(A version of this article appeared in the Aug 10, 2012 Globe & Mail)
Our
big fat Olympic Greek vocabulary
by
Howard
Richler
Some of
you may remember a line in the movie My
Big Fat Greek Wedding
when the character Gus Portokalos boasts to someone
“Say any
word, and I'll tell you how the root of that word is Greek.”
This assertion is
challenged and Gus is asked to explain the Greek provenance of the
obviously Japanese word “kimono.”
Gus ponders for a second and replies
“Kimono,
kimono, kimono. Ah! Kimono is come from the Greek word kimona, which
is mean winter. What do you wear in the winter? A robe! So, there you
go! ”
Gus’s chauvinistic
bombast aside, it is nonetheless true that in all European
languages (and even some non-European based languages) the vast
majority of everyday vocabulary includes words of Greek origin. The
arts and sciences were born, developed and are still operating with a
basically pure Greek vocabulary featuring such words as “idea,”
“philosophy,”
“democracy,”
“magic,”
“biology”
and “telephone.”
While the Guses of the world may have
some convoluted theory as to how words connected to Olympic events
such as judo, tae kwan do and softball are Greek-based, not
surprisingly we do see many Olympic related words that descend from
the Greek language. The
Olympics themselves are named after Olympia, an ancient religious
site scared to the god Zeus which is also the place in Greece where
the first Olympic Games took place in 776 B.C. “Athlete” and
“athletics” themselves descend from the Greek word athlētēs,
a derivation of
athlein
“to contend for a prize.”
In
addition, one has to return to ancient Greece to understand the
provenance of some Olympic events. The Greeks have been defying great
odds in order to prevail way before they won the Euro Cup 2004. In
490 B.C, the heavily outnumbered Athenians defeated the invading
Persians on the plains of Marathon, approximately 25 miles from
Athens. Legend has it that the runner Pheidippides was chosen to
carry the glad tidings back to Athens. Upon reaching the walls of the
Acropolis, Pheidippides cried out. “Rejoice, we conquer!” – and
promptly dropped dead; ever since, marathoner runners have
contemplated giving up the ghost over this arduous distance.
When the modern Olympics was inaugurated in Greece in 1896, the
distance of the marathon was set at 40,000 metres (24.85 miles) which
was the distance between the Marathon Bridge and the Olympic stadium
in Athens Since the 1908 Olympic Games in London, the marathon
distance has been set at 26 miles, 385 yards. This is because 26
miles represented the distance between Windsor Castle to White City
Stadium, and 385 yards was added on so the race could finish in
front of King Edward VII's royal box.
In the
unlikely event that you are asked to strip naked in a gym by a
philologist – don't freak out. The word “gymnastics” descends
from its Greek parent gumnazo
which means “train naked” and comes from the word gumnós
“naked.” In ancient Greece, exercises were often performed in the
nude and at one point Olympic track meets were run in the buff
because it was believed that the sun was soothing to the nerves of
the back. While in practice sessions, the modern clad gymnast while
in practice sessions, performs “calisthenics” vigorous exercises
to improve muscle tone band fitness. This term blends the Greek stem
kalli,
“beauty” with the Greek word for strength, sthenos.
The
Greek word for contest is athlon
and this has
bequeathed us four Olympic sports; the decathlon (ten events), the
heptathlon (seven events), the triathlon (three events). The
pentathlon in which contestants compete in shooting, fencing,
swimming, riding and cross-country running has an interesting
history. The choice of these sports was
based on the legend of a warrior who, having to convey a message to
the rear of the fighting forces, had to battle on horseback with his
pistol and sword. However, because his horse was killed in the
process, he had to swim and run to complete his mission.
Because
so many languages borrowed from Greek, the Greek language doesn’t
always receive the credit it deserves in etymological analysis. For
example, “rhythmic gymnastics“ is actually doubly Greek in
origin but for the etymology of “rhythm,” the OED
mentions the Latin
rhythmus
and the French rhythme
but neglects to
mention that the word ultimately derives from the Greek rhytmós
“recurring motion.”
Similarly, while English acquired the word cycle from French which
in turn changed the Latin word cyclus,
this word in turn was an adaptation of the Greek kuklós,
“circle.”
My next book From Happy to Homosexual and other mysterious semantic shifts will be published in 2013.
