About the project
The true sense of words
The word etymon comes from the Greek ἔτυμον — “the true sense”. Etymon is a small museum for the Greek roots that quietly shape the languages we speak today.
How to read a root
Most Greek-derived words are built from smaller pieces. Break them apart and the meaning often becomes obvious. Take telephone:
Literally: “far voice”
Once you recognise a root it starts appearing everywhere. Phōnḗ also hides inside symphony, microphone, euphony and phonetics — which is why every word here links straight to its root, and every root lists the whole family behind it.
Three ways in
Greek reached modern languages by three different doors, and the entries say which one each word came through.
- Straight from Greek. Chaos, drama, idea — carried over almost unchanged.
- Through Latin and French. Church, priest and almond were worn smooth by centuries of other mouths before they arrived.
- Built new from old parts. No Greek ever said telephone or dinosaur. Nineteenth-century scientists reached back into a dead language for the pieces.
Many languages, one source
Greek didn't only shape English. Each pairing is its own collection of words sharing the same ancient roots — and each is written in the language it describes, so the German entries read as German.
Greek in English
From atoms to democracy, English leans on ancient Greek for the vocabulary of science, thought, and everyday life.
2,729 words · 1,662 roots
Greek in German
German borrowed heavily from Greek for scholarship and technology — often reshaping the roots with its own spelling.
749 words · 700 roots
Greek in French
French inherited its Greek through Latin, then went back to the source each time it needed a name for something new.
450 words · 449 roots
Greek in Spanish
Spanish carries Greek in two layers: the old words Rome passed on, and the learned ones the sciences borrowed later.
450 words · 430 roots
Greek in Italian
Greek colonists reached Italy long before Latin spread — and Italian has been trading words with Greek ever since.
350 words · 364 roots
On accuracy
Etymology is an argument from evidence, not a settled catalogue. Where scholars disagree about a derivation the entry says so rather than picking a winner, and a word whose Greek ancestry is only probable is described that way. If you find something wrong, it is worth reporting — a reference work is only as good as its corrections.