Greek_words

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This is a list of Greek words with derivatives in English (and other modern languages).

Transliteration

There are considerable differences between the various transliterations used to represent the Greek alphabet in English. The table in the sidebar shows:

• the "traditional" transliteration, in other words that used in Latin, representing classical Greek: this is the form in which most Greek words have made their way into English
• a "classical" transliteration, commonly used to represent more accurately the pronunciation of Ancient Greek
• the "modern" transliteration often used for Modern Greek — see Transliteration of Greek into English for some variations.

Greek had no letter h: a rough breathing over an initial vowel or diphthong – ἁ ἑ ἡ ἱ ὁ ὑ ὡ – indicates that the word was pronounced with an initial h, and a smooth breathing – ἀ ἐ ἠ ἰ ὀ ὐ ὠ – indicates the absence of an h, but this has since disappeared in speech, and Modern Greek omits the breathings. An initial upsilon (υ) always had the rough breathing – ὑ – hence hy is very common at the start of words derived from Greek, but no (or very few) such words start with y.

The letter rho (ρ) at the start of a word always had the rough breathing – ῥ – and is transliterated rh. If a rho occurred doubled within a word, the first ρ always had the smooth breathing and the second the rough breathing – ῤῥ – leading to the transiliteration rrh.

For a fuller discussion of these matters, see the Greek alphabet.

Note: the distinction between the rough and smooth breathings as shown above may not be very clear on certain browsers.

Greek Words with Modern Derivatives

The Citation form shown is the form most commonly shown in dictionaries, but this form is often unrepresentative of the word as used to form a compound word, hence the Root form is also shown. In the case of verbs, the citation form is by convention the first person singular, present indicative, for instance φάγω (phagō), "I eat", rather than the infinitive ("to eat") as might be more usual in English and other modern language dictionaries.

The "classical" transliteration as described above is used for both the Citation form and the Root form.

The Greek words are shown in polytonic orthography, in other words showing the breathings and the fuller range of accents, as used in Ancient Greek and in Modern Greek for those who do not accept the 1982 "monotonic reform".

Α

a