Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Agora
/ˈæɡərə/noun
The open public square of a Greek city, used for markets, law courts and assembly.
The Greek roots
ἀγορά
agorá
assembly, marketplace
Literally: “gathering place”
Follow a root:ἀγορά3 words
The story of the word
The agora held the stalls, the mint, the law courts and the men standing about arguing, which is where Socrates did his work and where he was eventually tried. ἀγορεύειν, to speak in it, gives allegory, saying one thing publicly and meaning another, and κατηγορεῖν, to speak against someone, gives category by way of Aristotle. Westphal coined Agoraphobie in 1871 for patients who could not cross an open square, so the fear is of the space, not of shopping.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
Same family
agoraphobiaallegorycategorypanegyric
In a sentence
Excavation of the Athenian agora ran for most of the twentieth century.
He calls the comment section a digital agora, which flatters both.