English Words Deriving from the Greek Language

The overarching of this Lexicon/Dictionary is to give a more accurate testimony to the influence and contribution of the Greek language to English! There are approximately thirty-thousand English words whose origin is Greek. It could have been double this number if one includes derivative words, or many of the words that are part Greek and part Latin or few part French. I concentrated exclusively on words with Greek origin, and that alone demonstrates how significantly English has been influenced and enhanced by the Greek language. In fact, many believe, that one of the reasons English has achieved such worldwide recognition and has become one of the richest and most adaptable languages is, that it has incorporated within it the wealth of the Greek language, a language which has been characterized: unique, productive; viable, incomparable to any other language, an inexhaustible linguistic source indeed!

The greatest value of this book: a) articulating the incredible number of Greek vocabulary, which enriched English dictionaries, b) the wonderful educational aid it gives by providing an extensive list of root/ combing forms (prefixes and suffixes). This list, really a word toolkit, will benefit anyone, be it any professional, word lover, word-puzzle enthusiast, spelling-bee candidate, students taking any kind of tests/exams (as SAT; MAT; LSAT, etc.) which will likely include a substantial number of these compounded words, c) the twenty Disciplines/Fields of Study, which have heavily borrowed from the Greek language and, d) last but not least and the most important discovery I made through the research and writing this Lexicon is the realization that whoever knows part of all the aforementioned benefits, is bilingual! An English speaker will realize that he/she is speaking another language (Greek), and the same applies to a Greek speaker (realizing that is speaking English as well!)

-- Matina Psyhogeos