Grecisms (redirected from Graecism)

Grecisms 

words that came into Russian from Greek during the Byzantine period (through Slavic translations of religious books); also, terms formed from Greek roots and affixes.

Grecisms may be found in church usage (Russian lampada, “icon lamp”; angel, “angel”; episkop, “bishop”; ladan, “incense”; ikona, “icon”). Christian personal names (Andrei, “man”; Georgii, “farmer”; Evgenii, “wellborn”), and terms in the arts and sciences (Russian istoriia, filosofiia, drama, tragediia, and melodiia). A large number of modern scientific terms consist of Greek roots and affixes (Russian gen from Greek genos, “race” or “family”; mono- from Greek monos, “one.” “single”; psevdo- from Greek pseudos, “lie,” “falsehood”; psikho- from Greek psyche, “soul”: sin- from Greek syn, “with.” “together”;fob- from Greekphobos, “fear”). The Russian terms avtogennyi (autogenous), monotip (monotype), psevdonim (pseudonym). psikhologiia (psychology), sinkhronnyi (synchronous), and gidrofobiia (hydrophobia) are formed in this way.

REFERENCES

Pokrovskii, M. M. Semasiologicheskie issledovaniia ν oblasti drevnikh iazykov. Moscow, 1895.
Iushmanov. N. V. Elementy mezhdunarodnoi terminologii: Siovar’-spravochnik. Moscow. 1968.