Everyday LifeGreek → English
Homer
/ˈhoʊmər/noun
A given name, carried into English from the poet credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey.
The Greek roots
Ὅμηρος
Hómēros
hostage, or one joined
Literally: “hostage”
Follow a root:Ὅμηρος2 words
The story of the word
The ancient Greeks could not agree on what their greatest poet's name meant. Hómēros as a common noun means hostage, and one late tradition says he was handed over as one; another reads the name as joined together, which suited those who thought the epics were stitched from older songs. American parents took up Homer during the nineteenth-century classical revival, which is how the name reached a nuclear plant in Springfield. Baseball's homer is a separate word, clipped from home run.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
Homeric
In a sentence
His grandfather Homer had been named for the poet, and never let anyone forget it.