Myth & LegendGreek → English
Achilles
/əˈkɪliːz/proper noun
The greatest Greek fighter at Troy, whose name now marks the tendon at the heel and any single fatal weakness.
The Greek roots
Ἀχιλλεύς
Achilleús
Achilles, Homeric hero
Literally: “Achilles, son of Peleus”
Follow a root:Ἀχιλλεύς1 word
The story of the word
Philip Verheyen named the tendon chorda Achillis in 1693, after the heel his mother held while dipping him in the Styx. Homer never mentions that heel; the invulnerability and the one unprotected spot come from later writers, chiefly Statius. The name itself is disputed, with ἄχος, grief, joined to λαός, the fighting people, as the best-known proposal, which would make him grief of the army.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
AchilleanPatroclusIliad
In a sentence
He tore his Achilles playing five-a-side and was on crutches for two months.
Overconfidence was the department's Achilles heel.