Word origins

• lepto-thin, fine, narrow, slender
• LesbosianA native or inhabitant of Lesbos.
• lethologicaThe inability to remember the correct word.
• leucomaAn opaque area or scar on the cornea of an eye
• lexiarchIn ancient Athens: someone whose role it was to ensure that only citizens entered the ecclesia ("the public legislative assembly of the Athenians").
• liknonA winnowing fan in Ancient Greece, involved in Dionysian rites and the Eleusinian Mysteries.
• lipo-lipids: oils, cholesterols, fat/lard, tallow, and so on.
• lipostomyCongenital absence or smallness of the mouth.
• lirophthalmy"lewd-eyed-ness"
• listhesisA forward (anterior) displacement (slippage) of a vertebra over a lower segment.
• litrameterAn instrument for measuring the specific gravity of liquids by the height to which they rise in vertical tubes under a definite air pressure.
• LityersesAn illegitimate son of Midas (or of Comis) and Demeter, who challenged people to harvesting contests and beheaded those he beat, putting the rest of their bodies in the sheaves. Heracles won the contest and killed him.
• lochagosThe captain or leader of an Ancient Greek lochos.
• logo-word; speech.
• lophA ridge of enamel connecting the cusps of a molar or cheek tooth.
• lopho-ridge, crest
• lophulidA small crest on a tooth
• loutrophorosAn Ancient Greek pottery vessel with elongated neck and two handles, used to hold water during marriage and funeral rituals.
• lydionA kind of Ancient Greek vase of Lydian origin: a small spherical perfume container without handles.
• lykoiA domestic cat of a breed that slightly resembles a werewolf.
• lyso-lysis; breakdown, disintegration
• -lyteWord-forming element used in making nouns corresponding to nouns in -lysis and adjectives in -lytic.
• MacariaA little-known daughter of Hades.
• macarismHappiness as a result of praise.
• macarizeTo congratulate or laud; to pronounce blessed or happy.
• machimosA low-ranking Ancient Egyptian soldier.
• MacrisFormer name of Euboea.
• madarosisThe loss of the eyebrows or eyelashes.
• MaemacterionA month of the ancient Athenian calendar, equivalent to October–November.
• magadisAn Ancient Greek musical instrument of unknown nature, probably a stringed instrument similar to a psaltery or harp.
• magadizeTo play a piece of music simultaneously at two different octaves.
• magiricSynonym of culinary: Of or related to cooking.
• magiritsaA Greek soup made from lamb offal.
• magophonyThe slaughter of magi or priests.
• malabathrumA fragrant substance imported by the ancient Romans from India, believed to have been made from the leaves of a type of cinnamon or cassia.
• malacodermOne of a former tribe of beetles (Malacodermata), with a soft and flexible body.
• manouriA Greek semi-soft cheese made from the milk of goats or sheep.
• MarpesiaThe queen of the Amazons, who ruled with her sister Lampedo, and helped to establish the Greek city of Ephesus.
• mastaxThe pharynx of a rotifer. It usually contains four horny pieces. The two central ones form the incus, against which the mallei, or lateral ones, work so as to crush the food.
• -mastixSuffix denoting a strong hatred and opposition of whatever thing the suffix is attached to.
• mastosAn Ancient Greek drinking vessel shaped like a woman's breast.
• mathemeA quasi-scientific symbolic formula serving to represent an idea, used in the works of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.
• mazologyMammalogy.
• meandrosSynonym of Greek key (“a decorative border constructed from a continuous line”).
• MecheirThe sixth month of the later ancient Egyptian civil calendar and Coptic calendar, corresponding to the second month of the season of Peret. Since 25 BCE, when the calendar was reformed to include leap-days, Mecheir has been in roughly February.
• meconThe opium poppy.
• meconidineA rare alkaloid found in opium, extracted as a yellow amorphous substance which is easily decomposed.
• medimnosA unit of dry capacity, in Ancient Greece, equal to about 52-58 litres, according to region and era.
• MegabazusName of several notable Achaemenid Persians
• MegaeraOne of the Furies, Erinyes in Greek mythology, the cause of jealousy and envy, who punishes people who commit crimes, especially marital infidelity.
• megalopsychiagreatness of soul; magnanimity
• MelampusA legendary soothsayer and healer, originally of Pylos, who ruled at Argos.
• melanocomousDark-haired or black-haired.
• meno-month
• merycismrumination syndrome
• mesodePart of a lyric or choral ode which occurs between the strophe and antistrophe.
• mesophryonglabella (the space between the eyebrows and nose)
• MesoreThe twelfth and last month of the later ancient Egyptian civil calendar and Coptic calendar, corresponding to the fourth and last month of the season of Shemu. Since 25 BCE, when the calendar was reformed to include leap-days, Mesore has been in roughly August.
• MesseneAn ancient Greek city in the southwest Peloponnesus and new capital of the region of Messenia.
• metabolaA change or mutation of disease, symptoms, or treatment.
• metanoeteMetanoia.
• metensomatosisA change of body by the soul, reincarnation, metempsychosis.
• meteoromancyDivination by interpreting meteorological phenomena such as meteors.
• micrologyThe study of trivialities and minutiae, or focusing on the small details rather than the whole picture.
• MilyasA mountainous country in ancient southwest Anatolia (modern Turkey).
• MimnermusAn Ancient Greek name, particularly borne by a Greek elegiac poet from Colophon, who flourished about 630-600 BC.
• MinyasThe founder of Orchomenus, Boeotia, and ancestor of the Minyans.
• misopogonA person with hate or contempt for beards.
• misosopherOne who hates wisdom or knowledge.
• misotheismHatred of God or gods.
• MissolonghiA town in western Greece.
• mithridaticonSynonym of mithridate.
• moiraiThe three Fates, personifications of destiny.
• moirocaustA sacrifice that is partially burned to ashes.
• MolpadiaAn Amazon said to have fought for both Antiope and Orithyia.
• -morphshape, form, structure
• -morphyShaped or formed.
• muronSynonym of chrism.
• MycaleA mountain on the west coast of central Anatolia in Turkey.
• -nautForms nouns meaning voyager or traveller
• neanicRelating to youth or the early stages.
• -nemaCharacteristic of, pertaining to, or possessing a filiform structure.
• NeodamodeA helot who was freed from the Spartan army after serving as a hoplite.
• neokorosThe guardian of a temple in Ancient Greece
• nephrosA kidney-like organ.
• nestitherapyMedical treatment by reducing food intake.
• Nisaeaa vast plain in Media, known for its namesake horse breed
• NisyrosA Greek island in the Dodecanese.
• nomiaAny of various ground-nesting halictid bees of the genus Nomia, native to Asia, many species of which have opalescent bands on the metasoma.
• nomismaMoney or currency (modern).
• nomotheticRelating to the underlying laws of a subject.
• nomotheticssystem defining laws or rules
• nostosA homecoming, as after a long journey.
• nothogenericRelating to a nothogenus.
• noto-south, southern
• nychthemeronA period of one day and one night, a date: in the West, a period of 24 consecutive hours.
• nyctalopiaThe inability to see clearly in dim light; night blindness
• obolSynonym of obolus: a silver coin of Ancient Greece.
• ochlo-Crowd, mob.
• octaeterisSynonym of octennium: An 8-year period, particularly (historical) in Greek calendrical and astronomical calculations.