Everyday LifeGreek → English
Philadelphia
/ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/noun
The largest city in Pennsylvania, founded as a Quaker settlement in 1682.
The Greek roots
φίλος
phílos
loving, dear
ἀδελφός
adelphós
brother
Literally: “brotherly love”
The story of the word
William Penn named his city in 1682, but the name was already old. A Philadelphia in Asia Minor, one of the seven churches addressed in Revelation, had been founded by Attalus II of Pergamon, whose epithet Philadelphus was earned by declining to seize the throne while his brother Eumenes lived. The Greek compound is plain enough, and the New Testament uses φιλαδελφία for love among fellow believers rather than blood kin.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1682
Same family
philosophyphilanthropybibliophileadelphopoiesis
In a sentence
She grew up outside Philadelphia and still calls the sandwich a hoagie.
Penn laid out Philadelphia on a grid, with five public squares.