Core Vocab with Greek

Depending on context, adjectives in -os [-ος] (masculine), may be given with other endings: -ē [-η] (feminine), -on [-ον] (neuter), -oi [-οι] (masculine plural), -ai [-αι] (feminine plural), -a [-α] (neuter plural).

Core Vocab [with Greek]

agathos [ἀγαθός] ‘good, noble’

agōn [ἀγών], plural agōnes [ἀγῶνες] ‘coming together; competition (antagonism); ordeal (agony)’

agora [ἀγορά], plural agorai [ἀγοραί] ‘public assembly, place of public assembly’

aidōs [αἰδώς] ‘shame, sense of shame; sense of respect for others; honorableness’

ainos [αἶνος] ‘authoritative utterance for and by a social group; praise; fable’; ainigma [αἴνιγμα] ‘riddle’

aitios [αἴτιος] ‘responsible, guilty’; aitiā [αἰτία]‘responsibility, guilt; cause, case’

akhos [ἄχος] ‘grief, public expression of grief by way of lamentation or keening’

alēthēs [ἀληθής] (adjective) ‘true, true things’; alētheia [ἀλήθεια] (noun) ‘truth’

aphthitos [ἄφθιτος] ‘imperishable, unfailing, unwilting’

aretē [ἀρετή] ‘striving for a noble goal, for high ideals; noble goal, high ideals’

aristos [ἄριστος] ‘best’, superlative of agathos [ἀγαθός]; aristeiā [ἀριστεία] designates the hero’s great epic moments that demonstrate his being aristos

atē [ἄτη], plural atai [ἆται] ‘aberration, derangement, veering off-course; disaster; punishment for disaster’

āthlos (aethlos) [ἆθλος/ἄεθλος] ‘contest, ordeal; competition’; āthlētēs [ἀθλητής] ‘athlete’

biā [βία] (biē [βίη] in the language of Homeric poetry) ‘force, violence’

daimōn [δαίμων], plural daimones [δαίμονες] ‘superhuman force (= unspecified god or hero) intervening in human life’; eudaimoniā [εὐδαιμονία] ‘state of being blessed with a good daimōn’; daimonion [δαιμόνιον] ‘a superhuman thing’

dēmos [δῆμος], plural dēmoi [δῆμοι] ‘district, population of a district; community’

dikē [δίκη], plural dikai [δίκαι] ‘judgment (short-range); justice (long-range)’; dikaios [δίκαιος] ‘just’

ekhthros [ἐχθρός] ‘enemy [within the community], non-philos [φίλος]’

epos [ἔπος], plural epea [ἔπεα] ‘word(s) said, utterance, poetic utterance’

eris [ἔρις] ‘strife, conflict’

esthlos [ἐσθλός] ‘genuine, good, noble’; synonym of agathos [ἀγαθός]

genos [γένος] ‘stock (“breeding”); generating [of something or someone]; generation’

hērōs [ἥρως], plural hērōes [ἥρωες] ‘hero’

hēsukhos [ἥσυχος] ‘serene’; hēsukhiā [ἡσυχία] ‘state of being hēsukhos’

hieros [ἱερός] ‘sacred, holy’

hōrā [ὥρα], plural hōrai [ὧραι] ‘season, seasonality, the right time, the perfect time’

hubris [ὕβρις] ‘outrage’; the opposite of dikē [δίκη]

kakos [κακός] ‘bad, evil, base, worthless, ignoble’; kakotēs [κακότης] ‘state of being kakos; debasement’

kamatos [κάματος] ‘ordeal, labor, pain’

kerdos [κέρδος], plural kerdea [κέρδεα] ‘gain, profit; desire for gain; craft employed for gain; craftiness; craft’

kharis [χάρις], plural kharites [χάριτες] ‘reciprocity, give-and-take, reciprocal relationship; initiation of reciprocal relationship; the pleasure or beauty derived from reciprocity, from a reciprocal relationship; gratification; grace, gracefulness; favor, favorableness’

khoros [χορός] ‘chorus’ = ‘group of singers/dancers’

kleos [κλέος], plural klea [κλέα] ‘glory, fame (especially as conferred by poetry or song); that which is heard’

kolōnos [κολωνός] ‘tumulus, elevation in a local landscape’

koros [κόρος] ‘being satiated; being insatiable’

kosmos [κόσμος] ‘arrangement, order, law and order, the social order, the universal order’

krinein [κρίνειν] ‘sort out, separate, decide, judge’

lyssa [or, more accurately, lussa] [λύσσα] ‘rage, fury, frenzy’. This word is related to lykos ‘wolf’ [or, more accurately, lukos] [λύκος]; so the image is one of wolf-like rage.

mantis [μάντις] ‘seer, prophet’

memnēmai [μέμνημαι] ‘I remember, I have total recall’

mēnis [μῆνις] ‘superhuman anger’

menos [μένος] ‘power, life-force, activation’ (divinely infused into cosmic forces, like fire and wind, or into heroes); a partial synonym of thūmos [θυμός]; a partial synonym of mēnis [μῆνις]

mētis [μῆτις] ‘artifice, stratagem, cunning intelligence’

miasma [[μίασμα], ‘pollution’; verb miainein [μιαίνειν], ‘to pollute’

moira [μοῖρα], plural moirai [μοῖραι] ‘portion; portion of meat divided at a sacrifice; lot in life, fate, destiny’

mūthos [μῦθος] ‘special speech; special utterance; myth’

nemesis [νέμεσις] indicates the process whereby everyone gets what he or she deserves

nēpios [νήπιος], plural nēpioi [νήπιοι] ‘disconnected’ (the disconnection can be mental, moral, or emotional); on this meaning, see Edmunds 1990

nomos [νόμος], plural nomoi [νόμοι] ‘local custom; customary law; law’

noos [νόος] ‘mind, thinking; perception; intuition; consciousness’; also, this word stands for the principle that reintegrates thūmos [θυμός] (or menos [μένος]) and psūkhē [ψυχή] after death

nostos [νόστος] ‘return, homecoming; song about homecoming; return to light and life’

oikos [οἶκος] ‘house, dwelling, abode; resting place of cult hero; family line’; verb oikeîn [οἰκεῖν] ‘have a dwelling’

olbios [ὄλβιος] ‘blessed, blissful; fortunate’; olbos [ὄλβος] ‘bliss’ (ordinarily pictured as material security)

paskhein [πάσχειν] ‘suffer, experience, be treated [badly or well]’; pathos [πάθος] ‘suffering, experience’

penthos [πένθος] ‘grief, public expression of grief by way of lamentation or keening’

philos [φίλος] ‘friend’ (noun); ‘dear, near-and-dear, belonging to self’ (adjective); philotēs [φιλότης] or philiā [φιλία] ‘the state of being philos’

phrēn [φρήν], plural phrenes [φρένες] ‘physical localization of the thūmos [θυμός]’

polis [πόλις] ‘city, city-state’

ponos [πόνος] ‘ordeal, labor, pain’

pontos [πόντος] ‘sea’ (‘crossing’)

pothos [πόθος] ‘longing, yearning, desire’; a variant form is pothē [ποθή], with the same meaning; the verb derived from this noun is potheîn [ποθεῖν] ‘long for, yearn for, desire’

psūkhē [ψυχή], plural psūkhai [ψυχαί]: synonym of thūmos [θυμός] (or menos [μένος]) at the moment of death; essence of life while one is alive; conveyor of identity while one is dead

sēma [σῆμα], plural sēmata [σήματα] ‘sign, signal, symbol; tomb’; sēmainein [σημαίνειν] (verb) ‘mean something, indicate something by way of a sēma

sophos [σοφός] ‘skilled, skilled in understanding special language’; sophiā [σοφία] ‘being sophos’

sōphrōn [σώφρων] ‘moderate, balanced, with equilibrium’; sōphrosunē [σωφροσύνη] ‘being sōphrōn’

sōtēr [σωτήρ] ‘savior’ (either ‘bringing to safety’ or, mystically, ‘bringing back to life’); sōtēriā [σωτηρία] ‘safety, salvation’; sōzein [σώζειν] (verb) ‘save; be a sōtēr (for someone)’

stasis [στάσις] ‘division in a group; strife; division [= part of an organization, like a chorus]’

telos [τέλος] ‘end, ending, final moment; goal, completion, fulfillment; coming full circle, rounding out; successfully passing through an ordeal; initiation; ritual, rite’

themis [θέμις], plural themistes [θέμιστες] ‘something divinely ordained’

theōriā [θεωρία], ‘sacred journey; ritualized journey undertaken for the purpose of achieving a sacralized vision’

therapōn [θεράπων], plural therapontes [θεράποντες] ‘attendant; ritual substitute’

thūmos [θυμός] ‘heart, spirit’ (designates realm of consciousness, of rational and emotional functions)

tīmē [τιμή], plural tīmai [τιμαί] ‘honor; honor paid to a superhuman force by way of cult’

turannos [τύραννος], plural turannoi [τύραννοι] (Lydian word for ‘king’): ‘king’ (from the viewpoint of most Greek dynasties); ‘unconstitutional ruler’ (from the viewpoint of Greek democracy)

xenos [ξένος], plural xenoi [ξένοι] ‘stranger who should be treated like a guest by a host, or like a host by a guest; xeniā [ξενία] ‘reciprocal relationship between xenoi’; when the rules of xeniā do not work, a xenos risks defaulting to the status of simply stranger