Horizon = Ορίζοντας (Orizontas), the “h” is rejected in modern Greek.
History = Ιστορία (Eestoreea), the “h” is rejected in modern Greek.
Hippopotamus = Ιπποπόταμος (Ipopotamos), the “h” is rejected in modern Greek.
Hero = Ήρως (Iros), the “h” is rejected in modern Greek.
Hercules = Ηρακλής (Eraklees), the “h” is rejected in modern Greek.
Helicopter = Ελικόπτερο (Elikoptero), the “h” is rejected in modern Greek.
Harmony = Αρμονία (Armonia), the “h” is rejected in modern Greek.
Only an example of a few words of Greek origin is below with their writing in the modern Greek language and their spelling with Latin characters. Greek words in the English language Learn 100 Greek words in 10 minutes! List of Greek words in English Most of this article is borrowed from this website, so greetings belong to them. Hellenic and Latin are the predominant sources of the international scientific vocabulary, however, the percentage of words borrowed from Greek rises much higher than Latin when considering highly scientific vocabulary (for example, “ oxytetracycline” is a medical term that has three Hellenic roots).Īnd finally, had you ever wondered how the world was going to be if the Greek language never existed? 2005 Core Knowledge® National Conference, Greek and Latin Root Words, 8th Grade 1 Greek and Latin Root Words Grade Level: 8th Grade Language Arts Written by: Donna Seekamp, Aurora Academy Charter School, Aurora, CO Length of Unit: Seven lessons (approximately 10 days) one day 55 minutes) I. This is because there were many Hellenic words borrowed in Latin originally, which then filtered down into English because English borrowed so many words from Latin (for example, “ elaiwa” in Greek evolved into the Latin “ oliva”, which in turn became “ olive” in English). So, about 150.000 words in modern English have direct or indirect origin from the ancient Greek language. In a typical everyday 80,000-word English dictionary, about 5% of the words are directly borrowed from Greek (for example, “ phenomenon” is a Hellenic word and even obeys Hellenic grammar rules as the plural is “ phenomena”), and another 25% are borrowed indirectly. Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as a basis for coinages: anthropology, photography, telephony, isomer, biomechanics, cinematography, etc…