Daily Greek Vocabulary Challenge: Oct. 2

Here are today's vocabulary words; it's Group 88. Click on the word to learn more at Logeion:

πρεσβύτερος ~ πρεσβυτέρου (adj. masc.): older, elder

κακός ~ κακοῦ (adj. masc.): bad, evil, wicked 

βαρύτερον ~ βαρυτέρου (adj. neut.): heavier 

ἰδία ~ ἰδίας (adj. fem.): one's own, private; peculiar 

χρήσιμον ~ χρησίμου (adj. neut.): useful 

These are the proverbs (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):

Πρεσβύτερον σέβου.

Κακοῦ κόρακος, κακὸν ᾠόν.

Πενίας βαρύτερον οὐδέν ἐστι φορτίον.

Ἰδίας νόμιζε τῶν φίλων τὰς συμφοράς.

Νοῦς ἐστι πάντων ἡγεμὼν τῶν χρησίμων.

And now, some commentary:

Πρεσβύτερον σέβου.

Respect the elder.

This admonition is attributed to Chilon of Sparta, one of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece, and it is included among the so-called Delphic maxims; you can find out more at Wikipedia. The word πρεσβύτερος is the comparative form of πρέσβυς, "old." You can see this Greek root in the English word "presbyterian," and it is also the origin of the word "priest."

Κακοῦ κόρακος κακὸν ᾠόν.

Bad egg of a bad crow.

Compare the English saying, "A chip off the old block," but with negative connotations. At Wikipedia, you can read a funny anecdote about the rhetorician Corax of Syracuse, whose name Κόραξ means crow; when Corax and a student who refused to pay his tuition got involved in a lawsuit, the judge got so angry at both of them that he threw them out of court, proclaiming "Κακοῦ κόρακος κακὸν ᾠόν," with Corax being the bad crow, κακός κόραξ, and his pupil being the bad egg, κακὸν ᾠόν. In his Natural History, Aelian reports the proverb, claiming that crow-fathers were notorious for eating their offspring.

Πενίας βαρύτερον οὐδέν ἐστι φορτίον.

No load is heavier than poverty.

The word βαρύτερον is a comparative form of the word βαρύ, "heavy," hence the genitive form πενίας: heavier than poverty. The noun φορτίον, a "load" or something you carry, is from the verb φέρω, "carry." From the Greek root in βαρύ we get words like baritone and barometer.

Ἰδίας νόμιζε τῶν φίλων τὰς συμφοράς.

Consider your friends' misfortunes as your own.

This is one of Menander's monostichs (one-liners):

Ἰδίας | νόμι||ζε τῶν | φίλων || τὰς συμ|φοράς.

From the Greek root ἰδί- we get the English word idiot; here's how that happened: ἴδιος, "personal, private, one's own," gave rise to the Greek word ἰδιώτης, meaning "a private citizen, layman, non-professional," i.e. someone without skilled knowledge, and hence English "idiot." For more about this etymology, see Wikipedia: Idiot. You can also see the same root in words like idiom and idiosyncrasy.

Νοῦς ἐστι πάντων ἡγεμὼν τῶν χρησίμων.

The mind is chief among all useful things.

In other words, the mind is the most useful thing of all! This is yet another of Menander's one-liners:

Νοῦς ἐσ|τι πάν||των ἡ|γεμὼν || τῶν χρη|σίμων.

The adjective χρήσιμον, "useful," is related to the verb χράομαι, to use, to make use of. From Greek ἡγεμὼν we get the English word hegemony.

The Seven Sages

And here's a random proverb too:

---

---

Click here to subscribe/unsubscribe to the email list.

---