Etymograph

English

Olympian

Olympian comes from Latin Olympius ‘of or relating to Mount Olympus’, and goes back to Ancient Greek Ὄλῠμπος.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὌλῠμπος‘Olympus’
  2. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEὈλῠ́μπῐοςOlŭ́mpĭos‘of or relating to Mount Olympus’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEOlympius‘of or relating to Mount Olympus’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500Olympyan
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1648Olympian

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὌλῠμπος‘Olympus’
  2. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEὈλῠ́μπῐοςOlŭ́mpĭos‘of or relating to Mount Olympus’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEOlympius‘of or relating to Mount Olympus’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500Olympyan
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1648Olympian

Earliest quotation: 1648, John Diodati [i.e., Annotations upon Daniel: “Namely, the Olympian Iove, to whom Antiochus [IV Epiphanes]…”

The story

From Late Middle English Olympyan, from Latin Olympius (‘of or relating to Mount Olympus’) and its etymon Ancient Greek Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos, “of or relating to Mount Olympus; living on Mount Olympus; Olympian”) + English -an (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, or forming agent nouns). Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos) is derived from Ὄλῠμπος (Ólŭmpos, “Mount Olympus”) (from Pre-Greek) + -ῐος (-ĭos, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).

Every English word from Ancient Greek Ὄλῠμπος

Another origin of Olympian

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEOlympianus‘Olympic’
  2. EnglishtodayOlympian

From Late Latin Olympianus (‘Olympic’) + English -an (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, or forming agent nouns). Olympianus is derived from Latin Olympia (‘town in Elis, Greece, where the ancient Olympic Games were held’) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’); and Olympia is from Ancient Greek Ὀλυμπῐ́ᾱ (Olumpĭ́ā, “Olympia”), from Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos, “of or pertaining to Mount Olympus; living on Mount Olympus, Olympian; (specifically) Zeus”) or Ὄλῠμπος (Ólŭmpos, “Mount Olympus”) (see further at etymology 1) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). As regards noun sense 1 (‘inhabitant of the city of Olympia, Washington, United States’), the city was named after the Olympic Mountains which are visible to the northwest, which in turn were named after Mount Olympus in Greece.

Today it means

adj Of or relating to Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece; or (Greek mythology) the Greek gods and goddesses who were believed to live there.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek Ὄλῠμπος / Olympian

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