Latin-based orthography

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:

* Greek was written as 'y'
* as 'e'
* as 'ch'
* as 'ph'
* as 'c'
* rough breathing 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.

Digraphs and diphthongs

The romanization of some digraphs is rendered in various ways in English. The diphthongs 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, and ''-ise'' or ''-ize'' in British English.

Non-latinate orthography

Since the 19th century, a few learned words have been introduced using a direct transliteration of Ancient Greek, including the Greek endings, rather than the traditional Latin-based spelling: ''nous'' (νοῦς), ''koine'' (κοινή), '' hoi polloi'' (οἱ πολλοί), ''kudos'' (κύδος), '' moron'' (μωρόν), ''kubernetes'' (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 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).

Irregularities

Most learned borrowings and coinages follow the Latin system, but there are some irregularities:

* '' eureka'' (''cf.'' ''heuristic'');
* ''kaleidoscope'' (the regular spelling would be ''calidoscope'')
* ''kinetic'' (''cf.'' ''cinematography'');
* ''krypton'' (''cf.'' ''cryptic'');
* ''acolyte'' (< ; would be the etymological spelling, but , , are all found in Latin);
* ''stoichiometry'' (< ; regular spelling would be ).
* ''aneurysm'' was formerly often spelled ''aneurism'' on the assumption that it uses the usual ''-ism'' ending.

Some words whose spelling in French and Middle English 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''.

Indications of Greek origin

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.
* 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-'', it is likely Greek.

There are some exceptions to this pattern:
* ''Nephew'', ''triumph'', and ''sulphur'' are ultimately from Latin.
* ''Gnat'', ''gnaw'', ''gneiss'' are Germanic.
* ''Ptarmigan'' is from a Gaelic word, the ''p'' having been added by false etymology;
* ''Style'' and ''stylus'' are of Latin origin, and are probably written with a 'y' because the Greek word 'column' (as in ''peristyle'', 'surrounded by columns') and the Latin word ''stilus,'' 'stake, pointed instrument', were confused.
* A few borrowings from Arabic are spelled with ''ph'': ''cipher'', ''nenuphar'', ''caliph'', ''saphena''.
* ''Algorithm'' is from Arabic, and was originally written ''algorism'', but was respelled in the 16th century, influenced by ''arithmetic''.
* ''Trophy'', though ultimately of Greek origin, did not have a but a in its Greek form, .

Homographs of different origin

The conflation of ο/ω and αι/ε/η/οι in the usual orthography leads to a few words which are homographs in English although they were distinct roots in Greek: ''colon'' 'punctuation mark' (κόλον) vs. 'part of intestine' (κώλον); ''coma'' 'unconsciousness' (κῶμα) vs. 'comet tail' (κόμη); ''ionic'' 'about ions' (ιονικός) vs. ''Ionic'' 'from Ionia' (ιωνικός); ''chorography'' 'description of dance' (χορογραφία) vs. 'description of region' (χωρογραφία); ''pore'' 'opening in the skin' (πόρος) vs. 'callus' (rare and obsolete) (πώρος). Other cases are unrelated to vowel conflation: ''policy'' 'principle' (πολιτεία) vs. 'insurance contract' (ἀπόδειξις via Latin ''apodissa'', Italian ''polizza'', French ''police'').

There are also some affixes like this, some productive, some not: ''halo'' 'light ring' (ἅλως) vs. ''halo''- 'salt-' (ἁλο-); ''chor''- 'dance' (χορός) vs. 'region' (χώρα); ''p(a)edo-'' 'child' (παιδ-) ''p(a)ediatrics, p(a)edology'' (rare) vs. ''pedo-'' 'soil' (πέδ-) ''pedology''; ''metro-'' 'measure' (μετρο-) ''metrology'' vs. 'uterus' (μητρο- < μήτρα) ''metropolis,metrorrhagia''; ''ceno-'' 'empty' (κενο-) ''cenotaph'' vs. 'new, recent' (καινο-) ''Cenozoic'' vs. ''c(o)eno-'' 'common, shared' (κοινο-) ''c(o)enobite''. Rarer examples are ''por-'' 'passage' (πόρος) vs. 'callus' (πώρος); ''omo''- ‘shoulder’ (ὦμος) ''omophorion'' vs. ‘raw’ (ὠμός) ''omophagy.'' In the case of ''lipo''-, the two roots were already homographs in Greek: ‘fat’ (λίπος) ''lipoprotein'' vs. 'lacking' (λίπο- < λείπειν) ''lipogram.'' Similarly, ''-carp-'' (καρπός) can mean 'wrist' ''carpal (tunnel)'' vs. 'fruit' ''pericarp''.

Pronunciation

In clusters such as ''ps-'', ''pn-'', and ''gn-'' which are not allowed in English phonotactics, the usual English pronunciation drops the first consonant (''e.g.'', psychology) at the start of a word; compare ''gnostic'' ɒstɪkand ''agnostic'' �gnɒstɪk there are a few exceptions, such as ''tmesis

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