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Origin and history of Athens

Athens

city of ancient Attica, capital of modern Greece, from Greek Athenai (plural because the city had several distinct parts), traditionally derived from Athena, but probably assimilated from a lost name in a pre-Hellenic language.

Entries linking to Athens

Athena

Greek goddess of wisdom, skill in the arts, righteous warfare, etc., from Latin Athena, from Greek Athēnē, name of a common Greek goddess, dating to Minoan times, depicted with a snake and protecting the palace. "Like the goddess itself, the name is pre-Greek" [Beekes]. Identified by the Romans with their Minerva.

Athenian(n.)

1520s, "native or inhabitant of Athens;" see Athens + -ian. From 1580s as an adjective, "pertaining to Athens." Old English had Atheniense (plural noun), from Latin Atheniensis.

Attica

"region around Athens," traditionally explained as from Greek Attikos (Latin Atticus) "of Athens" (see Athens), which is supported by Beekes. An alternative guess is that it is ultimately from Greek aktē "shore, maritime place," also "raised place."

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    Trends of Athens

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    marathon
    1896, marathon race, from story of Greek hero Pheidippides, who in 490 B.C.E. ran to Athens from the Plains of Marathon to...The original story (Herodotus) is that he ran from Athens to Sparta to seek aid, which arrived too late to participate in...athletic event in the 1896 revival of the Olympic Games, based on a later, less likely story, that Pheidippides ran to Athens...
    Stoa
    in Greek architecture, the Great Hall or portico at Athens, c. 1600, from Greek stoa "colonnade, corridor" (from PIE root...A name also given in Athens to several other public buildings....
    draconian
    Draco is the Latinized form of Greek Drakon, name of the archon of Athens who laid down a code of laws for Athens c. 621...
    Athenaeum
    1727, "temple dedicated to Athena," from Latinized form of Greek Athenaion "the temple of Athene," in ancient Athens, in...
    docimacy
    from foreign matter," 1776, from Latinized form of Greek dokimasia "assay, proving, examination" (especially, in ancient Athens...
    isonomia
    Greek also had isoteleia in reference to an equality before the law sometimes granted to aliens in Athens, "equality of tax...
    Delian
    having double the volume of a given cube," was set by the oracle at Delos when it answered (430 B.C.E.) that the plague in Athens...
    Parthenon
    name of the temple of Athena Parthenos on the Acropolis in Athens, from Greek Parthenōn, literally "temple of the virgin goddess" (Athene), also, in a general sense, "the young women's apartments in a house," from parthenos "virgin, maiden, girl," a word of unknown origin. Beekes
    oh
    interjection expressing various emotions (fear, surprise, pain, invocation, gladness, admiration, etc.), 1530s, from Middle English o, from Old French ô, oh or directly from Latin o, oh; a common Indo-European interjection (compare Greek ō; Old Church Slavonic and Lithuanian o; I
    ho
    exclamation of surprise, etc., c. 1300; as an exclamation calling attention or demanding silence, late 14c. Used after the name of a place to which attention is called (as in Westward-Ho) it dates from 1590s, originally a cry of boatmen, etc., announcing departures for a particul

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