Word origins

• crono-Relating to Saturn
• crypsisThe ability of an organism to avoid observation.
• CureteA Korybant.
• CydippeOne of the nereids.
• cysto-Of or relating to any cyst, sac, or bladder.
• cythero-Relating to Venus
• dacryo-Relating to tears; lacrimal.
• dactylyThe number and arrangement of digits (fingers and toes) on the hands, feet, or (sometimes) wings, of a tetrapod animal.
• DaedalidaeA deme of ancient Attica, located north of Alopece, southeast of Athens.
• daimonianA daimon, especially that which inspired or warned Socrates.
• DamocritusA Greek author mentioned only in the Suda, whose work provides the earliest attestation of a blood libel.
• DaphnephoriaA festival held every nine years at Thebes in Boeotia in honour of Apollo Ismenius or Galaxius.
• DaphnephorosA boy chosen as the chief figure in the Daphnephoria procession.
• deixisThe use of a word, such as a particle or pronoun, to refer to something that must be identified from the immediate physical, temporal, or grammatical context; a word used in such a way.
• dekadTen days, especially of rainfall. Generally identified as dekad 1: 1ˢᵗ-10ᵗʰ, dekad 2: 11ᵗʰ-20ᵗʰ, and dekad 3: 21ˢᵗ-last day of each month.
• -dermskin or covering
• -dermaskin or skin disease
• -dermatoushaving a specified type skin
• -desisBinding, fusion.
• di-Two.
• dianoiaDiscursive thought on mathematical or scientific subjects.
• diaphageticRelating to or characterized by the interpretation of meaning that lies beneath or between the explicit words in a text or speech.
• diaskeuastOne who reviews or revises a text.
• diaulosAn Ancient Greek wind instrument composed of two pipes connected at the base and often of different lengths, played similarly to an oboe.
• dicastA kind of juror.
• dicasteryA ministry or department of the Roman Curia of the Holy See, whether administrative or ecclesiastical.
• dicolonA verse or period consisting of two cola or members.
• didascalyAny catalog of Greek drama published by Alexandrian scholars.
• diekplousAn ancient Greek naval operation in which a line of ships rowed through gaps between the enemy's ships and then turned to attack their weaker side.
• diezeugmenonThe last tetrachord, in the case where two tetrachords were placed separately from each other, but with only the interval of a tone between them.
• diglotA bilingual inscription, book, or person.
• DioclesA male given name of historical usage.
• diphy-double, twofold
• dis legomenonA word that occurs only twice in a given corpus.
• dochmiacPertaining to, or containing, the dochmius.
• dodeca-twelve
• douleiaIn Roman Catholicism, the inferior veneration accorded to saints and angels.
• drepanocytosisSynonym of sickle-cell disease.
• DrougoubitaiA South Slavic group who settled in the Balkans in the 7th century.
• drungarA kind of military commander in the late Roman and Byzantine Empires, usually commanding roughly a battalion on land or a fleet on the sea.
• dulosisThe process by which parasitic ants steal pupae from the nests of other ants and raise them in their own nest, so that they become a contributing part of the colony.
• Dura-EuroposAn ancient Hellenistic, Parthian and Roman border city on the bank of the Euphrates in present-day Syria.
• dyscrasiaImbalance of the four bodily humors (blood, black and yellow bile, phlegm) that was thought to cause disease.
• dysmorphiadysmorphism
• dysnomiaAnomic aphasia, a condition affecting the memory that impairs the recall of words or names.
• dystychiphobiaThe fear of accidents.
• ecboleA digression, (especially) one in which a person is introduced speaking his or her own words.
• echoiOne of a set of eight modes, octoechoi, of music in Byzantine music. It selects the chant style or genre.
• ectasisThe dilation or distention of a hollow or tubular part of the body, typically due to disease or injury.
• ecthesisAn exposition or setting out; used by Aristotle in setting forth various proofs, though the nature of the process is disputed; perhaps simply writing out in letter notation.
• ecumeneAll known inhabited and civilized areas of the world.
• eidolopoeiaA rhetorical technique in which a speech is attributed to a deceased person, a phantom, an image or an idol.
• eikosteIn Ancient Greece, a tax on sea trade at the rate of a twentieth (5%).
• EileithyiaThe goddess of childbirth and midwifery; the daughter of Zeus and Hera; the Greek counterpart of the Roman Lucina.
• EisodiaThe entrance of the Virgin Mary to the Temple.
• ekecheiriaA truce around the time of the ancient Olympic Games to protect the hosts, competitors, and spectators.
• ekisticsThe scientific study of human settlements, and the planning and design of cities and other communities.
• ekphrasisA clear, intense, self-contained argument or verbal description of an object, especially of an artwork.
• ekphrasticPertaining to ekphrasis; clear, lucid.
• ekpyrosisThe supposed periodic destruction of the universe
• ekteniaA litany in the Byzantine Rite.
• elephantarchThe commander of a military corps of elephants.
• EleuthereusEpithet of Dionysus/Bacchus
• emplastronA plaster.
• EncheleA historical region of the Balkans inhabited by the Enchelei, now in Albania, North Macedonia and Greece.
• EncheleiAn ancient Illyrian tribe inhabiting Enchele.
• -enchymacellular tissue
• enclisisThe use of enclitics in the syntax of a language.
• encratySelf-control; abstinence.
• enneadThe number nine.
• EnneapylonA wall or fortress supposed to have been built by the Pelasgians, after levelling the summit of the rock on the Acropolis of Athens.
• enomotyA band of sworn soldiers; a division of the Spartan army ranging from twenty-five to thirty-six men, bound together by oath.
• entheasticHaving godlike energy; inspired or divine-esque.
• epanodosThe repetition of a sequence of words or phrases in reverse order.
• EpeiphThe eleventh month of the later ancient Egyptian civil calendar and Coptic calendar, corresponding to the third month of the season of Shemu. Since 25 BCE, when the calendar was reformed to include leap-days, Epeiph has been in roughly July.
• epeirogenesisFormation of continents, ocean basins and plateaus via movements of earth's crust.
• epexegesisAn additional explanation or explanatory material.
• ephebeionA room for young men in an Ancient Greek gymnasium.
• ephebophiliaA sexual attraction towards postpubescent adolescents.
• ephelcystic nuEuphonic nu ⟨ν⟩ (n). Consonant ⟨ν⟩ affixed to vowel endings of some Ancient Greek grammatical forms to produce euphony: in prevocalic position, to avoid sounding two vowels in a row (hiatus), and prevent elision or fusion of vowels contracting into one sound (crasis). In preconsonantal coda position, ⟨ν⟩ may be added to create a long syllable in poetic meter. Nu is also usually written before a pause at the end of a clause in prose or the end of a verse in poetry.
• ephemeronSomething short-lived or transitory.
• epibolyThe expansion of one cell sheet over other cells, as takes place during gastrulation or secondary intention wound healing.
• epideicticOf or pertaining to rhetoric of ceremony, declamation, and demonstration, most often the rhetoric of funerals and other formal events. One of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric as outlined by Aristotle.
• epigonionAn ancient stringed instrument, apparently a harp or psaltery.
• epikeiaThe principle in ethics that a law can be broken to achieve a greater good.
• epinaosAn open vestibule behind the nave, differentiated from the opisthodomos.
• epinetronA piece of Attic pottery worn on a woman's thigh during the preparation of wool, akin to a thimble, and used as a decorative symbol for goddesses and unmarried girls.
• epinicionA song or ode in celebration of triumph or victory.
• EpinomisA dialogue ascribed variously to Plato, his disciple–editor Philip of Opus, and to an unknown forger, and which forms an appendical thirteenth book to the former’s Laws.
• epiphoraepistrophe
• epiploonThe greater omentum.
• epiproctEither of the lateral lobes of the proctiger.
• epirrhemaAn address, usually dealing with public affairs, spoken by the leader of the chorus after the parabasis in an Ancient Greek comedy.
• episcopySupervision; superintendence.
• epistatesA superintendent or overseer in Ancient Greece.
• episynaloepheSynonym of synecphonesis.
• epitaphionAn embroidered veil showing the dead body of Jesus Christ.
• epithemAny external topical application to the body, except ointments and plasters; a poultice, lotion, etc.
• epithesisThe addition of a letter or sound at the end of a word, without changing its meaning.
• epithumeticsensual; inclined towards lust