Art & MusicGreek → English
Acropolis
/əˈkrɒpəlɪs/noun
The fortified high ground of a Greek city, holding its citadel and principal temples.
The Greek roots
ἄκρος
ákros
topmost, at the tip
πόλις
pólis
city, city-state
Literally: “topmost city”
The story of the word
ἄκρος, topmost, plus πόλις: the high part of a town, where the walls and the main sanctuaries went. Most Greek cities had one, and Corinth's Acrocorinth stands far higher than the Athenian rock; Athens owns the definite article by reputation alone. English borrowed the word in the 1660s, well before any Englishman had climbed it, and the marbles left the hill in 1801.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
- First recorded
- 1660s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
acrobatacrophobiaacronymmetropolisnecropolis
In a sentence
From the flat roof you can see the acropolis lit up above the traffic.
Every excavated Mycenaean acropolis has the same layout: a wall, a gate, a hall.