Wordly Benefits: It shouldn’t be Greek to you

An account of the Greco-Latin terms embraced by the English language and their origins.

To work like a Trojan and to fight like a Trojan, on the other hand, are expressions that pay tribute to the perseverance and bravery of the people of Troy.

Last week we had a glimpse of ability of Latin words and expressions to offer multum in parvo. This is why they have endeared themselves to scores of lawyers and lawmakers over the ages. Indeed the language of the judiciary and the polity in English can hardly be visualized minus Latinism. The other ancient language to which Queen’s English is overwhelmingly indebted is Greek. Latin was so thoroughly permeated with borrowings from Greek that the two together formed a fused Greco-Latin vocabulary source for European languages.

Today, the edifice of Modern English is based on these twin pillars. Their influence is so pervasive that words and expressions with Latin and Greek etymology may well account for almost half the volume of any authentic English dictionary. For this column, we pick a few interesting ones which have their genesis in Greek and Roman myths and which often come alive in news reports and analyses.

Achilles was a fierce fighter. Her mother Thetis made him invulnerable by dipping him in river Styx when he was an infant. While doing so, she held him by one of his heels which remained vulnerable. He was killed by Paris who shot an arrow in the heel which was not wound-proof. So, an Achilles heel means a weak spot in an otherwise invincible position of a person, situation.

The Trojan War’s high point was the fight between Achilles and Hector, the elder son of King Priam of Troy. Although the word Hector stood for a hero, gradually it came to mean a bully or braggart. The verb to hector means to act a bully, to intimidate. The war itself started over Helen, the beautiful Queen of Sparta and the wife of King Menelaus as she ran away with prince Paris of Troy. Sparta was a powerful kingdom whose subjects were not interested in comfort and luxury. So, spartan means simple, lacking anything that makes life pleasant. The Trojan horse we all know so well about was ironically a Greek subterfuge. The expression has become a symbol of treacherous infiltration, a fifth column.

To work like a Trojan and to fight like a Trojan, on the other hand, are expressions that pay tribute to the perseverance and bravery of the people of Troy.

The expression “Greeks bearing fruits” comes from the same episode. The only person who thought that the horse was a ruse was the priest of Poseidon. His words have become a byword advising caution against an enemy which suddenly appears to be generous.

Stentor was the Greek herald in the war. His voice could be heard all over the Grecian camp. Hence, stentorian means bellowing, loud-voiced.