Etymology

Lefkosia

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Today it means: Synonym of Nicosia: the capital city of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus; a district around the city. Full definition →

Greek Λευκωσία ← Medieval Greek Λευκουσία
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The story

  1. Medieval Greek · derived fromΛευκουσία
  2. Greek · borrowed fromΛευκωσία
  3. English todayLefkosia

From Greek Λευκωσία (Lefkosía), from a variant of Medieval Greek Λευκουσία (Leukousía), equivalent to λευκός (leukós, “white”) or λεύκη (leúkē, “poplar”) + οὐσία (ousía, “property, estate”), but deriving from various Ancient Greek forms including Λευτεῶν (Leuteôn), Λευκοθέον (Leukothéon), and Λευκούπολις (Leukoúpolis) adapting an early or pre-Greek name variously recorded as Λέδραι (Lédrai), Λῆδρον (Lêdron), Λεδρῶν (Ledrôn), Λήδρα (Lḗdra), etc. Doublet of Lefkoşa and Nicosia.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.