Gymnasium is a Greek Word Which Means Naked

The word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek word “gymnós”, which literally means “naked”. Athletes competed nude, a practice said to encourage aesthetic appreciation of the male body and a tribute to the gods.

In a similar vein, the word “athlete” originates from the Greek word “athl?t?s”.

You may be even be more surprised to hear that the English language contains more than 50,000 words with Greek origin, according to a research conducted by Mr. Aristidis Konstantinidis. His study, which took 28 years to complete, led to the conclusion that one out of four English words is of Greek origin!

Greek is the language of sciences and literature in the English language. Mr. Konstantinidis further revealed the effect of the Greek language on European vocabulary; French contained 1250, and German 1450 words of Greek roots.

Modern English contains words from Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Hippocrates, Thukydides, Homer, Herodotus, Hesiodos, and Galinos.

The meaning of some words has morphed. For example, the Greek work “angelos” meant messenger while we use it today in the spiritual sense of an “angel”.

Greek words are often used in the GRE test.  They are less used in today’s active vocabulary. When they are you can be sure to impress your friends and score high on the GRE test.

For example, the word “adamant” originates from the Greek work “adamas” and means hard to be persuaded or to change one’s mind. Another example is the word “abyss” which means bottomless and has the Greek stem ?bussos”. You’ll find the word abyss often on nautical maps denoting a very deep region in an Ocean.

Finally, let me mention the word “anthr?pos” which is Greek for “anthropology” meaning a human being.  Today, anthropology is a part of the social sciences and studies  – well – human beings.

Note, that all examples of Greek words I chose start with the letter “a”. Perhaps this helps to give you a sense of how deeply our English language is rooted in Greek.

If this article awakens your interest in learning Greek there are plenty of Greek tutors on TutorZ.com!