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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! 

Merry Christmas, everyone celebrating and have a wonderful Sunday, those of you who don't. Πολώ is an ancient Greek verb for 'I turn' , 'I pivot' . In the beginning, it was mainly used in geometry and philosophy until the noun was solely used to describe two things, magnets and the South and the North ΠΟΛΟΣ/POLE 

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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! 

Today, I'll be telling you about two Greek words. One was invented by the Greeks and the other by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Συν (syn) means' with', 'and', 'additionally'. Χρόνος (chronos) means 'time'. The combination can give us two different meanings depending on the suffix. One, describes combined timing in action, the second-and that's the one Jung coined-coincidence that appears to have meaning (when it's not necessarily the case). ΣΥΓΧΡΟΝΙΣΜΟΣ και ΣΥΓΧΡΟΝΙΚΟΤΗΤΑ/SYNCHRONISATION and SYNCHRONICITY 

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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! 

Nowadays, in order to describe something we don't understand, we make a reference to a difficult language for us. The English say 'It's all Greek to me', the Greeks say 'It's all Chinese to me' and so on. In ancient Greece-and here, I have to remind you that it was an empire with all the faults that come with one-the sound the Greeks heard from foreigners was 'VAR-VAR' (the letter v is written and pronounced b in English). And that's what they used to mock anyone not Greek, They also had a phrase 'πάς μη Ελλην, Βαρβαρος' anyone not Greek is a ΒΑΡΒΑΡΟΣ/BARBARIAN

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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! 

Σκέπτομαι (skeptome) in Ancient Greek and Σκέφτομαι (skeftome) in modern, means
 ' I think' . The noun is Σκέψη (skepsi). In Ancient Greece, being a Σκεπτικιστής (skeptikistis) meant you belonged to a philosophical group that doubted human knowledge can be obtained. Starting from Pyrros, to Descartes's attempt to contradict it, to Hume's partial support (I say partial as he worked on the modern version rather than the ancient Greek one) scepticism has gone through many meanings to reach today's, everyday, definition of 'taking everything you hear with a pinch of salt' . In English, it came from the Latin Scepticus around 1580. Sometimes it's spelled with a K and others with a C , both are correct. ΣΚΕΠΤΙΚΙΣΜΟΣ/SCEPTICISM

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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! 

Τέμνω (temno) in Greek means 'I cut', the noun is Τομή (tomi). Δυο (dio) means 'two' and when combined it becomes Διχο-(dicho). The combined word came into English from Latin and referred to the philosophical and political division theory of: cutting in two different classes. Since then, it's been more frequently used in every day language, meaning, simply, 'a division'. ΔΙΧΟΤΟΜΗΣΗ/DICHOTOMY

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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! 

Well, I know I've said I won't be doing any medical terms but this one is an exception and has a very interesting origin. Μέλον and Μελανό (melon-melano) in both ancient and modern Greek, means 'dark coloured'. Χολή (Holi) means 'bile'. The original diagnosis for depression was attributed -among other things- to the excess production of bile within one's body. So, until the 18th century when medical practices advanced, the diagnosis for depression would be ΜΕΛΑΓΧΟΛΙΑ/MELANCHOLY

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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! 

Cucumis anguria, is the official name of small cucumbers. In medieval Greek it was called 'ανγκούριον' (angurion) , meaning 'immature', 'not ripe'. The Dutch turned it into an 'agurk' or 'gurk' and pickled it. In the 17th century it came to England and in the 1800's an 'h' was added in an attempt to keep the original pronunciation.  ΑΝΓΚΟΥΡΙΟΝ/GHERKIN

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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! 

Xenophon of Athens, was an army general, historian , and philosopher. His most famous work is 'Anabasis', that details the army expedition to Persia led by Cyrus who wanted to seize the throne from his brother. I will not bother you with all the Greek names involved but Socrates has  cameo in this story. It's definitely worth read. In his seven books, and what is known as 'one of the first army adventures' (as well as an extraordinary literary achievement), Xenophon details not only the military aspects of the long journey, including the defeated return to Greece, but also, the scenery and the personalities of some of the mercenaries who joined Cyrus's army. After all, he was one of them. One of the 10.000, also known as ΜΥΡΙΟΙ/MYRIADS

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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! 

Απο (apo) is a preposition meaning 'from' and 'away from' (such as, in this case) Καλύπτω (kalipto) is a verb and it means 'covering', 'concealing'. In both ancient and modern Greek, the combined word means to 'reveal' something but in Christian texts , which is how it came in English, it means 'the end of the world!'. Happy Halloween everyone. ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΗ/APOCALYPSE

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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! 

This is a prime example of a metaphor gaining its own power and becoming a stand-alone word. Ερημος (erimos) in both Ancient Greek and Sanskrit(we find it at the same time with minor differences) meant 'the desert' . A person that would dwell alone in the desert was an Ερημίτης (erimitis). Eons past and that was linked to religious acts of seclusion. But by then, anyone who was voluntarily alone was an Ερημίτης. Metaphorically, if someone was left alone or with nothing, was-and still is-called Eρημος. And that's how the word travelled, with an added 'h' during Medieval Latin. ΕΡΗΜΟΣ/HERMIT

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