Myth & LegendGreek → English
Nike
/ˈnaɪki/proper noun
The Greek goddess of victory, and the sportswear company named after her.
The Greek roots
νίκη
níkē
victory
Literally: “victory”
Follow a root:νίκη8 words
The story of the word
Νίκη was less a personality than a result made visible: winged, arriving, usually shown alighting beside a winner. The headless statue from Samothrace in the Louvre is her. Before the shoe company took the name in 1971, the US Army had already used it for a line of anti-aircraft missiles, and long before that Greek parents were packing the word into ordinary names, which is why Nicholas means something like "victory of the people".
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
Same family
NicholasNicodemusEuniceBerenice
In a sentence
The temple of Athena Nike sits on the edge of the Acropolis, small and very exposed.
She named the boat Nike and then lost every race that season.