Word origins

• octakis-A variant of octo-, used for multiplication with a second numerical prefix: octakishexahedron
• OctoechosA liturgical book containing a repertoire of hymns ordered in eight parts according to the eight echoi (tones or modes), used in many rites of Eastern Christianity.
• -odeWay, path, travel.
• -odonttooth; toothed
• -odyniapain
• ŒchaliaA city that was located in Ancient Greece.
• oecistA founder of a colony.
• ŒclesSon of Mantius and father of Amphiaraus.
• ŒniadæA city in Greece.
• oeno-wine (the alcoholic beverage)
• oenochoeA type of Ancient Greek pottery wine jug.
• ŒnoëA city in Greece.
• œnophorumA vessel (such as a jug or basket) for holding or transporting wine or wine bottles.
• ŒnophytaGrecian village located in the eastern region of Boeotia.
• ŒnotriaAncient territory in southern Italy.
• ŒnotrusOne of the younger sons of Lycaon.
• OetaeaA small upland district located south of Thessaly (of which it was sometimes considered a part). It was closely linked with the district of Aeniania, sharing a location in the valley of the Spercheios.
• OgygiaThe island home of the nymph Calypso, where she entertained Odysseus for seven years.
• oikumeneThe civilized world or inhabited world; the location and time in the known world where human civilization exists.
• OizysThe (female) personification of pain and distress; said by Hesiod is his Theogony to be the offspring of Nyx (Night) and produced without the assistance of a father; identified with the Roman Miseria (Misery).
• OkeanosSynonym of Oceanus (“god and personification of the world ocean”).
• oligaemiaThe condition of having a low quantity of blood.
• ombro-Forms words related to rain.
• -omeA mass of something.
• omo-Of or pertaining to the shoulder and scapula.
• omophagiaThe eating of raw food, especially raw flesh.
• omphacomelA form of mead made with verjuice.
• onkosA kind of headdress in Ancient Greek theatre.
• onomasticOf or relating to a personal or place name.
• onosSynonym of epinetron (“Attic pottery item”).
• onto-being
• onycho-Nail: Relating to fingernails, toenails, or homologous structures such as claws or hooves.
• OphiotaurusA mythical creature, part bull and part serpent.
• opisthocranionThe posteriormost point in the midsagittal plane of the occiput
• opisthodomosA porch at the rear of a temple, set against the blank back wall of the cella.
• opisthosphendoneA plain or ornamented band of fabric, broad in the middle and narrow at the ends, and fastened in the front, used in Ancient Greece to support the hair behind the head.
• OponeAn ancient city in Ras Hafun, in modern-day Somalia; modern Hafun.
• -opsiaForming compound nouns denoting specific deficiencies of sight.
• OpsikionA Byzantine theme (military-civilian province) located in northwestern Asia Minor (modern Turkey).
• opsonIn Ancient Greek cuisine, delicacies such as cooked fish, considered an integral component of a meal.
• -opsyexamination
• orgiastOne who attends an orgy.
• orgionAn ecstatic form of worship characteristic of some Ancient Greek mystery cults.
• OrneaeA city, mentioned in the Iliad, situated north of Leontio in Corinthia in Ancient Greece.
• OrseisA naiad of a spring in Thessaly.
• orthopnoeaShortness of breath when lying flat, causing the person to have to sleep propped up in bed or sitting in a chair.
• orthostatesSynonym of orthostat
• OrthrusA two-headed dog who guarded Geryon's cattle and was killed by Heracles.
• oryctereThe aardvark.
• orycticsThe branch of geology relating to fossils.
• osteonAny of the central canals, and surrounding bony layers, found in compact bone.
• ostraconA piece of pottery or stone, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel, especially one used to cast a vote during the Ancient Greek process of ostracism.
• -otA demonymic suffix mostly found in borrowings from Greek.
• oulorrhagiaBleeding from the gums.
• OuranosSynonym of Uranus.
• OureaThe primordial gods of the mountains in Greek mythology
• ousiaThe essential nature or ‘substance’ of God, often as contrasted to the ‘energies’ (external actions and influences) through which he is manifest.
• oxy-Sharp, keen, acute, pungent, acid
• oxytonesisThe shift of accent to the final syllable.
• PachonThe ninth month of the later ancient Egyptian civil calendar and Coptic calendar, corresponding to the first month of the season of Shemu. Since 25 BCE, when the calendar was reformed to include leap-days, Pachon has been in roughly May.
• paideuticsThe science or art of teaching.
• palikarismThe lawless warlike practices of certain ancient Greeks.
• pan-All.
• PanathenaicOf or relating to the Panathenaea.
• PanioniumAn Ionian sanctuary dedicated to Poseidon Helikonios, and the meeting-place of the Ionian League.
• panolepsyPossession by Pan.
• PaphlagoniaA historical region in northern Asia Minor in modern Turkey, on the shore of the Black Sea, between Bithynia and Pontus.
• papyro-Of, similar to, or related to papyrus or things made from papyrus.
• papyrosSynonym of papyrus.
• parabaptistA person carrying out unlawful baptisms, especially in the early Church.
• parabasisThe part of an Ancient Greek comedy in which the actors leave the stage and the chorus addresses the audience directly.
• paradiastoleA form of euphemism in which a positive synonym is substituted for a negative word.
• paragraphosIn Ancient Greek papyri, anything written beside the main text, such as a marginal note or sign to mark the close or beginning of a sentence, or (in a drama) to indicate a change of speaker.
• paralipomenaThe different text variants or text witnesses researched when creating a critical edition.
• paralipomenonEither of the Books of Chronicles in the Old Testament.
• paraprosdokianA figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part.
• parasiopesisSynonym of paralipsis.
• parasynthesisThe formation of words by a combination of compounding and adding an affix, as in brown-eyed.
• pardaloteAny of the Australian birds of the genus Pardalotus, which feed on lerps.
• paredrosAn assistant or servant of a god.
• paregoricA painkiller; a medicine which soothes or relieves pain; specifically the traditional patent medicine consisting of camphorated tincture of opium.
• paremboleA kind of rhetorical parenthesis. The insertion of something relating to the subject in the middle of a period.
• parergonA piece of work that is supplementary to or a byproduct of a larger work.
• paristhmiontonsil
• paroeciousHaving the male and female reproductive organs growing beside or near each other, as in certain cryptogams.
• paroemiacA catalectic anapestic dimeter.
• parotid glandEither of a pair of salivary glands located in front of and below each ear in humans.
• partheniacanapestic dimeter catalectic, paroemiac
• -pathUsed to form nouns indicating someone with a particular disorder
• PauniThe tenth month of the later ancient Egyptian civil calendar and Coptic calendar, corresponding to the second month of the season of Shemu. Since 25 BCE, when the calendar was reformed to include leap-days, Pauni has been in roughly June.
• PelasgicPelasgian
• PelasgoiThe Pelasgians.
• PelasgusThe eponymous ancestor of the Pelasgians, the mythical inhabitants of Greece who established the worship of the Dodonaean Zeus, Hephaestus, the Cabeiri, and other divinities.
• pelmaThe undersurface of the foot.
• -peniadeficiency
• Pentapotamiaa geographical region in South Asia, politically divided between India and Pakistan.
• penteconterA galley-type Grecian vessel with fifty oars.
• penthossorrow; grief; mourning or sadness
• peplosAn Ancient Greek garment, worn by women, formed of a tubular piece of cloth, which is folded back upon itself halfway down, until the top of the tube is worn around the waist, and the bottom covers the legs down to the ankles; the open top is then worn over the shoulders, and draped, in folds, down to the waist.
• peraiaA place on the other side, usually a territory across the sea from a city or an island, generally a dependency of an ancient Greek city.