Words & WritingGreek → English
Episode
/ˈɛpɪsoʊd/noun
One instalment of a serial story, or a single distinct event in a longer sequence.
The Greek roots
ἐπί
epí
upon, in addition
εἴσοδος
eísodos
entrance, coming in
Literally: “a coming in besides”
The story of the word
In Attic tragedy the ἐπεισόδιον was the spoken scene wedged between two choral songs, the part where the actors came in on top of the singing. Aristotle uses the term in the Poetics and means the chunk of plot, not the chorus around it. Television has taken the theatrical sense back almost unchanged: the piece between the songs is now the piece between the credits.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
exodusmethodperiododometer
In a sentence
The last episode wastes ten minutes recapping the first three.