Everyday LifeGreek → English
Philemon
/faɪˈliːmən/noun
A male given name of Greek origin, and the shortest letter in the New Testament, addressed to its bearer.
The Greek roots
φιλέω
philéō
to love, to kiss
Literally: “loving one”
Follow a root:φιλέω1 word
The story of the word
The name means affectionate, from the verb Greek used for the love between friends rather than desire. Two Philemons carry weight: the slave owner Paul writes to about Onesimus, and the old man in Ovid who feeds two disguised gods with his wife Baucis and asks only that neither of them outlive the other. The gods turn them into an oak and a linden growing from one trunk.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
philosophyphilanthropybibliophilephilately
In a sentence
Philemon runs to twenty-five verses and is over in a minute.
Ovid gives Philemon and Baucis the kindest ending in the poem.