Everyday LifeGreek → English
Treasure
/ˈtrɛʒər/noun
A quantity of precious things kept together, or anything valued highly.
The Greek roots
θησαυρός
thēsaurós
storehouse, hoard
Literally: “storehouse”
Follow a root:θησαυρός2 words
The story of the word
θησαυρός first named the room, not the gold. It was the strongroom or granary where a household or a temple kept what it had put by, and the small stone treasuries lining the Sacred Way at Delphi are exactly that. Latin took it as thesaurus and Old French wore it down to tresor, which English borrowed around 1200. The unworn Latin form came back separately in 1852 when Roget called his book a storehouse of words.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 12th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
thesaurustreasurytreasurer
In a sentence
The wreck gave up no treasure, only nails and a cooking pot.
She treasures the recording more than anything else her father left.