Hellas

Hellas

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Ἑλλάς (Hellás, “Greece”), from Ἕλλην (Héllēn), most probably a derivation of Ἑλλοί (Helloí) or Σελλοί (Selloí), the Greek inhabitants of the area around the sanctuary of Dodona (Δωδώνη (Dōdṓnē), possibly from the same root as σελήνη (selḗnē), namely from Proto-Hellenic *selas-nā, whence also σέλας (sélas) (or possibly Pre-Greek).

sέλας possibly from Proto-Indo-European *swelō (“dazzling light, a glare”), thus cognate with Old English swelan (“to burn, be burnt up, inflame”) and English sweal from Proto-West Germanic *swelan, Sanskrit सुरति (surati, “to gleam”), Lithuanian svilti (“to singe”), or Pre-Greek.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛləs

Proper noun

Hellas

1. Greece; (specifically) Ancient Greece.
   • 1999, Sean McMeekin, "The Place that Launched a Thousand Ships", Literary Review, March:

     Modern Greece would not be Byzantium reborn. Rather, it was an imagined nation conjured up from ancient Hellas.

Derived terms

• Helladic

Related terms

• Hellen
• Hellene
• Hellenic
• Hellenical
• Hellenically
• Hellenisation
• Hellenise
• Helleniser
• Hellenism
• Hellenist
• Hellenistic
• Hellenistical
• Hellenistically
• Hellenization
• Hellenize
• Hellenizer

 

Translations

Greek name for Greece

Armenian: Հելլադա (Hellada) Czech: Helada f Chinese: Cantonese: 希臘 (yue), 希腊 (yue) (hei1 laap6) Hakka: 希臘, 希腊 (Hî-lia̍p) Mandarin: 希臘／希腊 (zh) (Xīlà) Min Dong: 希臘, 希腊 (Hĭ-lăk) Min Nan: 希臘, 希腊 (Hi-lia̍p) Wu: 希臘, 希腊 (xi laq) Danish: Hellas n (ancient Greece), Grækenland (da) n Esperanto: Helaso Finnish: Hellas (fi) French: Grèce (fr) f German: Hellas (de) n (poetic), Griechenland (de) n Greek: Ελλάδα (el) f (Elláda), Ελλάς (el) f (Ellás) (formal, literary, Katharevousa), Ελληνική Δημοκρατία f (Ellinikí Dimokratía) Italian: Grecia (it) f Latin: Hellas f, Graecia (la) f Norwegian: Bokmål: Hellas (no) n, Grekenland n (archaic) Nynorsk: Hellas (nn) n, Grekenland n (archaic) Portuguese: Hélade (pt) f Russian: Элла́да (ru) f (Elláda) Rusyn: Ела́да f (Eláda) Volapük: Grikän (vo)

References

Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

Anagrams

• as hell

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Czech

Proper noun

Hellas f

1. Hellas (Greece, especially Ancient Greece)

   Synonym: Helada

Related terms

• See Helén

Further reading

• Hellas in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• Hellas in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Directly borrowed from Greek Ελλάς (Ellás, “Greece”), possibly being influenced by Ancient Greek Ἑλλάς (Hellás, “Greece”), in 1932 to replace the Danish loanword and German cognate Grekenland as part of a trend to adopt endonyms as Norway was nation-building during the early 20th century and as a compromise during the early stages of the Norwegian language conflict, with Nynorsk and Samnorsk advocates rejecting the existing name and Grekerland, a calque of Swedish Grekland, only working in Bokmål (where Greek is greker, being grekar instead in Nynorsk). In the 1970s, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry attempted to reverse the name change to be more similar to other European countries. Although this movement gained enough momentum to make it to the Language Council of Norway, it was rejected by a majority of the Council.[1]

Proper noun

Hellas n

1. Greece

Related terms

• gammelgresk
• greker
• gresk
• hellener
• hellensk

See also

• Greeklish

References

1. “Lesarspørsmål”, in Språknytt‎, Oslo: Language Council of Norway (Språkrådet), January 2016, ISSN 0333-3825, pages 3-4 (PDF)

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

See #Etymology_2.

Proper noun

Hellas n

1. Greece

Related terms

• grekar
• gresk
• hellenar
• hellensk