Greek 101: Elementary Greek
Handout for chapter 1a
For each of the following words,
(1) write our each Greek word (include breathing and accent) three times, pronouncing it
aloud as you do so.
(2) transliterate the word into the Roman alphabet (e.g. λέγει = legei).
(3) study the English translation and etymology.
Greek word
ἐστί
Meaning
he/she/it is
λέγει
s/he says,
tells, speaks
οἰκεῖ
s/he lives,
dwells
s/he works
s/he loves
πονεῖ
φιλεῖ
χαἰρει
ὁ ἀγρός
ὁ ἄνθρωπος
ὁ οἶκος
s/he rejoices
field
man, human,
person
house, home
ὁ πόνος
ὁ σῖτος
toil, work
grain, food
καλός
μακρός
beautiful
long; large
μικρός
πολύς
small
much, many
Etymological hint or association
this is, believe or not, the same word as English is,
German ist, Latin (and French) est, Spanish es
you will soon come to see this as a relative of the
noun λόγος, which means “word,” or “study” or even
“story,” and is the suffix for psychology, biology,
astrology, etc. Words like lexicon (lek-si-kon)also
come from the λεγ-/λογ- stem
see below, under ὁ οἶκος
-bibliophile is a lover of biblia = books; a philosopher is
a lover of sophia = wisdom
agriculture is the tending of a field
anthropology is the study (logos) of humans
economics was originally spelled oeco-, which is
latinized oiko-, and at first meant keeping track of
finances at the house (for rich folks, an estate)
--- (well, there is a word sitology = study of nutrition,
but I doubt that helps!)
calligraphy means beautiful γραφή = writing
macro-economics is the study of economics from the
large perspective, just as macroscope means
something large enough to be seen without an
instrument
think microscope, for instance
all those words starting with poly-, such as polytheism
(worship of many gods), polysyllabic (many syllables),
polygamy (many marriages, or too many in any case),
Polynesia (a country of many islands)