GREEK GEEK
Many English language words come from ancient Greek. In this task, you’ ll find some examples of Greek words and the English words that have developed from them. This is not an exhaustive list but will give you a feel for the Greek roots of some English words.
The words in this task barely scratch the surface of the number of English words that started life in Greece. See if you can find more English words that may have come from these Greek roots, and then check in a dictionary to confirm the derivation.( incidentally“ derivation” is a word that comes from Latin which means“ flows from”).
As you move to secondary school you may get an opportunity to study Greek or Latin but even if you don’ t, it’ s useful to know where the root of many English words came from as they tend to crop up in science and humanities subjects and you will be expected to use them correctly.
Can you match the following Greek words to their meaning?
30
1. Ankura = Anchor 2. Angelos = Angel 3. Anagrammatismos = Anagram 4. Bronkhos = Windpipe 5. Glukus = Sweet 6. Ekleipsis = Eclipse 7. Zoon = Animal 8. Ethos = Moral 9. Kinema = Movement 10. Megas = Big 11. Skhole = School