Ancient Greek words from Proto-Indo-European
18 Ancient Greek words with Proto-Indo-European in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
ἄλγος
The origin is uncertain. It is usually connected with ἀλέγω (alégō, “to care, heed”), and so perhaps inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leg- (“to care”); a change from “care, worry” to “grief”…
ἄνεμος
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ánemos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁mos, a noun from *h₂enh₁- (“to breathe”). It agrees with Latin animus. Sanskrit अनिल (ánila, “wind, air”) has…
γυμνός
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *gumnós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *nogʷnós (“naked”), an old inherited adjective. Its forms differ from language to language, partly through…
δεσπότης
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *déspotis, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *déms pótis (“master of the house”), an old phrase that became a single word in Greek. The first part is the…
θεός
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *tʰehós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁sós, a thematic form of an old s-stem noun *dʰéh₁s (“god”). Greek has the zero grade *dʰh₁s-, while Armenian and…
κόσμος
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kónsmos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱónsmos, a noun in -μος from the root *ḱens- (“to announce, put in order”). Beekes considers *ḱoNs-mo- the most…
κράτος
It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *krét-os, from the root *kret- (“strength”). The Aeolic κρέτος keeps the old full grade, while κράτος took its vowel from the adjective κρατύς (kratús…
κύων
It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (“dog”), the Indo-European name of the dog, kept in most of the daughter languages. Greek preserves the old inflection, nominative κύων and genitive…
λόγος
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *lógos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *log-o-, a noun with the o-grade of the root *leǵ- (“to collect, gather”), and the verbal noun of λέγω (légō). The verb…
ὀκτώ
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *oktṓ, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw (“eight”). The Indo-European word was evidently an old dual, but its further analysis is quite uncertain. Beekes…
ὀξύς
It has no exact correspondences outside Greek. The traditional explanation makes it inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”), as a u-stem adjective with the o-grade of the root of ἄκρος…
ὀρφανός
It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos (“orphan, bereft”), enlarged in Greek with the adjective suffix -ανός: Hesychius' glosses ὀρφοβόται “guardians of orphans” and ὤρφωσεν “made an…
ὄρχις
It is an old inherited word, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃(o)rǵʰ-i- (“testicle”). Apart from suffixes it agrees with Old Armenian որձիք (orjikʻ, “testicles”), Albanian herdhë and Middle…
πέντε
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *pénkʷe, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe (“five”). Aeolic πέμπε shows a different outcome of the labiovelar /kʷ/. Pamphylian πέ(ν)δε voiced the /t/…
σάρξ
It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *turḱ-s, a zero-grade noun of the root *twerḱ- (“to cut”), and so first “a piece cut off, a piece of meat”. Van Beek sets up Proto-Greek *tu̯r̥k-, and…
σκιά
It is an old word for “shadow”, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₁ieh₂, genitive *skh₁ieh₂-s, which originally inflected with ablaut. It matches Albanian hije and Tocharian B skiyo, both…
σκοπός
It is derived from the root of σκέπτομαι (sképtomai, “to look at, consider”), in its o-grade, from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look, spy”). σκέπτομαι goes back to *σπέκ-ομαι with metathesis, and…
ὥρα
It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, season”), more exactly *Hyoh₁-r-h₂ with a feminine ending. Its cognates are the words for “year”: Gothic 𐌾𐌴𐍂 (jēr), Old High German jār and…