Greek language


Greek language
In this Dossier

Greek language in the context of Hebrews

The Hebrews (Hebrew: עִבְרִיִּים / עִבְרִים, Modern: ʿĪvrīm / ʿĪvrīyyīm, Tiberian: ʿĪḇrīm / ʿĪḇrīyyīm; ISO 259-3: ʕibrim / ʕibriyim) were an ancient Semitic-speaking people. Historians mostly consider the Hebrews as synonymous with the Israelites, with the term "Hebrew" denoting an Israelite from the nomadic era, which preceded the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah in the 11th century BCE. However, in some instances, the designation "Hebrew" may also be used historically in a wider sense, referring to the Phoenicians or other ancient Semitic-speaking civilizations, such as the Shasu on the eve of the Late Bronze Age collapse. It appears 34 times within 32 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Some scholars regard "Hebrews" as an ethnonym, while others do not, and others still hold that the multiple modern connotations of ethnicity may not all map well onto the sociology of ancient Near Eastern groups.

By the time of the Roman Empire, the term Hebraios (Greek: Ἑβραῖος) could refer to any member of the Jewish people in general (as Strong's Hebrew Dictionary puts it: "any of the Jewish nation") or, at other times, specifically to those Jews who lived in Judea, which was a Roman province from 6 CE to 135 CE. However, at the time of early Christianity, the term instead referred to Jewish Christians, as opposed to the Judaizers and to the gentile Christians.

View the full Wikipedia page for Hebrews
↑ Return to Menu

Greek language in the context of Phrase (music)

In music theory, a phrase (Greek: φράση) is a unit of musical meter that has a complete musical sense of its own, built from figures, motifs, and cells, and combining to form melodies, periods and larger sections.

Terms such as sentence and verse have been adopted into the vocabulary of music from linguistic syntax. Though the analogy between the musical and the linguistic phrase is often made, still the term "is one of the most ambiguous in music....there is no consistency in applying these terms nor can there be...only with melodies of a very simple type, especially those of some dances, can the terms be used with some consistency."

View the full Wikipedia page for Phrase (music)
↑ Return to Menu

Greek language in the context of Greek to me

That's Greek to me or it's (all) Greek to me is an idiom in English referring to material that the speaker finds difficult or impossible to understand. It is commonly used in reference to a complex or imprecise verbal or written expression, that may use unfamiliar jargon, dialect, or symbols. The metaphor refers to the Greek language, which is unfamiliar to most English speakers, and additionally uses a largely dissimilar alphabet.

View the full Wikipedia page for Greek to me
↑ Return to Menu

Greek language in the context of Easter

Easter, also called Pasch (/pæsk/) or Pascha (Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , paskha; Greek: πάσχα, páskha) or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.

Easter-observing Christians commonly refer to the last week of Lent, before Easter, as Holy Week, which in Western Christianity begins on Palm Sunday (marking the entrance of Jesus in Jerusalem), includes Spy Wednesday (on which the betrayal of Jesus is mourned), and contains the days of the Easter Triduum including Maundy Thursday, commemorating the Maundy and Last Supper, as well as Good Friday, commemorating the crucifixion and death of Jesus. In Eastern Christianity, the same events are commemorated with the names of days all starting with "Holy" or "Holy and Great", and Easter itself might be called Great and Holy Pascha. In both Western and Eastern Christianity, Eastertide—also known as the Easter or Paschal season—begins on Easter Sunday and continues for seven weeks, concluding on the 50th day, Pentecost Sunday. However, in Eastern Christianity, the leavetaking of the feast occurs on the 39th day, the eve of the Feast of the Ascension.

View the full Wikipedia page for Easter
↑ Return to Menu

Greek language in the context of Metabolism

Metabolism (/məˈtæbəlɪzəm/, from Greek: μεταβολή metabolē, "change") refers to the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions that occur within living organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are the conversion of energy in food into a usable form for cellular processes; the conversion of food to building blocks of macromolecules (biopolymers) such as proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and some carbohydrates; and the excretion of metabolic wastes. These enzyme-catalyzed reactions allow organisms to grow, reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. The word metabolism can also refer to all chemical reactions that occur in living organisms, including digestion and the transportation of substances into and between different cells. In a broader sense, the set of reactions occurring within the cells is called intermediary (or intermediate) metabolism.

Metabolic reactions may be categorized as catabolic—the breaking down of compounds (for example, of glucose to pyruvate by cellular respiration); or anabolic—the building up (biosynthesis) of compounds (such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids). Usually, catabolism releases energy, and anabolism consumes energy.

View the full Wikipedia page for Metabolism
↑ Return to Menu

Greek language in the context of Crater (constellation)

Crater is a small constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. Its name is the Latinization of the Greek krater, a type of cup used to water down wine. One of the 48 constellations listed by the second-century astronomer Ptolemy, it depicts a cup that has been associated with the god Apollo and is perched on the back of Hydra the water snake.

There is no star brighter than third magnitude in the constellation. Its two brightest stars, Delta Crateris of magnitude 3.56 and Alpha Crateris of magnitude 4.07, are ageing orange giant stars that are cooler and larger than the Sun. Beta Crateris is a binary star system composed of a white giant star and a white dwarf. Seven star systems have been found to host planets. A few notable galaxies, including Crater 2 and NGC 3981, and a famous quasar lie within the borders of the constellation.

View the full Wikipedia page for Crater (constellation)
↑ Return to Menu

Greek language in the context of Acatalepsy

Acatalepsy (from the Greek α̉- 'privative' and καταλαμβάνειν 'to seize'), in philosophy, is incomprehensibleness, or the impossibility of comprehending or conceiving some or all things. The doctrine held by the ancient Skeptic philosophers, that human knowledge never amounts to certainty, but only to probability.

The Pyrrhonians attempted to show, while Academic skeptics of the Platonic Academy asserted an absolute acatalepsia; all human science or knowledge, according to them, went no further than to appearances and verisimilitude. It is the antithesis of the Stoic doctrine of katalepsis or Apprehension. According to the Stoics, katalepsis was true perception, but to the Skeptics, all perceptions were acataleptic, i.e. bear no conformity to the objects perceived, or, if they did bear any conformity, it could never be known.

View the full Wikipedia page for Acatalepsy
↑ Return to Menu

Greek language in the context of Trope theory

Trope denotes figurative and metaphorical language and one which has been used in various technical senses. The term trope derives from the Greek τρόπος (tropos), "a turn, a change", related to the root of the verb τρέπειν (trepein), "to turn, to direct, to alter, to change"; this means that the term is used metaphorically to denote, among other things, metaphorical language.

The term is also used in technical senses, which do not always correspond to its linguistic origin. Its meaning has to be judged from the context, some of which are given below.

View the full Wikipedia page for Trope theory
↑ Return to Menu

Greek language in the context of Monist

Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept, such as to existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:

  • Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., in Neoplatonism everything is derived from The One. In this view only the One is ontologically fundamental or prior to everything else.
  • Existence monism posits that, strictly speaking, there exists only a single thing, the universe, which can only be artificially and arbitrarily divided into many things.
  • Substance monism asserts that a variety of existing things can be explained in terms of a single reality or substance. Substance monism posits that only one kind of substance exists, although many things may be made up of this substance, e.g., matter or mind.
  • Dual-aspect monism is the view that the mental and the physical are two aspects of, or perspectives on, the same substance.
  • Neutral monism believes the fundamental nature of reality to be neither mental nor physical; in other words it is "neutral".
  • Political monism is sometimes used to describe political concepts, such as unitarianism, based on certain principles like ethnicity or identity.
View the full Wikipedia page for Monist
↑ Return to Menu

Greek language in the context of Fungi

A fungus (pl.: fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one of the traditional eukaryotic kingdoms, along with Animalia, Plantae, and either Protista or Protozoa and Chromista.

A characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria, and some protists is chitin in their cell walls. Fungi, like animals, are heterotrophs; they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved organic molecules, typically by secreting digestive enzymes into their environment. Fungi do not photosynthesize. Growth is their means of mobility, except for spores (a few of which are flagellated), which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems. These and other differences place fungi in a single group of related organisms, named the Eumycota (true fungi or Eumycetes), that share a common ancestor (i.e. they form a monophyletic group), an interpretation that is also strongly supported by molecular phylogenetics. This fungal group is distinct from the structurally similar myxomycetes (slime molds) and oomycetes (water molds). The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology (from the Greek μύκης, mykes 'mushroom'). In the past, mycology was regarded as a branch of botany, although it is now known that fungi are genetically more closely related to animals than to plants.

View the full Wikipedia page for Fungi
↑ Return to Menu