Myth & LegendGreek → English
Aegis
/ˈiːdʒɪs/noun
The protection or sponsorship of a powerful person or body.
The Greek roots
αἰγίς
aigís
shield of Zeus
Literally: “goatskin”
Follow a root:αἰγίς1 word
The story of the word
The aegis belonged to Zeus and was lent to Athena, fringed with snakes and carrying the Gorgon's severed head. Ancient writers linked αἰγίς to αἴξ, goat, taking it for a goatskin worn over the shoulders; others connect it to καταιγίς, a rushing squall, which suits a thing that scattered armies by being shaken. English used the word literally from the seventeenth century, and the phrase under the aegis of, meaning under someone's sponsorship, became common only in the twentieth.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
aegis-bearingAegean
In a sentence
The dig ran under the aegis of the British School at Athens.