Because Greek is such an ancient language, common Greek words in the English language reflect the values of those turbulent times. Words that we are are familiar with spring from heightened emotion, such as agon or “agony”, phobia or “irrational fear”, and hyper, meaning “greatly inflated” or “exaggerated”.
The idea of the academy and scholarship originated in Greece and these words are also Greek, alongside school and scholar. “Sophisticated” derives from the word sophist, meaning a learned person. Join “philo”, meaning love, with sophist and philosopher, a person who loves learning, emerges. Theory derives from theoria, which means human thought.
Democracy is a Greek work, and “politics” is derived from polis, which mean the “city-state”. Polis is also the origin of “metropolitan”, while rhetoric still means “persuasive speech”. Ancient Greece was the birthplace of theatre, itself a Greek word. The word “pantomime” is derived from mimesis. which means to imitate. The word orchestra means “open performance space”. These words are just a small selection of Greek terms that are in use in our language, today.
