Everyday LifeGreek → English
Olive
/ˈɑlɪv/noun
The small bitter fruit of a Mediterranean evergreen, and the tree that bears it.
The Greek roots
ἐλαία
elaía
olive tree, olive
Literally: “the olive tree”
Follow a root:ἐλαία1 word
The story of the word
ἐλαία and its oil ἔλαιον are almost certainly not native Greek words but borrowings from an older Mediterranean language, taken along with the crop itself. Athens claimed the tree as Athena's gift, planted on the Acropolis to beat Poseidon's salt spring, and the city's prize amphorae were filled with its oil. Latin oliva gave French and then English the fruit, while the same Greek root came in separately, through Latin oleum, as oil.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 13th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
oiloleanderpetroleum
In a sentence
He ate the olive and put the stone back in the bowl, which annoyed everybody.