Words & WritingGreek → English
Pamphlet
/ˈpæmflɪt/noun
A short unbound booklet, usually arguing a case.
The Greek roots
πᾶν
pân
all
φίλος
phílos
dear, loved
Literally: “loved by all”
The story of the word
There was a twelfth-century Latin love poem called Pamphilus, seu de Amore, copied so widely that its hero's name became the word for any thin stitched booklet of that size. The name itself is Greek, Πάμφιλος, everybody's friend, and it was a real name long before it was a bestseller. So the format that carried Paine and Swift and every political rant since is named after a medieval piece of erotic comedy.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek name → Medieval Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
panoramapandemicphilosophybibliophilePhilip
In a sentence
Someone had left a pamphlet about the bypass under every windscreen wiper on the street.