Greek Origins of Everyday Words

More than 200.000 words in all the Latin-based modern languages (English, Spanish, Italian, French etc.) originate from Greek, around 70.000 of them directly and the rest through Latin. The purpose of this column is not to teach Glossology, it is to present interesting, even funny, Greek origins of every day words and expressions in English. As a gift to Greek Reporter’s LA headquarters, I will start my first post with the word “Cinema”

The word cinema comes from the French cinéma, shortened from cinématographe (kinimatografo; Gr: κινηματογράφο), coined in the 1890s by the Lumiere brothers, who invented it, from the Greek cinema (movement; better pronounced as kinima; Gr: κίνημα), from the verb cino (to move; better pronounced as kino; Gr: κινώ). graphe (write; better pronounced as grafo; Gr: γράφω – γραφή).

So: Cinema = Kinima (κίνημα) “that has motion”

French: cinema, cinematographe,

Italian: cinematografo,

Spanish: cine, cinematica,

German: Kino, Kinematograph

Until next time, where I will investigate a new word or phrase.