Increase Your Vocabulary with Greek Prefixes

The Olympics (which originated in Greece, although China most recently hosted them) inspired me to create this list of prefixes from the Greek language and to illustrate them with sentences about Olympian Michael Phelps. Here is an Olympics-based word game testing your understanding of the Greek influence on English (great for home-school families), but you'll do better on it after reading this article about Greek prefixes.

We English-speakers can hardly get through a day without speaking some Greek, especially in our prefixes, and not just when we are discussing the Olympics or a Greek salad. Our Greek prefixes and the Greek influence on English reach so widely across our language that I turn for help to musicians Joni Mitchell and Fats Waller, designer Bill Blass, painter Hieronymus Bosch, actor Keanu Reeves, and author Mark Twain as well as Michael Phelps... not to mention champagne bottles (not the champagne itself, alas).

The Greek prefix: auto- self

An automobile runs by itself (no horses needed). If Michael Phelps writes his autobiography, he will write his own biography, that is, his life (bio-) story (-graphy). Does Michael Phelps have to make automatic deposits of all his earnings every month? No, automatic deposits take care of themselves.

The Greek prefix: amphi- , both or either

Both the Greek amphi- and the related Latin ambi- have the same meaning. If you are ambivalent about off-shore drilling, you could go either way on the issue. If the frogs and salamanders of the world ever unite into an amphibian nation, their national anthem might be Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now", because they live both on land and in water, and of course, Michael Phelps would qualify to run or swim for their presidency.

The Greek prefix: endo-, ento-, within

These forms are usually related to medicine or science, typical of English words and prefixes of Greek origin. We human beings have an endoskeleton, hidden inside our bodies; we do not wear it proudly outside like the exoskeletons of some invertebrates, somewhat like the swimsuit worn by Michael Phelps. (Notice that negative prefix, which you can read about here? Invertebrates have no vertebrae.)

The endocardium is the inner lining of the heart (which is studied in cardiology). Entogastric disorders occur within the stomach (gastric refers to the stomach). The word entomology, the study of insects, is an example of a word that can mislead an overzealous student of prefixes, because it relates to the Greek word entomos, which refers to a cut at the waist, a term Aristotle used to refer to insects.

The Greek prefixes: eu-, good, and dys-, bad

After winning all those gold medals, Michael Phelps probably felt good, in a state of euphoria, and so, he might have preferred to use a euphemism, a good word, instead of a dysphemism, a bad word (which he might have used in a state of dysphoria if he had lost). Euphemisms, pleasant sounding words, include svelte or pleasingly plump; the corresponding dysphemisms might be bony or fat and greasy.

The Greek prefix: hiero-, sacred

Michael Phelps might be a hierophant of a cult of swimming, that is, a high priest (sacred being). Hieromancy is a form of divination based on reading the remains of sacrificed (literally, made sacred) animals. The artist Hieronymus ("sacred name") Bosch created visions of the sacred and the profane.

A hieroglyph is a sacred writing, which would be rather difficult to read, perhaps like the Greek alphabet; that is why we refer to something incomprehensible being "Greek to me," quoting William Shakespeare. In Spanish, the comparable expression is "Me parece chino," or "It seems Chinese to me," especially appropriate during the recent Olympics, when I had to explain to friends the apparently scrambled order in which the countries were introduced.

The Greek prefix: holo-, whole

A holograph is a three-dimensional photograph (thus, the whole image), and holistic medicine deals with the whole being, not isolated parts. Michael Phelps's coach probably uses holistic training with him. A holocaust is a sacrifice that is burned whole; the ending, -caust (burned) is also seen in the word caustic. The Holocaust (capitalized) is the sacrifice of the Jewish people under the Nazis.

By the way, the general Holofernes is another problem for word study, since his name comes from Persian and has no connection (that I can find) to this Greek prefix.

The Greek prefix: mega-, great or big

If you are reading this, you are probably at a computer, which measures the world in terms of bytes, tiny pieces of information. It doesn't take long to accumulate a whole lot of bytes, a kilobyte, in fact, which should be 1,000 (kilo-) bytes. (Learn about numerical prefixes here.) Actually, it is 1,024 bytes, because all information in a computer is based on 2 (basically, whether a switch is ON or OFF). So, if you multiply 1 byte by 2, then again, and again for 10 times, you reach 1,024.

A megabyte is a great big measure of bytes, specifically, 1,048,576 bytes. (Start with 1,024 and multiply by 2 for 10 more times.) A megachurch is a huge church, which may have a computer full of megabytes of information to keep up with everybody.

The related Latin forms, mag-, magna-, and maj- have also come into English. Magna Carta was pretty great, and a majority is large. After their magnificent achievements, Michael Phelps and his teammates might have packed away a magnum or two of champagne, a large bottle of champagne holding 1.5 liters (twice the size of the standard bottle of champagne), although champagne bottles work their way up through bottles bearing such fanciful biblical names as the Jeroboam (3 liters), the Rehoboam (4.5 liters), the Methuselah (6 liters), the Salmanazar (9 liters), the Balthazar (12 liters), and the Nebuchadnezzar (15 liters), the equivalent of 20 regular bottles (which hold .75 liters). At that, Michael Phelps would not be drinking it: he would be swimming in it.

Never wanting to miss a chance to teach a little (I hung out on the wrong side of the teacher's desk for twenty years), let me direct you here where you can find a neat mnemonic to remember the sizes of champagne bottles: My Judy Really Makes Splendid Belching Noises.

The Greek prefix:neo-, new

This prefix can be added to quite a few words, to produce such expressions as neo-classical and neo-conservative. A neologism is a new (neo-) word (logos), and I recollected a memorable neologism, hurricat, here. Keanu Reeves played a character called Neo in The Matrix. Perhaps when Michael Phelps gets dressed up for some occasion or other (a friend of mine remarked that she was afraid she could not recognize him with clothes on), he might wear a classy necktie from Bill Blass's Neo line.

The Greek prefix: paleo-, long ago, ancient

Let's let the other Michael sit this one out. Obviously, paleo-Indians lived a long time ago, paleobotany deals with plants long gone, and paleontology is the study of ancient life forms. This Michael (your humble, land-bound writer) has produced quite a few articles on dinosaurs and other ancient creatures, that is, paleontology, which you can find here.

The Greek prefix:pan-, panto-, all

All kinds of words bear this gift from the Greeks. A pantomime was originally an actor who could mimic anyone (all). A pantograph is a device for making a written copy (-graph) of all. Pantheism is a belief in a god (theism) in all things.

In Eastern Orthodox churches, you may see a portrayal of Jesus as Christ Pantocrator, the ruler of all. The ending -crator is related to the ending of democracy, government of the people (demo-, as in demographic).

The Pan-American Highway spans the length of the Americas, all the Americas. Pan-African and Pan-Arabic movements seek to unify all Africans and all Arabs. Originally, the Olympics were Pan-Hellenic, open to all the Greeks, who were also known as Hellenes. Michael Phelps, not a Greek, would not have been eligible.

The word panic comes from the name of the Greek god Pan, who had that effect on people and animals. His name has sometimes been interpreted to mean pleasing to all the gods (he was god of wine), but modern linguists link it to the word pa-on, related to our words pasture and pastor (literally, a shepherd), who played his Pan flute.

More words that might confuse an amateur prefix hunter are pantry and companion, related to the Latin word, panem or bread. Where do you keep your bread? In a pantry. With (com-) whom do share your bread? A companion. The Latin word is the origin of the French pain and Spanish and Portuguese pan, meaning bread, and since the Portuguese first brought bread to Japan, the Japanese word for bread is also pan.

And that is all I want to say about pan. But, why should we beware of Greeks bearing gifts? Because the gift might be a Trojan horse, packed as full of your enemies as this little word pan is of so many meanings.

The Greek prefix:peri-, around, about

A periscope allows you to see (scope) around. Most often, this device is on a submarine, so that if the vessel comes up in the middle of the ocean, the captain could see and avoid Michael Phelps swimming across the ocean.

The Greek prefix: poly-, many

A polygon is a two-dimensional figure with many sides, and a polyhedron is a three-dimensional figure with many sides. How many? Check out numerical prefixes here. Michael Phelps was studying Chinese. If he is as good at learning languages as he is at swimming, he will be quite a polyglot, a person who speaks (glot) many languages.

The Greek prefix: pseudo-, false

A false name is a pseudonym, such as Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens. A pseudopod is a false (pseudo) foot (pod; think of pedal or podiatrist) that some microscopic animals sprout. If someone claims that Michael Phelps swims so well because he has fish chromosomes, we might dismiss the claim as pseudo-science.

The Greek prefix: tele-, far off

I watched Michael Phelps's races on television, a device that gives me vision from afar. Since his mother was at the Games, he did not have to share the good news with her by telephone.

This epic listing of Greek prefixes is not complete. Even if you look at my other articles on prefixes, which have included other Greek prefixes, you will not know all the Greek prefixes in English. You can check an index page of all my articles on prefixes and other topics related to the English language here.

If you want another kilobyte or two of information, here is the original Greek for "Know thyself": Gnôthi Sauton. To find an alternative dictionary of Greek words that you would never learn in a foreign language classroom, go here for a special Greek dictionary (parental guidance advised).