c. 1500, from Italian arcipelago "the Aegean Sea" (13c.), from arci- "chief, principal," from Latin archi- (see arch-) + pelago "pool; gulf, abyss," from Medieval Latin pelagus "pool; gulf, abyss, sea," from Greek pelagos "sea, high sea, open sea, main" (see pelagic).

The elements of the word are Greek, but there is no record of arkhipelagos in ancient or Medieval Greek (the modern word in Greek is borrowed from Italian), so the word perhaps is an Italian compound or an alteration in Italian of Medieval Latin Egeopelagus, from Greek Aigaion pelagos "Aegean Sea." The Aegean being full of island chains, the meaning was extended in Italian to "any sea studded with islands" (a sense attested in English from c. 1600) and to the islands themselves. Related: Archipelagian; archipelagic.

Turkish name of Constantinople; it developed in Turkish 16c. as a corruption of Greek phrase eis tan (ten) polin "in (or to) the city," which is how the local Greek population referred to it. Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol "plenty of Islam." Greek polis "city" has been adopted into Turkish as a place-name suffix -bolu.

before vowels hydr-, word-forming element in compounds of Greek origin, meaning "water," from Greek hydro-, combining form of hydor "water" (from suffixed form of PIE root *wed- (1) "water; wet"). Also sometimes a combining form of hydrogen.

word-forming element meaning "bulk, mass," used from 19c., especially in medical use, "tumor," from Latinized form of Greek ogkos (pronounced "onkos") "bulk, size, mass, weight, swelling," in Modern Greek "tumor," a word of uncertain origin.

in Homeric language, "a Greek," generally; later restricted to natives or inhabitants of Achaea, a region in the Peloponnesus. The Achaean League after c. 280 B.C.E. was a model for later federal republics. In Latin, Achaicus meant "a Greek."

word-forming element in words of Greek origin meaning "outer, outside, outer part," used from mid-19c. in scientific words (such as exoskeleton), from Greek exō (adv.) "outside," related to ex (prep.) "out of" (see ex-).

word-forming element in words of Greek origin meaning "to, toward, before," from Greek pros (prep., adv.), also proti, "from, forth, from (one point) toward (another); furthermore; in the face of," from PIE *proti- (source also of Sanskrit prati "to, against").

"a patronymic name," 1834, from Greek patrōnymos "named from the father" (see patronymic).

medical Latin, from Greek spondylos (see spondylo-) + oliothesis "dislocation, slipping."

1670s, from Greek sykophantikos, from sykophantes (see sycophant). Related: Sycophantical (1560s).