Ancient Greek words first recorded in the 5th century BC

Beekes considers it probably Pre-Greek, because of the variant φαίκανον (phaíkanon), which Hesychius glosses as rue: the alternations of ⟨π⟩ with ⟨φ⟩ and of ⟨η⟩ with ⟨αι⟩ are features of Pre-Greek…

It is the later spelling of πεῖ (peî), the letter name borrowed from Phoenician 𐤐 (pē). Rosół lists it among the Greek letter names taken from Semitic: the Semitic name of the letter, found in…

It is an agent noun formed from Ancient Greek πλανάω (planáō, “to wander”) + -της (-tēs). Babiniotis derives it through πλάνης (plánēs, “wanderer”), which LSJ treats as its equivalent. The verb's…

It has traditionally been derived from πλατύς (platús, “broad”), the tree being named after its broad leaves or its flat patches of bark. Beekes rejects this because the oldest form, πλατάνιστος…

It is from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat”), the adjective's feminine used as a noun: for “street” the word ὁδός (hodós, “road”) is understood (“broad road”), and for “flat of the hand”…

It is probably from Ancient Greek πλήθω (plḗthō, “to be full”), formed like ἐλπωρή (elpōrḗ) from ἔλπω (élpō). Πάπυρος sees the suffix -ωρη (-ōrē) of ἀλεωρή (aleōrḗ) and θαλπωρή (thalpōrḗ) added to…

It is formed from Ancient Greek πούς (poús) + -ιον (-ion), a diminutive of the word for “foot”. The noun πούς (poús) goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot”). The NIL sets the same formation…

It is formed from Ancient Greek ποιέω (poiéō, “to make”) + -τής (-tḗs), the agent suffix. A variant spelling is ποητής (poētḗs).

It is formed from Ancient Greek ποιός (poiós, “of some kind”) + -της (-tēs), the indefinite of the interrogative ποῖος (poîos, “of what kind?”), which comes from the Indo-European interrogative…

It is formed from Ancient Greek πολίτης (polī́tēs, “citizen”) + -ία (-íā), an abstract noun; the CGL and Babiniotis connect it with the verb πολιτεύω (polīteúō) “to be a citizen, take part in…

It is formed from Ancient Greek πολίτης (polī́tēs, “citizen”) + -ικός (-ikós), the noun being from Ancient Greek πόλις (pólis, “city”).

The neuter of the adjective from Ancient Greek πολύγωνος (polúgōnos, “polygonal, many-angled”), used as a noun. The adjective is a compound from Ancient Greek πολύς (polús, “many”) + γωνία (gōnía…

It is formed from Ancient Greek πράσσω (prā́ssō, “to do”) + -τικός (-tikós), built on the stem of the verb. Babiniotis explains the adjective's stem as reanalysed from forms such as πρακτός…

It is traditionally taken as inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pr̥so- (“leek”), the same word as Latin porrum (“leek”). The /s/ kept between the resonant and the vowel recalls δασύς (dasús…

It is formed from Ancient Greek προ- (pro-, “before”) + γνῶσις (gnôsis, “knowledge”). Bailly and Babiniotis derive it from the verb προγιγνώσκω (progignṓskō, “to know beforehand”), made of the same…

It is formed from Ancient Greek προ- (pro-, “before, forth”) + γράφω (gráphō, “to write”). The prefix gives both “write first, write above” and “write up in public, post a notice”. The Hellenistic…

It is from Ancient Greek προπίπτω (propíptō, “to fall forward”): a compound of πρό (pró, “forward”) and a second element from the stem of πίπτω (pī́ptō, “to fall”), the same stem as in περιπετής…

Bailly and the CGL derive it from the adjective from Ancient Greek προσῳδός (prosōidós, “singing in accord, harmonious”), itself made from ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”). Wiktionary analyses it directly as from…

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *peys- (“to crush, pound”), an Indo-European agricultural verb. Its ⟨πτ⟩ has no exact match: the other languages have /p/. The verbal adjective ἄπτιστος…

It is a noun from Proto-Indo-European *puH- (“to rot”), made directly from the root, without the ⟨θ⟩ extension of the verb πύθομαι (púthomai, “to rot”). Its closest matches outside Greek are Old…

The origin is disputed. In the sense of a cake of roasted wheat and honey, the word is derived from πυρός (pūrós, “wheat”) on the model of σησαμίς (sēsamís, “sesame cake”). Diels proposed that the…

Beekes and Chantraine take it, with some doubt, as from Ancient Greek πύρριχος (púrrikhos, “red”), an expressive form of πυρρός (purrhós, “flame-coloured, red”) that Theocritus uses of a bull and…

Its formation is that of an iterative-intensive verb, but no primary verb from which it could be derived is surely attested, in Greek or elsewhere. It may be inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pel-…

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, probably a Mediterranean word: it recalls ῥάματα (rhámata, “bunch of grapes”), which Hesychius gives as Macedonian, and Latin racēmus (“stalk of a bunch of grapes”)…

It is a compound from Ancient Greek ῥάπτω (rháptō, “to sew, stitch”) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”), a verbal governing compound made from the phrase “to stitch a song” (ἀοιδή (aoidḗ)), so originally “one who…

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek: the suffixes -ινος (-īnos) and -ινη (-īnē) occur in both inherited and Pre-Greek words, but there are no good cognates, and Latin rēsīna (“resin”) points to a…

It is an agent noun from Ancient Greek εἴρω (eírō, “to speak”), analysable as ῥη- (rhē-) + -τωρ (-tōr), from Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *werh₁- (“to speak”). As the name of a profession it…

The origin is unknown; no Indo-European etymology has been established. Beekes and Chantraine take “file, rasp” as the original meaning and the fish name as derived from it, because the shark's…

It is a noun from Ancient Greek ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow”), formed with the suffix -αξ (-ax). Beekes, following Björck, takes it to be probably a Sicilian word. Hesychius records a related ῥύαγξ…

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek: it was first a sailors' technical word, and its family has the variable velar suffixes typical of Pre-Greek, -αγ- (-ag-), -ακ- (-ak-) and -αγκ- (-agk-), with…

It is a diminutive, from Ancient Greek σάνδαλον (sándalon) + -ιον (-ion). The base word, found from the Homeric Hymn to Hermes on, also has the form σάμβαλον (sámbalon) in Sappho and other poets…

It is formed from Ancient Greek σάρξ (sárx, “flesh”) + -άζω (-ázō), the verbal suffix. Beekes and Frisk find no fully convincing argument for this obvious connection, but think that in Aristophanes…

It is a noun formed from Ancient Greek σείω (seíō, “to shake”) + -μός (-mós), an action noun of the type of λυγμός (lugmós) and δεσμός (desmós). The meaning “earthquake” comes from an ellipsis of…

The origin is unclear: Beekes thinks it is probably an onomatopoeic word, and Chantraine and Frisk call it an expressive popular word, like πτύαλον (ptúalon, “spittle”) and πτύω (ptū́ō, “to spit”)…

Unlike most Greek letter names, it has no evident Semitic model, since the name of the Hebrew letter samekh is formally remote. Beekes and Frisk, following Schwyzer, therefore take it as a verbal…

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek: a technical word without an etymology, whose variation between short and long /i/ and the spelling σειρός (seirós) are hard to explain from Indo-European. Solmsen and…

It is a derivative from Ancient Greek σκέλλω (skéllō, “to dry up, parch”) + -τός (-tós), built on a stem σκελε- (skele-) like κοπετός (kopetós) and πυρετός (puretós). Beekes derives the verb from…

The origin is unclear. Beekes, following Furnée, thinks it may well be Pre-Greek.

It is an Oriental loanword. It matches Sanskrit मरकत (marakata), Akkadian barraqtu and Biblical Hebrew בָּרֶקֶת (bāreqet), all “emerald”, whose ultimate source is probably Semitic, from a root brq…

Its origin is uncertain. Beekes, following LIV and Chantraine, takes it as inherited from Proto-Indo-European *smeh₁- (“to rub”), treating the forms with α as secondary. Wiktionary reconstructs a…

Its origin is disputed. Beekes and Frisk, following Heubeck, take it as a back-formation from Ancient Greek Σμυρναία (Smurnaía, “the Smyrnaean”), an epithet of the older word for myrrh, μύρρα…

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sper-yeh₂-, from Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“to twist, wind”). Beekes calls the form only quasi-Indo-European, and it is uncertain whether it was first…

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *spl(ē)gʰ-n- (“spleen”) in Beekes's notation, but the exact preform is unclear. Several branches have similar words for the spleen, and they differ too much…

It is formed with the suffix -ιά (-iá) from Ancient Greek σπόγγος (spóngos, “sponge”). Chantraine sees in the suffix a collective value, and Beekes refers to Scheller for the accent. The base…

Beekes considers it probably Pre-Greek, because of the variation within its word family. In his Pre-Greek lexicon he groups it with the Hesychian ἄσπαλον (áspalon) “skin, hide”, which has a…

It is formed from Ancient Greek σπείρω (speírō, “to sow”) + -ά (-á), a verbal noun with the o-grade of the root, like σπόρος (spóros). The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“to strew”)…

It is from Ancient Greek στάζω (stázō, “to drip”), which goes back to *στάγ-yω (*stág-yō), as τρυγών (trugṓn) stands beside τρύζω (trúzō). The rare plural στάγες (stáges) in Apollonius of Rhodes is…

It comes from Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to stand”), on the root, Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), and means “the standing (jar)”. Beekes reconstructs *sth₂-mn-o-, probably from a noun…

The Attic masculine of a word for a handle that also appears as στελεά (steleā́) and στελεόν (steleón); it is formed like κολεός (koleós) “sheath”. Beekes and Frisk derive these words and στέλεχος…

It is a technical term without an etymology, very probably borrowed from an unknown source. Neumann compared Hittite ištalk- (“to level, smooth”), an Anatolian connection that Chantraine records…

It is from Ancient Greek στοῖχος (stoîkhos, “row, line”) + -εῖον (-eîon), properly one member of a row or series. στοῖχος is from Proto-Hellenic *stóikʰos, from Proto-Indo-European *stóygʰ-os, an…

It is formed from Ancient Greek στρατιά (stratiā́, “army”) + -ώτης (-ṓtēs), like δεσμώτης (desmṓtēs, “prisoner”) and νησιώτης (nēsiṓtēs, “islander”). Wiktionary also gives two other analyses: a noun…

It is an action noun from Ancient Greek στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn, twist”), formed with the suffix -η (-ē). Πάπυρος explains it as the stem of the verb in its o-grade, and notes that the feminine…

It is a compound from Ancient Greek σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “to show, denounce”) + -της (-tēs), the agent suffix: “one who shows the fig”. Beekes and Frisk call it an expression of…

It is a verbal noun from Ancient Greek συλλογίζομαι (sullogízomai, “to compute, infer”) with the suffix -μός (-mós). The verb is λογίζομαι (logízomai, “to reckon”) with σύν (sún, “together”). It was…

It is formed from Ancient Greek σύμμετρος (súmmetros, “commensurate, in proportion”) + -ία (-íā). The adjective is from Ancient Greek σύν (sún, “with”) and μέτρον (métron, “measure”).

It is formed from Ancient Greek σύν (sún, “with”) + πάθος (páthos, “experience, feeling”) + -ής (-ḗs), with the adjective suffix -ής. The stem παθ- (path-) is that of πάσχω (páskhō, “to suffer…

It is formed from Ancient Greek συμπίπτω (sumpíptō, “to fall together, happen”) + -μα (-ma), the suffix of action nouns, on the stem ⟨συμπτω-⟩, the grade of the root that also appears in πτῶμα…

It is formed from Ancient Greek συνάγω (sunágō, “to bring together”) + -ή (-ḗ); the verb is formed from σύν (sún, “with, together”) and ἄγω (ágō, “to lead”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to…

It is from Ancient Greek συντάσσω (suntássō, “to put in order together”) with the suffix -σις (-sis). The verb is formed with σύν (sún, “together”) on τάσσω (tássō, “to arrange”), as τάξις (táxis)…