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What Are Greek Loanwords? Greek loanwords are words that have been borrowed from the Greek language and adopted into another language These words often retain their Greek spelling and pronunciation, even though the new language's spellings and sounds will usually be different. This is evidence of their origin in the Greek language, which has been in existence for more than 4,000 years and has influenced many other languages. Greek loanwords are found in a variety of languages, from English to French, Spanish, and Italian. Greek loanwords can be divided into two categories. The first is 'hard loanwords', which are exact translations from Greek into another language. The second is 'soft loanwords', which are only partly derived from their source language and therefore, have some element of adaptation. Examples of soft loanwords include words that have taken on new meaning in another language, or words that have been phonetically adapted due to the sound boundaries of the new language. Loanwords are very useful for enriching the language of another culture. They can bring new concepts, words, and ideas to a language and provide insight into the history of the culture that adopted them. The Five Best Examples of Loanwords from the Greek Language 1. Telephone – The Greek word tele (τηλε) means “far,” and phone (φωνη) means “sound,” both of which have been combined to form the English word “telephone.” 2. Gymnasium – This word is derived from the Greek word gymnasion (γυμνάσιον), which means "place for training and exercise." 3. Bronze – The Greek word for “bronze” is bronte (βροντή), which is where we get the English word. 4. Marathon – Another loanword from the Greek language is “marathon.” The word comes from the Greek city of Marathon and the story of the famous runner Pheidippides who ran to Athens to announce the Persians’ defeat in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. 5. Philosophy – Philosophy is derived from the Greek word philosophia (φιλοσοφία), which combines the Greek words philo (φίλος) meaning “love” and sophia (σοφία) meaning “wisdom.”