Everyday LifeGreek → English
Petra
/ˈpɛtrə/proper noun
A woman's name meaning rock, the feminine counterpart of Peter.
The Greek roots
πέτρα
pétra
rock, crag
Literally: “rock”
Follow a root:πέτρα6 words
The story of the word
The name carries a pun that only works in Greek. In Matthew's gospel Jesus renames Simon as Πέτρος and says that on this πέτρα he will build his church, a play that Latin keeps and English loses entirely. The Jordanian city of Petra is a translation too, of a Semitic name meaning the same thing. German and Scandinavian families have used the feminine form for centuries longer than English ones.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
petrifypetroleumpetrologysaltpeter
In a sentence
Petra signs her emails with one initial and expects you to know.
They called her Petra after a grandmother from Hamburg.