A Wee Bit of Greek
May. 30th, 2007 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreBecause so much of English vocabulary derives from Greek, there's interesting bits where you find that you understand a word -- once you figure out what the Greek letters stand for. That's easier in upper case, because they are more familiar, however both Rick and I found that lower case was more of a problem for us, especially with font and letter form variants.
As we were coming into Athens, we noted that the street signs read: ΕΞΟΔΟΣ -- exodos. The Greek word for street is ΟΔΟΣ (as one gathers from all the street signs on the corners of buildings, that being the one constant between them), the meaning of the ex- prefix is therefore fairly logical (especially with our words like exhale) and gather that it means something like "out road." The word for entrance is ΕΙΟΔΟΣ, therefore one can imply the meaning for the ei- prefix and gather that it means something like "in road."
One of the first logos Rick saw was ΜΟΤΟΡΟΛΑ, though many other logos were in their native alphabet (e.g. Ford's). Sometimes, it was difficult to tell which pronunciation applied, because all the letters used were common to both alphabets. I suppose they're used to living with this sort of ambiguity.
As we were coming into Athens, we noted that the street signs read: ΕΞΟΔΟΣ -- exodos. The Greek word for street is ΟΔΟΣ (as one gathers from all the street signs on the corners of buildings, that being the one constant between them), the meaning of the ex- prefix is therefore fairly logical (especially with our words like exhale) and gather that it means something like "out road." The word for entrance is ΕΙΟΔΟΣ, therefore one can imply the meaning for the ei- prefix and gather that it means something like "in road."
One of the first logos Rick saw was ΜΟΤΟΡΟΛΑ, though many other logos were in their native alphabet (e.g. Ford's). Sometimes, it was difficult to tell which pronunciation applied, because all the letters used were common to both alphabets. I suppose they're used to living with this sort of ambiguity.