In our second course we learn how to address wishes, what’s your name and my name is this, as well as the basics on greek names.
For the wish-giving part you can listen:
| Hronia polla | Have many (blessed) years of life | Note that the accent is on o |
| Kali hronia | Happy (New) Year | Note that the accent is on a |
Hronia accented on o means “years” (plural) while accented on a we get the singular form of it.
There is more than one way to say “year”
Etos (accent on e)
Hronos (accent on the first o). This one also mean “time”. We also get Cronus out of it.
Hronia (accent on a)
Modern greek
What’s your name –> Pos se lene?
My name is Achilles –> Me lene Achilles.
Ancient greek
What’s your name –> Pos onomazese?
My name is Achilles –> Onomazome Achilles.
Most of the Greek names have a meaning. I have not much to say about it but to give examples of all the names heard in the podcast.
First let’s cope with anonymity
Onoma = name
An+onoma = Un+name
Anonimos = Anonymous
Georgios (commonly called Giorgos -spelled as Yorgos) derives from Geo+Ergon.
For Geo you can also link to Geo-graphy, Geo-logy, etc.
Geo = soil, land, earth / Ergon = work
The female version of it is Georgia (Yorgia).
Sophocles, sophia+kleos which is wisdom+glory. Sophia is also known out of the word Philosophy.
Alexandra, alexo+andras which means protector of men OR protected by the men. I prefer the second one, at least for the females!
Dimitris derives from the name of ancient goddess Dimitra (Ceres in Latin) whose roots mean “Mother Earth”.
Di+Miter, note that Di is the doric form of Ghi/Geo
The female on is still Dimitra.
The funny thing is that cereals are linked to Ceres, while dimitriaka (which is cereals in greek) derives from Dimitra.
Nikos is Nicholas and it consists of Nike+Laos which is victory+people.
The female form is Nikoletta or Niki.
Kostas is the short form of Constantine and I think that isn’t of greek origins.
Giannis (commonly spelled Yannis) is the greek counterpart of John / Johannes and is, in fact, of jewish origin.
Maria is also of jewish origin, but yet a common name for girls.
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