Ancient Greek etymology in numbers
Counted from the etymologies of the 949 Ancient Greek entries in this dictionary, and recounted every few hours as entries are added. See also Ancient Greek words by origin.
Borrowed, inherited or formed
Each entry counted once: as borrowed if its etymology names a language it was taken from, else as inherited, else as formed within Ancient Greek.
- Borrowed 16% · 154 taken from another language
- Inherited 49% · 462 passed down from an ancestor of Ancient Greek
- Formed in Ancient Greek 8% · 73 compounds and derivatives of its own words
- Not traced yet 27% · 260 no etymology links yet
Ultimate origins by language family
Where the 653 traced words end up when their etymologies are followed back as far as they go, from entry to entry, grouped into families and the branches of Indo-European.
- Indo-European 410 · 63% Proto-Indo-European 410
- Hellenic 86 · 13% Proto-Hellenic 62 · Ancient Greek 24
- Afroasiatic 15 · 2% Egyptian 6 · Biblical Hebrew 3 · Phoenician 3 · Akkadian 2 …
- Indo-Iranian 6 · 1% Proto-Iranian 2 · Old Persian 2 · Middle Persian 2
- Italic 1 · 0% Proto-Italic 1
- Unclassified 135 · 21% Pre-Greek 134 · Prakrit 1
When the words arrived
The 305 entries with a first-attestation date, by century and by the language each was borrowed from.
- Pre-Greek
- Egyptian
- Biblical Hebrew
- Phoenician
- Old Persian
- Other borrowings
- Inherited or formed
- Not traced
Show as a table
| Century | Pre-Greek | Egyptian | Biblical Hebrew | Phoenician | Old Persian | Other borrowings | Inherited or formed | Not traced | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7th century BC | 7 | 1 | 18 | 9 | 35 | ||||
| 6th century BC | 26 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 49 | 45 | 125 | ||
| 5th century BC | 19 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 36 | 48 | 107 | ||
| 4th century BC | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 17 | |||
| 3rd century BC | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | |||||
| 2nd century BC | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||
| 1st century BC | 1 | 4 | 5 | ||||||
| 1st century | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||||||
| 3rd century | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 6th century | 1 | 1 |
Words other languages took from Ancient Greek
1,315 entries of other languages in this dictionary were borrowed from Ancient Greek or its earlier stages.
Most prolific roots
The words that the most Ancient Greek entries go back to, at the far end of their etymologies.
- 3 Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- → σκέπτομαι, σκοπέω, σκοπός
- 2 Proto-Hellenic *(h)méřřomai → μείρομαι, μέρος
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- → δοκέω, δέχομαι
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *dóru → δόρυ, δρῦς
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *dʰewH- → θύω, θύος
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *dʰí-dʰeh₁-mi → τίθημι, θήκη
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us → βαρύς, βάρος
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- → αὔω, οὖς
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- → αἴθω, αἰθήρ
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *meyH- → μινύθω, μείων
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *stéh₃mn̥ → στόμα, στόμαχος
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₃sḱéti → γιγνώσκω, γνώριμος
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéweti → χέω, χυλός
- 2 Proto-Indo-European *ḱent- → κοντός, κεντέω
- 1 Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- → ἵημι
Longest journeys
The Ancient Greek words whose etymologies pass through the most languages, followed from entry to entry.
- εἴρω 2 languages
Proto-Hellenic *héřřō ← Proto-Indo-European *ser- ← Proto-Hellenic *wéřřō ← Proto-Indo-European *wéryeti
- ἔαρ 2 languages
Proto-Hellenic *wéhər ← Proto-Indo-European *wésr̥ ← Proto-Hellenic *éhər ← Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥
- αἰθήρ 2 languages
Ancient Greek αἴθω ← Proto-Hellenic *áitʰō ← Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ-
- βάρος 2 languages
Ancient Greek βαρύς ← Proto-Hellenic *gʷarus ← Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us
- γνώριμος 2 languages
Ancient Greek γιγνώσκω ← Proto-Hellenic *gignṓskō ← Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥h₃sḱéti
- θήκη 2 languages
Ancient Greek τίθημι ← Proto-Hellenic *títʰēmi ← Proto-Indo-European *dʰí-dʰeh₁-mi
- πόσις 2 languages
Proto-Hellenic *pótis ← Proto-Indo-European *pótis ← Proto-Indo-European *ph₃tis
- ἰός 2 languages
Proto-Hellenic *ihwós ← Proto-Hellenic *wihós ← Proto-Indo-European *wisós
- αἰετός 2 languages
Proto-Hellenic *aywetós ← Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewyetós
- αἰσθάνομαι 2 languages
Proto-Hellenic *awistʰomai ← Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewis-dʰh₁-