The fact is that much misunderstanding is often caused by our modern attempts to limit too strictly the meaning of a Greek word.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
For my part, it was Greek to me.
Well, with the French language, which I understood and spoke, however imperfectly, and read in great quantities, at certain times, the matter I suppose was slightly different from either Latin or Greek.
Greek was very much a live language, and a language still unconscious of grammar, not, like ours, dominated by definitions and trained upon dictionaries.
Knowing some Greek helped defuse forbidding words - not that I counted much on using them. You'll find only trace elements of this language in the poem.
But even in the Christian religion, much of its real meaning is hidden by words that are misleading and symbols that but few understand.
I much preferred Latin to Greek. I loved the language being such a pattern that you could not shift a word without the whole sentence falling to pieces.
Many people have been pontificating, and patronizing, and moralizing, and scapegoating, saying you Greeks, you are the problem. I would say we Greeks have a problem. We are not the problem.
The name 'Amazon' was not originally Greek; linguists believe it derived from the ancient Iranian word for 'warrior.'
I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.
The surest method of being incomprehensible or, moreover, to be misunderstood is to use words in their original sense; especially words from the ancient languages.