Everyday LifeGreek → English
Aristides
/ˌærɪˈstaɪdiːz/proper noun
The Athenian statesman and general of the early fifth century BC, known as the Just.
The Greek roots
ἄριστος
áristos
best, noblest
-ίδης
-ídēs
son of, descended from
Literally: “son of the best”
The story of the word
Plutarch tells the story that gave the name its afterlife: at an ostracism an illiterate citizen handed Aristides a potsherd and asked him to scratch Aristides on it, and when asked what the man had against him, said only that he was sick of hearing him called the Just. Aristides wrote his own name and handed it back. He was exiled in 482 BC and recalled two years later when Xerxes came. The first element is the ἄριστος of aristocracy.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
aristocracyAristotlearisteia
In a sentence
He quoted the ostracism of Aristides whenever someone complained that competence was punished.