Welcoming one of my favourite cities this week. Vienna! Did you know that there are more dead people occupying the Vienna cemetery than alive people in the city? Ha!  Welcome Vienna , thank you for listening! 

(Piano music) Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

This word has an extensive Catholic history but that’s for another episode perhaps. Δοκέιν (dokeen) is an Ancient Greek infinitive meaning ‘to think, to have an opinion’ a term still used today in modern Greek . But it also meant ‘to believe in something as the absolute truth’ and that’s the meaning we’re exploring today. In English the noun arrived in the 1600s through Latin and was solely associated with religion.  In the 1800s it started getting popular and was used closer to the original meaning as  ‘a philosophical tenet’. but it was between 1920 and 1940 that it got the meaning we know today. And the reasons were obvious. European thinkers,  linking unshakable beliefs imposed on the population with authoritarian regimes  . Such a practice and  belief is called ΔΟΓΜΑ/DOGMA

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Hello! This week I’m happy to welcome Toronto in our audience! Did you know that in Mohawk language 'Toronto' means ‘the place where trees stand in water’? You do now! Thank you for listening Toronto!

(Piano music) Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Στένω (steno) is an Ancient Greek verb meaning 'to groan' or 'to mourn loudly'. In Homer’s Iliad, the goddess Hera possesses the body of a herald to empower the soldiers when they were losing a battle. The herald she chose, had a fantastically loud and clear voice. They said, he sounded not like one but fifty men and later, when he was challenged by Hermes to a shouting battle and won , Hermes killed him. His name became an adjective and came to English through a translation from Latin in the 1600s. And the name was ΣΤΕΝΤΩΡ/STENTORIAN

I’d like to dedicate this episode to every loud voice against oppression, violence and war in our world today.  

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Today’s shout out goes to Rio De Janeiro! Welcome Rio! Thank you for listening! I would definitely like to visit  one day given how much I enjoy Brazilian food and music. Did you know that the stars on Brazil's flag represent the sky over Rio on November 15, 1889, when the Republic was proclaimed?. You do now! And that fact takes us straight to today’s episode.

(Piano music)Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Κοσμείν (kosmin) is an Ancient Greek infinitive meaning ‘to adorn’ but also ‘to place things in order/ to arrange/ to tidy up’. Greeks still use all meanings although they barely use infinitives anymore in every day speech. The Ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras was in awe of how complex but structured nature is. He saw a connection between numbers and order.  Measurable structure. Looking up in the sky he saw an ‘adorned structure’ and was convinced it could be studied and measured too despite its vastness. He was the first to use that double meaning noun to describe the universe. In English the word came around 1200 but it didn’t become popular until 1848 when Alexander Von Humboldt’s book about the universe was translated from German. The book was entitled ΚΟΣΜΟΣ/COSMOS

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I’d like to thank the global audience this podcast has developed throughout the years . You have been incredibly loyal and supportive .127 countries have been constantly listening and as impossible as it would be to mention every single city, town, and village, I will be giving a shout out to a new place every week. You can also email me at [email protected] to let me know where you’re listening from. I always love hearing from you! Today a shout out to a new addition to our audience; Akron in Ohio, which was named by general Simon Perkins in 1825  after the Greek word for  ‘edge’ because of its strategic elevated position. Thank you for listening Akron and welcome to the family!

(Piano music)Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

This Ancient Greek goddess has two names (in this version of her myth anyway) . She was a Titan, the Sun was her brother or her husband depending which Ancient Greek historian you ask and her first name is Σελήνη (Selene) which means ‘the one that shines bright light’ . Her second name, Μήνη (minie) was given to her because people counted time according to her movement. Circling the sky every day on her chariot, led by her half black and half white, winged horses. So you could only see her at night and from different angles. But there was one time when you could see her whole before she started her circles again. For 28 to 30 days. Ancient Greeks named that period Mήνα (mena). Now, this word has an even more ancient root ‘min’, which means that languages like Sanskrit , Persian, Armenian and Greek all share a variation of it. And it meant ‘to count’  In English, the word came from proto Germanic ‘menon’ and Latin ‘mensis’ who borrowed the sound from Ancient Greek. ΜΗΝΗ/MOON and MONTH

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Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Now this is a surprising word. Not because of the way it arrived in English but because of how it evolved. Σχολή (scholi) in Ancient Greek Meant the interval from work. Your free time. What was considered the ideal or socially acceptable way to spend your free time was , learning by either thinking, debating or, discussing  a matter. And there were places to go for that. Like the agora under the Acropolis where most philosophers gathered to train minds and debate their ideas with each other. Each philosopher’s place, within the agora, was named after their belief so, you had for example the Σχολή του Σωκράτη (scholi of Socrates) Socrates’ free time. But since that kind of learning was considered equally important as anything else, the place for lectures by philosophers would also be called Σχολή. In Latin  'Schola' meant a place for instructions, in Middle English 'Scole' meant the institution of learning and from 1590 onwards in English it was the name for all buildings used for the purpose of learning. 'Ecole' in French, 'escuela' in Spanish, 'scuola' in Italian, 'Schule' in German, 'Skola' (with a K) in Swedish, 'Σχολείο' in modern Greek  and in English, keeping the anglicised Greek spelling of ΣΧΟΛΗ/SCHOOL

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Happy New Year Everybody! May you have a  healthy and prosperous 2026 and may you be as passionate for the people and the things you love, as an Ancient Greek! If you like what you hear in this podcast, subscribe, share and review on the platform of your choice. It helps other people find us and a good word goes a long way! On with our first episode! 

(Piano music) Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Today’s word is one that took many turns before settling to what we know today . Plato used it to describe the state of poets and oracles. A state that 'takes the soul beyond reason, truth or beauty and is driven by a god'. Later on the same state would be used to describe divine possession that leads to madness.  And in the 1500s borrowed from Latin and French, Martin Luther will use the word to describe religious fanatics or people claiming to have received the word of god directly. In 1716 the clergyman White Kennett wrote the word describing someone passionate about a cause but the word remained a negative one as it excluded all reason. The 19th century was kinder and accepted the word as a state of passion and inspiration. Εν (en) ,in both ancient and modern Greek, is a preposition and means ‘in/within’ and θεός (theos) means ‘god’. The state of being inspired and passionate as if touched by a god is ΕΝΘΟΥΣΙΑΣΜΟΣ/ENTHUSIASM

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As the year ends and cold weather is setting, I thought of telling you a winter tale. And finish the year with the thought that, from the beginning of time, people always looked up to the vastness of the sky and tried to find meaning in our existence by creating and sharing stories and bringing everyone together. To listen. As an actor I couldn’t more proud to be human and be able to tell stories in any way I can. Thank you for staying with me this year, your company has been invaluable. See you in 2026!

(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

There are several versions of this myth so I’m choosing the one that’s less complicated but have a look for the others . It’s fascinating how over the years , well into the Roman ones, people kept telling this story their own way. Artemis was the goddess of wild nature and hunting. Protector of animals, babies and mothers and connected to purity and youth. Καλλίστω (Callisto),who’s name means ‘beauty', was a nymph and a follower of Artemis and had vowed to stay a virgin. Zeus didn’t seem to care and seduced her by transforming into the god Apollo. When Hera, Zeus’s wife, found out, she turned Καλλίστω into a bear- an ‘άρκτος’ (arktos)-  but before that, Zeus managed to save her unborn child and raise it in secret. When the child turned 15 he went hunting in the woods and there, met with a bear and without knowing it was his mother he was about to aim and kill. That’s when Zeus intervened once again and turned both of them into constellations. Preventing matricide and re-uniting them forever. A big and a small Bear constellation can be seen in the sky and in English they have kept their Latin names, Ursa major and minor. But the word for the Ancient Greek name of the celestial place where a bear can be found was given to the the terrestrial one. ΑΡΚΤΙΚΟΣ/ARCTIC

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(piano music) 

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Merry Christmas to those celebrating and I hope you’ll have a few restful days those of you who don’t. I was as surprised as you’ll be to find out that this is a combination of Greek words but my hunch was proven right! You see the modern Greek word is slightly different so I never thought to look, until now!  In Ancient Greece one of the most popular breads was one made from barley, oil and sometimes milk . It was called Μάζα (maza) and it looked like a lump of dough. It was named after the infinitive Μασσείν meaning 'to knead by hand'. The word was also used in medicine and  alchemy to describe a blend of substances or elements very close together and that, expanded into describing crowds. Years went by and one place you’d find so many people together was a church. In Latin it came as 'Massa' and dropped the final ‘a’ when the French adopted the word in the 11th century as ‘Μasse’. It came to English two centuries later and meant 'an irregular shaped lump' or a 'crowd'. Now put that on the side. In Hebrew god’s son is the messiah meaning ‘the anointed one’ and that later on was given as a name to Jesus of Nazareth. in Greek, that translates as Χριστός (Christos) and that came to Latin as 'Christus'. Now put the two together and you have a crowd celebrating the anointed one. ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΝΑ/CHRISTMAS

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Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Today’s word is mostly known through Biblical stories but in the ancient world it was a high valued resin used as medicine and fragrance. And the name in Arabic means ‘bitter’. Trade, brought it to Greece from South Arabia and, they created a whole myth for it. What I find fascinating about this myth is that it’s not about a Greek princess but a Lebanese one and the myth comes probably from Cyprus but it is unclear what came first , an existing myth that was made to fit the origin of the resin or a myth that came with it but was altered to the point that it was made a Greek one? We’ll never know but it lasted through the years as both a story and a cautionary tale. Μύρρα (Myrrah) was a beautiful princess that had the misfortune of falling in love with her own father. For 12 nights her nurse, would lie to the King and say a princess has fallen in love with him but wishes to remain anonymous . So Μύρρα would hide her face and sleep with the King. On the 12th night, he wanted to find out who she was so he held up a torch and to his horror saw his daughter . He chased her with a sword but  she managed to flee to Arabia and turned to the gods for protection for herself, and her unborn child. Aphrodite was not happy this , not happy at all. She didn’t tolerate bonds that didn't honour her so, she turned Μύρρα into a tree and in that form, she gave birth to the most beautiful boy of all times, Adonis. The bitter resin is said to be her tears and her story has been used in one form or another by Ovid, Dante, Mary Shelley, Ted Hughes, Ravel and, the Bible as one of the gifts the Magi brought to new-born Jesus. ΜΥΡΡΑ/MYRRH

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Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

The countdown to Christmas has begun and It wouldn’t be December if I didn’t enter it with a cold! So I hope my voice is not too distracting and you can enjoy today’s episode! I have to thank my Iranian friend Lanna and her friend Mohsen for all the Farsi words guidance. Herodotus and Xenophon were established historians in Ancient Greece and they both mention a Persian all male caste , well versed in astronomy, science, philosophy and astrology. They were also quite influential in the Persian empire . Their practices involved praying, interpreting omens and they were believed to be the mediators between humans and the divine. Because of their vast knowledge, their title 'Mo’gh' in Greek, was immediately associated with wisdom. It means 'Priest' However, when Christianity took over the word kept its positive meaning in Latin, French and finally English, only to describe the three wise men that, by interpreting a star , travelled all the way from the East to meet a new born King. ΜΑΓΟΙ/MAGI

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