Learn About Greek Dictionary
Posted on July 23, 2009
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A Greek dictionary could make it’s Greek to me a thing of the past. There are dictionaries written in the Greek language, books full of Greek terms, and even translators. We’ll examine some of these.
Before we look at a Greek dictionary, let’s look at the phrase it’s Greek to me. Shakespeare is considered the author of that famous phrase. In his play Julius Caesar there is a quote – but for my own part, it was Greek to me. It meant that it was impossible to understand. But those are not Shakespeare’s words, originally. It was already in common use in Shakespeare’s time. The Romans may have first uttered the phrase. The Latin phrase Graecum est; non legitur, or it is Greek and cannot be read, was used by monks to mark Greek text that could not be translated or transcribed. It’s likely, however, that Shakespeare made it popular enough that it lasted until the present day.
A Greek dictionary could be important. While people think the languages of antiquity are dead, they are not. Many of our present words have roots in Latin and Greek. So by studying the Greek language a person could learn more about our own language. People who have a good grasp of the language go far in life. This can be as simple as being able to speak well, to a better ability to communicate through the written word.
Where words come from is the subject of etymology. Greek is a source of many current words. A Greek dictionary explores this. We owe many of the prefices and suffixed of word to Greek. For example the term androgynous begins with a Greek root and ends with the Greek root. Gynous means not of men while Andro refers to men. The word is basically man and not man like. It’s hard to tell the gender of an androgynous person. Get it?
Google Translate is one of the best translators around. In a sense it’s like the Greek to English online dictionary because any English word, sentence, or even paragraph can be translated into Greek. Likewise Greek phrases can be translated back into English. There are many people who use translators of this nature to communicate with people in other countries. It’s not perfect. But it works well enough.
You can learn a lot by reading a Greek dictionary.
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