Etymology

-polis

Today it means: Forms names of cities or kinds of cities. Full definition →

Ancient Greek πόλις (pólis) ← Proto-Hellenic *ptólis ← Proto-Indo-European *tpelH-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*tpelH-
  2. Proto-Hellenic*ptólis
  3. Ancient Greekπόλις (pólis)
  4. English today-polis

Learned borrowing from Latin -polis, from Ancient Greek πόλις (pólis, “city”). Doublet of -ple.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekπόλις all →

MinneapolispolisArchaeopolis-plepolicidepoliclinic

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.