I’d like to thank the global audience this podcast has developed throughout the years . You have been incredibly loyal and supportive .127 countries have been constantly listening and as impossible as it would be to mention every single city, town, and village, I will be giving a shout out to a new place every week. You can also email me at yourgreeksunday@gmail.com to let me know where you’re listening from. I always love hearing from you! Today a shout out to a new addition to our audience; Akron in Ohio, which was named by general Simon Perkins in 1825 after the Greek word for ‘edge’ because of its strategic elevated position. Thank you for listening Akron and welcome to the family!

(Piano music)Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go!

This Ancient Greek goddess has two names (in this version of her myth anyway) . She was a Titan, the Sun was her brother or her husband depending which Ancient Greek historian you ask and her first name is Σελήνη (Selene) which means ‘the one that shines bright light’ . Her second name, Μήνη (minie) was given to her because people counted time according to her movement. Circling the sky every day on her chariot, led by her half black and half white, winged horses. So you could only see her at night and from different angles. But there was one time when you could see her whole before she started her circles again. For 28 to 30 days. Ancient Greeks named that period Mήνα (mena). Now, this word has an even more ancient root ‘min’, which means that languages like Sanskrit , Persian, Armenian and Greek all share a variation of it. And it meant ‘to count’ In English, the word came from proto Germanic ‘menon’ and Latin ‘mensis’ who borrowed the sound from Ancient Greek. ΜΗΝΗ/MOON and MONTH

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(Piano music)

Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go!

Now this is a surprising word. Not because of the way it arrived in English but because of how it evolved. Σχολή (scholi) in Ancient Greek Meant the interval from work. Your free time. What was considered the ideal or socially acceptable way to spend your free time was , learning by either thinking, debating or, discussing a matter. And there were places to go for that. Like the agora under the Acropolis where most philosophers gathered to train minds and debate their ideas with each other. Each philosopher’s place, within the agora, was named after their belief so, you had for example the Σχολή του Σωκράτη (scholi of Socrates) Socrates’ free time. But since that kind of learning was considered equally important as anything else, the place for lectures by philosophers would also be called Σχολή. In Latin 'Schola' meant a place for instructions, in Middle English 'Scole' meant the institution of learning and from 1590 onwards in English it was the name for all buildings used for the purpose of learning. 'Ecole' in French, 'escuela' in Spanish, 'scuola' in Italian, 'Schule' in German, 'Skola' (with a K) in Swedish, 'Σχολείο' in modern Greek and in English, keeping the anglicised Greek spelling of ΣΧΟΛΗ/SCHOOL

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Happy New Year Everybody! May you have a healthy and prosperous 2026 and may you be as passionate for the people and the things you love, as an Ancient Greek! If you like what you hear in this podcast, subscribe, share and review on the platform of your choice. It helps other people find us and a good word goes a long way! On with our first episode!

(Piano music) Hello, and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go!

Today’s word is one that took many turns before settling to what we know today . Plato used it to describe the state of poets and oracles. A state that 'takes the soul beyond reason, truth or beauty and is driven by a god'. Later on the same state would be used to describe divine possession that leads to madness. And in the 1500s borrowed from Latin and French, Martin Luther will use the word to describe religious fanatics or people claiming to have received the word of god directly. In 1716 the clergyman White Kennett wrote the word describing someone passionate about a cause but the word remained a negative one as it excluded all reason. The 19th century was kinder and accepted the word as a state of passion and inspiration. Εν (en) ,in both ancient and modern Greek, is a preposition and means ‘in/within’ and θεός (theos) means ‘god’. The state of being inspired and passionate as if touched by a god is ΕΝΘΟΥΣΙΑΣΜΟΣ/ENTHUSIASM

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