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This is a contribution from The Linguistics of Temperature.

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek*
Katerina Stathi
Leibniz University Hannover
This paper gives a descriptive overview of the Modern Greek system of

temperature terms. Temperature sensation is lexicalised by ten adjectives,
eight nouns, and four verbs. All terms are of native origin. Lexicalisation of
temperature is characterised by a number of asymmetries. Each word class is
prototypically associated with the expression of one kind of temperature
evaluation. Adjectives express mainly tactile, nouns ambient, and verbs
personal-feeling temperature. Adjectives lexicalise more temperature
values than nouns and verbs. In addition to the warming and cooling
dimension, adjectives also lexicalise neutral temperature. In the warming
dimension, Modern Greek conflates warm and hot in the adjective zestós.
Modern Greek has a system of two basic terms, the adjectives zestós ‘warm/hot’
and kríos ‘cold’.
1. Introduction
The central aim of this paper is to provide a descriptive survey of the conceptualisation
and expression of temperature in Modern Greek as it is reflected in its system of central
temperature terms. To my knowledge this overview of the Modern Greek system of
temperature terms is the first of its kind. The present analysis is based on Koptjevskaja-
Tamm (2007) and is embedded in the context of previous work, both theoretical and
empirical (Sutrop 1998; Stühring 2009; Plank 2003; Koptjevskaja-Tamm & Rakhilina
2006; Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2011). It may thus contribute to cross-linguistic and typo-
logical analysis of the expression and conceptualisation of the temperature domain in
the spirit of the present volume.
* This paper has benefited from Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm’s detailed comments and sug-
gestions. Two anonymous reviewers contributed valuable ideas and insightful comments.
The discussion of an earlier version of this paper with Thomas Berg has been inspiring and
improved the quality of the paper. I want to express my sincere gratitude to them all.
doi 10.1075/tsl.107.12sta
© 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company
Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
The focus of the paper lies in the analysis of part of the Greek lexicon, namely
the lexicalised temperature terms. With regard to grammatical meaning, Jakobson
(1959: 142) claimed that “the true difference between languages is not in what may or
may not be expressed but in what must or must not be conveyed by the speakers”. For
grammar, this view is widely shared. However, to a certain extent this is also true of the
lexicon: Existing lexicalisations in a language also impose certain choices—for which
the language provides ready-made vocabulary items—as opposed to others. It is these
choices that are of interest for lexical typology in general and this paper in particular.
However, in the case of temperature expressions it is not only lexical items that are
important. As Koptjevskaja-Tamm (2011) illustrates, morphosyntactic constructions
in which temperature terms occur are equally important for grasping how languages
express temperature and which distinctions are made in the temperature domain.
The main theoretical issues that will guide this analysis are the dimensions pro-
posed in Koptjevskaja-Tamm (2011) and the concept of asymmetry. According to
Koptjevskaja-Tamm (2011: 393), languages cut up the temperature domain through
lexical and/or morphosyntactic means according to the following dimensions:
(1) temperature value, (2) kinds of temperature evaluation (subdomains) and
(3) classes of entities whose temperature is evaluated.
Temperature value refers to the categorisation of the temperature domain
in terms of ‘hot’ or ‘cold’. The basic distinction is between warming, cooling,
and additionally neutral temperatures (Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2011: 394). The
respective temperature zones may be further subdivided in distinguishing between
normal warming temperatures as opposed to extremely or excessively high tem-
peratures (tolerably or dangerously high). Correspondingly, cooling temperatures
may include slightly cool, cold and extremely cold (Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2011).
Subdivisions may also relate to the independent dimension of subjective tem-
perature sensations (pleasant/unpleasant) or to a combination of both dimensions
(e.g. pleasantly/unpleasantly high); cf. Sutrop (1998: 76–77) for different scales of
temperature sensation. According to Plank (2003) the minimal system of distinc-
tions will include warm and cold, a three-term system will additionally include
hot. “In-between” or neutral temperatures (lukewarm) will be distinguished in
four-term systems.
Within the temperature domain three main subdomains or kinds of tempera-
ture evaluation can be distinguished (Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2011: 395), which may
be related as follows (Koptjevskaja-Tamm, p.c.):
(1) 1. tactile temperature The stones are hot.

2. non-tactile temperature
a. ambient temperature It is hot here. The wind is hot.
b. personal-feeling temperature I am hot.

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 Katerina Stathi
The basic distinction is between tactile and non-tactile temperature. non-

tactile temperature may be further subdivided into ambient and personal-
feeling temperature. Examples for these subdomains are given in (1) in English
(cf. Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2011: 395), but this classification is based on an amount of
data from different languages. These subdomains are treated differently in different
languages. For example, the distinction between tactile and non-tactile tempera-
ture is more central in Russian, which has two different lexemes for ‘hot’: gorjačij
for tactile and žarkij for non-tactile temperatures. Hence, this differentiation
is more important in Russian than it is, for instance, in English, which employs the
same expression (hot) in all three subdomains. Interestingly, no language seems to use
the same means of expression for tactile and personal-feeling temperature to
the exclusion of ambient temperature (for an explanation cf. Koptjevskaja-Tamm
2011: 400).
The third dimension concerns the entities whose temperature is being talked
about. In the case of tactile temperature this typically involves surfaces in a natural
environment (sand, lava), water in natural conditions and in the household (sea, lake,
bath), drinks and food, body parts of humans etc. Places (cities, houses, rooms), the
weather, and time periods (summer, winter, night) typically have ambient tempera-
ture. Human beings will normally experience personal-feeling temperature.
The entities are important for the aim of this study. The nouns that denote entities
may be modified by temperature adjectives, and in order to determine the meaning of
temperature adjectives, it is necessary to consider the meaning of the nouns in combi-
nation with the adjectives (cf. Sections 3.1 and 3.2).
This paper seeks to describe how Modern Greek organises its temperature sys-
tem, i.e. which temperature distinctions (temperature values) are lexicalised,
which grammatical constructions are used in order to express kinds of tempera-
ture evaluation, and how they interact with evaluated (i.e. modified) entities.
Cross-linguistic data show that the interaction of these dimensions results in asym-
metries in the linguistic temperature systems (Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2011: 400ff.). It is
these asymmetries that will guide our analysis and discussion of the Modern Greek
temperature system.
The structure of the paper is as follows: Section 2 gives relevant linguistic and
extra-linguistic background information. The methodology followed is outlined in
Section 3. Section 4 provides a detailed account of the lexicalised temperature terms
and their meanings, which reveal how the dimension of temperature value is
carved up in Modern Greek. Although the paper deals with temperature terms from
all lexical classes (adjectives, nouns, verbs), it focuses on adjectives because this class
contains the largest number of temperature terms and temperature distinctions. The
subdomains of temperature evaluation are taken up in Section 5. Asymmetries
are discussed in Section 6. Section 7 deals with the lexical relations (synonymy and

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
antonymy) that hold between temperature terms. Section 8 briefly considers figurative
uses of temperature terms and Section 9 concludes the analysis.
2. Background
This section is intended to provide the reader with background knowledge concerning
the climatic conditions to which speakers are exposed (2.1), a brief morphosyntactic
sketch of the language (2.2) in order to facilitate understanding of the morphosyn-
tactic patterns used to encode kinds of temperature evaluation, and a brief note
on the structure of the Greek vocabulary with reference to diglossia (2.3), which is
relevant for the discussion of synonymous adjectives in Section 7.
2.1 Language location and climatic conditions1

Greece is located in the most southeastern part of Europe, between the 34 and 42 par-
allel N. and from 19 to 28 E. Greece borders the Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea, and the
East Mediterranean Sea.
The climate of Greece is typical of the Mediterranean region. In general, it is char-
acterised by mild and rainy winters and relatively warm and dry summers. Sunshine
duration is long almost all the year. Due to the variation of the topography of the coun-
try (e.g. great mountain chains in the central part vs. numerous islands in the seas)
three main climate subtypes can be distinguished. An alpine Mediterranean climate
is characteristic of the mountainous regions in the north: The winters are bitter with
heavy snowfalls and the summers are cool with frequent thunderstorms. A continen-
tal, temperate Mediterranean climate is typical of mainland Greece. This is exempli-
fied by cold winters with frost and snowfall and very hot summers with occasional
thunderstorms. Finally, a dry Mediterranean climate is found on the islands and the
low lying coastal areas of the mainland. Winters are cool with lengthy spells of rainfall.
Summers are hot with abundant sunshine and warm nights.
In terms of climatology, the year can be divided mainly into two seasons: the
cold and rainy period lasting from the middle of October until the end of March,
and the warm and dry season from April to September. During the first period, the
coldest months are January and February with an average temperature of 5° to 10°C
on the islands and near the coasts, 0° to 5° on the mainland, and with lower tempera-
tures (normally below freezing) in the northern part of the country. Rainy weather
and cloudy skies do not last very long even in winter and are frequently interrupted
. Source: Hellenic National Meteorological Service 〈www.hnms.gr/hnms/english/index_

html〉.

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 Katerina Stathi
by sunny days (called Halcyon days from ancient times). During the warm and dry
period the weather is rather stable, the sun is bright and the sky clear. Intervals of rain
are scarce and of short duration, usually confined to the mainland areas. The warm-
est period is from mid July to mid August with a mean temperature of 33°C (ranging
between 29° and 35°C). The high temperatures are tempered by the fresh sea breezes
in the coastal regions and the dry north winds blowing in the Aegean Sea.2 During hot
summer days these winds are considered a blessing and constitute the most preferred
weather type.
2.2 A morphosyntactic sketch of Modern Greek

Greek belongs to the Indo-European language family. Modern Greek morphology
is mainly synthetic and fusional. In the following description only lexical classes, in
which temperature terms occur, will be briefly mentioned. Nouns belong to one of
three gender classes (masculine, feminine, neuter) and to a particular declension; they
inflect for number (singular and plural) and case (nominative, genitive, accusative,
vocative). There is some syncretism in the nominal paradigms. Basic rules for the
declension of nouns include the following (Holton et al. 2004: 27ff.): (1) Masculine
nouns always end in a vowel + -s in the nominative singular. They drop the -s in the
accusative (e.g. nom. káfsonas ‘extreme heat/heatwave’, acc. káfsona).3 The genitive
singular is the same as the accusative except for nouns ending in -os (genitive -u).
(2) Feminine nouns have the same forms for nominative and accusative singular (with
the exception of one class); both end in a vowel. The nominative and accusative plu-
ral are also identical, ending in -s (e.g. nom./acc. sg. zésti ‘warmth/heat’, nom./acc.
pl. zéstes). (3) Neuter nouns have one single form for the nominative and accusative
singular and one for nominative and accusative plural, which typically ends in -a (e.g.
nom./acc. sg. krío ‘cold’, nom./acc. pl. kría). (4) The genitive plural of all declensions
ends in -on. Nouns are typically preceded by the article (definite or indefinite), which
may also occur with other determiners (possessives, demonstratives etc.).
Greek adjectives typically inflect for gender, number and case. Their inflectional
endings are similar to those of nouns. They form an analytic comparative with the
particle pjo ‘more’ (e.g. pjo fréskos ‘more fresh’) or synthetically (fresk-óteros) ‘fresher’.
Adjectives appear in attributive use (pre- and postnominally) and in predicative use
and agree with the head noun in gender, case and number; cf. (2):
. These are known as etesians from Ancient Greek etêsíai ‘annual (winds)’. The term used in
Modern Greek is meltémi, a borrowing from Turkish (meltem).
. Greek terms are given in a phonologically based transliteration. Lexical accent is marked
by (′); 〈th〉 = /θ/, 〈dh〉 = /ð/, 〈x〉 = /x/ or /ç/, 〈gh〉 = [ɣ] (the latter alternates with the palatal [j]).

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
(2) a. o krí-os ximónas4

def.m.nom.sg cold-m.nom.sg winter.m.nom.sg
‘the cold winter’

b. tis krí-es bíres
def.f.acc.pl cold-f.acc.pl beer.f.acc.pl
‘the cold beers’
c. to krí-o neró
def.n.nom.sg cold-n.nom.sg water.n.nom.sg
‘the cold water’
Adverbs can be derived from all adjectives by adding the suffix -a to the stem: for
example, kría ‘coldly’ < krí-os, zestá ‘warmly’ < zest-ós etc.
The verb system of Greek is highly inflecting. Every verb form combines a stem
and an inflectional ending (e.g. ghráf-o ‘I write/I am writing’). The inflectional ending
expresses a complex system of grammatical categories (cf. Holton et al. 2004: 116ff.):
person (1, 2, 3), number (singular, plural), tense (past, non-past), voice (active,
passive), aspect (perfective, imperfective) and mood (imperative, non-imperative).
Further divisions of mood (indicative/subjunctive) and tense (future/non-future) are
marked by particles (tha, na, as). There are two basic conjugation classes (determined
by stress). The various combinations of aspect and tense result in the following forms
(Holton et al. 2004: 120ff.): present (imperfective non-past), imperfect (imperfective
past), simple past (“aorist”, perfective past), dependent (perfective non-past), perfect,
pluperfect, future, conditional, future perfect, perfect conditional, gerund, and parti-
ciple perfect passive.
With respect to syntax, Greek is characterised by a fairly free word order, related
to pragmatic concerns (such as focus and topicalisation) rather than to purely syntac-
tic constraints. Greek is a pro-drop language. Its current morphological and syntactic
patterns, which differ from Ancient Greek, are attributable to language-internal fac-
tors and to language contact in the Balkans (cf. Joseph 2006).
2.3 Greek diglossia and structure of the vocabulary

Many linguistic phenomena of Modern Greek can only be adequately described
and understood against the background of the long history of diglossia in Greece,
which has had a profound influence on the structure of the language. The historical
. List of abbreviations: def: definite article, indef: indefinite article, m: masculine, f: femi-
nine, n: neuter, sg: singular, pl: plural, nom: nominative, gen: genitive, acc: accusative, 1: first
person, 2: second person, 3: third person, prs: present, ipf: imperfect, pfv: perfective, aor:
aorist, pass: passive, medp: mediopassive, imp: imperative, ptcp: participle passive, cl: clitic,
comp: complementiser.

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 Katerina Stathi
roots of diglossia date back as early as the Hellenistic period (ca. 3rd-1st century
BC). In the modern Greek state from the 19th century onward, this involved the use
of two varieties: A ‘purist’ written variety (katharévousa), which was rather archaic
and was reserved for formal and official purposes, and demotic, the ‘uncorrected’,
low variety, used for spoken and informal occasions (cf. Horrocks 1997: 350; Mack-
ridge 2010). In 1976 katharévousa was abolished officially. What is now known as
Standard Modern Greek is based on demotic features and also allows the use of
so-called ‘learned’ features from katharévousa thus preserving features from both
varieties at the phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical level (Horrocks
1997: 362ff.).
As far as the lexicon is concerned, a binary distinction is traditionally drawn
between the so-called “colloquial” (demotic) vs. “learned” (katharévousa) vocabulary
items. The basic criterion for classification of an item as learned or colloquial is not
primarily etymology but use (Anastasiadis-Syméonidis & Fliatouras 2004: 2). In gen-
eral, words that are characterised as learned are preferred in written discourse, whereas
colloquial terms are mainly used in everyday spoken interaction. As a result of the long
history of Greek and the coexistence of varieties, there are many pairs of learned and
colloquial words which are near synonyms. In the case of temperature terms we also
find such pairs. We will return to this issue in Section 7.
3. Methodology
3.1 The semantic approach

Following the tradition of Firth (1957), Sinclair (1991), Stubbs (2001), Kilgarriff &
Tugwell (2002), Apresjan (2000), and Wierzbicka (1985) I assume that words have a
meaning potential, the aspects of which unfold in a specific context. For this reason,
the syntagmatic patterns of a word, i.e. its combinability with other words in different
contexts, are essential for grasping and describing its meaning, which is understood
as its intension rather than its extension (cf. also Koptjevskaja-Tamm & Rakhilina
2006: 254). The latter aspect will become relevant in Section 4 in the discussion of
the meaning of temperature terms, which has a subjective rather than an objective
(scientific) basis.
3.2 Corpora and corpus methodology

The theoretical approach to meaning sketched in the previous section requires a meth-
odology which allows the study of how adjectives, nouns and verbs are used in context.
Therefore, preference was given to a corpus-based methodology. The use of corpora
allows the identification of words in a large number of syntagmatic patterns. Two
different corpora were used for this study. First, the Greek Web as Corpus (GkWaC)

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
was consulted, a 100 million word collection of PoS-tagged texts downloaded from the
Internet.5 This corpus comes with two intelligent tools that were used for the analysis
of temperature terms: the Word Sketch6 and the Sketch Difference. A Word Sketch is a
set of columns that shows the words that typically combine with the target word in a
grammatical relation (such as Adj + N). In particular, only those collocates are shown
that combine with the target item more frequently than chance would predict.7 For
example, the two adjectives most frequently modifying the noun zésti ‘warmth/heat’
are afóritos ‘unbearable’ and ipervolikós ‘extreme’.8 A Sketch Difference compares the
Word Sketches of two (similar) words, i.e. it shows both the collocates and patterns
that two items have in common as well as those that are unique to each word. For
example, a sketch difference can be created to compare the nouns—and, by extension,
the entities—with which the (quasi-synonymous) adjectives zestós ‘warm/hot’ and
thermós ‘warm/hot’ typically combine. Sketch Differences were used to determine the
lexical relations that hold between temperature terms, viz. synonymy and antonymy
(cf. Section 7).
The second corpus is the Corpus of Greek Texts (CGT), a synchronic reference
corpus for Modern Greek consisting of approximately 47 million words (cf. Goutsos
2010). The corpus covers the decades from 1990 to 2010. This corpus was chosen
because of its representativeness with regard to genres, modes (written/spoken) and
geographical varieties (Greece/Cyprus).9 This corpus was primarily used as a heuristic
for deciding whether to include a term in the analysis or not (cf. Section 3.3): If a term
did not occur in this corpus it was not considered. Because of its representativeness the
CGT was also used to supplement the semantic analysis of temperature adjectives and
nouns on the basis of their combinability (their collocates) and to compare these with
the results provided by the Word Sketches.
. The corpus was created by Miloš Husák at the Masaryk University in Brno, in collabo-
ration with the Greek publisher Patakis and the Greek software company Neurolingo. The
corpus is made available by Lexical Computing Ltd., via the Sketch Engine (cf. Kilgarriff et al.
2004; 〈http://www.sketchengine.co.uk/〉).
. On the theory underlying this tool cf. Kilgarriff & Tugwell (2002).
. In other words, the collocates are listed according to statistical significance of occurrence
with the target word rather than with raw frequency. Word sketches are computed by the use
of the logDice statistic measure (Rychlý 2008). Henceforth, when statistical significance is
mentioned, the claims rely on the results of the Word Sketch tool.
. This shows that the noun is more often modified by adjectives expressing unpleasantness
(cf. Section 4.3.2).
. Another major advantage is that the corpus is freely available online; cf. 〈http://sek.
edu.gr〉/.

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 Katerina Stathi
3.3 Selection of temperature terms

This analysis of Greek temperature terms will not consider all terms that refer or relate
to temperature. Such an analysis would not make sense in the present context where
the focus is on generalisable and cross-linguistically comparable terms and phenom-
ena rather than on language-specific particularities. In order to determine the relevant
temperature terms, the items listed in the Greek onomasiological dictionary (Vostant-
zoglou 1998) were extracted. Those terms that did not fulfil the following conditions
(1)–(3) were excluded from further analysis:
1. A temperature term should be frequent enough. In practice this means that only
terms that occurred in the CGT (cf. Section 3.2)—which includes a greater variety
of genres and varieties than the GkWaC—were considered for further analysis.
This excludes terms that are (nearly) extinct or very rare.
2. Only terms that are widespread enough were considered. This relates to (a) how
widespread a term is in the language community and (b) how (un)restricted terms
are in their use, e.g. in their combinability with nouns denoting different (sorts
of) entities. This criterion excludes dialectal, too specialised (e.g. in medicine),
learned (cf. Section 2.3), and literary words. Terms such as the adjective dhrosátos
‘cool, fresh’, which is restricted to literary texts and ipóthermos ‘hypothermic (hav-
ing abnormally low body temperature)’, which is restricted to medical contexts,
were excluded. An example of a term that is restricted in its combinability is the
adjective dhiápiros ‘hot from fire’, which combines only with nouns denoting sub-
stances and masses. Similarly, terms that are no longer used primarily as tempera-
ture terms but only metaphorically were not considered (e.g. dhiakaís ‘passionate’
< ‘ardent’, kafterós ‘spicy’ < ‘hot’).
3. Finally, morphologically derived terms where the base word is itself a temperature
term were also left out (e.g. diminutives like zest-útsikos ‘moderately warm’ < zestós
‘warm/hot’, psixr-úla ‘nice little/pleasant coldness’ < psíxra ‘coldness’ etc.). These terms
are basically used to express subjective meaning (positive or negative evaluation).
In the next section the temperature terms chosen according to these criteria are pre-
sented and the results of the corpus-based semantic analysis are discussed in detail.
4. L
exicalisation of temperature concepts: The Modern Greek system
of temperature terms
4.1 Introduction
The principal aim of this section is to present and discuss which temperature concepts
are lexicalised in Greek and how the temperature domain is structured. Section 4.2

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
introduces and briefly surveys the Greek system of temperature terms. In Section 4.3
the meaning10 of the temperature terms is discussed in more detail according to the
principles outlined in Section 3.2. This semantic analysis will serve as a basis in order
to determine what temperature concepts are encoded as words, i.e. are lexicalised in
Greek and what distinctions of temperature value are made in the system of tem-
perature terms. Section 4.4 briefly considers additional distinctions and Section 4.5
concludes.
4.2 Overview of temperature terms

In Greek, temperature terms are found in all lexical classes, i.e. adjectives, adverbs,
nouns and verbs.11 Table 1 gives an overview of the Greek temperature terms.12
Table 1. Modern Greek temperature terms, listed according to temperature value
from bottom (coldest) to top (warmest)
Adjectives Nouns Verbs
1 zematistós
‘boiling hot’
2 kaftós káfsonas kéo ‘burn’
‘burning hot’ ‘extreme heat’
3 zestós ‘warm, hot’ zésti ‘warmth, heat’ zesténome
zestasjá ‘warmth’ ‘feel hot’
4 thermós
‘warm, hot’
5 xliarós
‘lukewarm’
6 dhroserós ‘cool’ dhrosjá ‘coolness’
7 psixrós ‘cold’ psíxra ‘slight cold’
8 kríos ‘cold’ krío ‘cold’ krióno ‘be cold’
(Continued)
. In this section only the literal use of the terms is considered. Metaphorical uses are dis-
cussed in Section 8.
. Since all temperature adverbs are derived from the corresponding adjectives (by the
addition of the suffix -a, cf. Section 2.2), they are not considered further in this paper.
. In the following subsections, the translations given here will be supplemented and
refined by showing the distribution of the terms in the conceptual space.

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 Katerina Stathi
Table 1. (Continued)

9 pajerós ‘icy’ pajetós
‘frost, iciness’ paghóno
‘freeze’
10 paghoménos paghonjá ‘frost’
‘frozen, icy’
Upon first observation it is clear that the temperature terms are distributed asym-
metrically across word classes, i.e. there are gaps in the system (the grey boxes): The
class of adjectives includes the highest number of words (10), and there are slightly
fewer nouns (8), which contrasts with the verbal domain with only four words.13 Thus
there is a strong bias toward lexicalisation of temperature in the nominal domain
resulting in a higher lexical density than in the verbal domain.
With respect to their etymology, temperature terms across word classes (same row
in Table 1) are related, i.e. formed from the same root or stem. All temperature terms
are native words, inherited from Ancient Greek (AG) with or without semantic change
or coined in later times from native roots. Most of them can be traced back to their
Indo-European (IE) origin (cf. Frisk 1973/1991). The adjectives zematistós ‘boiling hot’
and zestós ‘warm/hot’ (as well as the corresponding nouns and verb) are derived from
. Only verbs referring to temperature sensation were included in this study (cf. Table 1).
This corresponds to verb forms that express states, which in turn express personal-feeling
temperature. Other types of verbs were not considered. The reason is that, following
Koptjevskaja-Tamm (2007), temperature terms involve temperature sensation and subjective
evaluation: tactile temperature involves the evaluation of other entities’ temperature based
on human skin or touch sensation; ambient temperature involves the evaluation of circum-
stances (e.g. place, time) with respect to whether they make humans feel warm, cold etc.; and
personal-feeling temperature involves experience, caused by external or internal condi-
tions (or both). For this reason, verbs that refer to the process of changing the temperature of
entities (like transitive or causative verbs) were excluded from this study. For example, caus-
ative verbs can be created by affixes (e.g. -én-); e.g. thermós ‘warm/hot’ > therm-én-o ‘to warm/
heat’, psixrós ‘cold’ > psixr-én-o ‘to cool’. These are not considered temperature terms in the
context of this paper since they involve the change of state brought about in an object rather
than temperature sensation experienced by a human being. They correspond to derivations
like those exemplified by the German verb er-wärmen ‘to heat’. For the same reason, inchoative
forms, which result from the complex interaction between aspect and voice in Greek, were
also excluded (e.g. the mediopassive forms zematíz-ome and dhrosíz-ome meaning ‘to become
hurt by a very hot object (e.g. liquid or iron)’ and ‘to become cool(er)’ respectively). Hence, it is
not the case that there are no verbs corresponding to the other adjectives and nouns. Instead,
it is that these verbs do not refer to temperature sensation but to change of state and to actions
performed on other objects by manipulating temperature.

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
the AG verb zéō ‘boil’ which goes back to IE *jésō. The adjective kaftós ‘burning hot’
is derived from the AG verb kaíō ‘burn’ (> MG kéo), which goes back to an IE root
(*qēw-). The adjective thermós ‘warm/hot’ goes back to IE *gwhermo-. The term xliarós
‘lukewarm’ is inherited from AG and was derived from the verb xliaínō ‘to heat, to
soften’ whose etymology is unclear. The term dhroserós ‘cool’ is derived from AG drósos
‘dew’, the IE origin of which is a matter of disagreement. The adjective kríos ‘cold’ origi-
nates from the AG noun krýos ‘coldness, frost’ from the IE root *qruw-es-. The synony-
mous adjective psixrós ‘cold’ is inherited from AG, where the adjective psyxrós ‘cool,
cold, icy’, the noun psŷxos ‘cold, frost’, and the verb psŷxō ‘to cool, to chill’ are derived
from the noun psyxḗ meaning ‘breath, vital force, soul’. Finally, pajerós ‘icy’ and pagho-
ménos ‘frozen, icy’ and the related terms go back to the AG noun págos which originally
meant ‘cliff, rock peak’ and developed the meaning ‘ice, frost’ via metonymic extension.
With regard to morphological complexity, most terms are, historically speak-
ing, morphologically complex. For example, the suffix -tós derives verbal adjectives
from the perfective (“aorist”) stem of the verb (cf. AG ze-s- + -tós < zé-ō, Modern
Greek zematis-tós < zematíz-o). Synchronically, though, zestós may be treated as a
simplex (stem zest- + inflectional ending -os), since the stem zest- is used to form the
noun and verb in Modern Greek thus revealing a reanalysis of the adjective. Other
adjective-forming suffixes are -erós and -rós (cf. dhroserós, pajerós, xliarós, psixrós).
The temperature nouns zésti ‘warmth/heat’ and krío ‘cold’ are simplexes. All other tem-
perature nouns are formed by noun deriving suffixes (-iá/já, -etós etc.). Verb forms
are either active/unaccusative (such as krión-o, ké-o, paghón-o) or mediopassive forms
(1st person singular passive in -(o)me as in zesténome ‘feel hot’).
4.3 The meaning of Greek temperature terms

After this brief introduction of the system of Greek temperature terms, let us now turn
to examine their meaning more closely in order to reveal what temperature distinc-
tions are lexicalised and which temperature values are expressed. Each subsection
is devoted to one word class.
4.3.1 Adjectives
In order to describe the meaning of adjectives more accurately than in Section 4.2, it
is necessary to consider their combinability with nouns (cf. Section 3.2). In this study
I will restrict myself to the attributive use of adjectives. The nouns that are modified
by temperature adjectives (and by extension the entities they denote) are important
because the meaning of adjectives is inherently vague and is specified by the modified
noun (Koptjevskaja-Tamm & Rakhilina 2006). In the case of temperature adjectives in
particular, the meaning of the modified nouns allows us to refine the semantic descrip-
tion of the adjectives given in Table 1. In other words, we want to find out how the

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 Katerina Stathi
adjectives that belong to one temperature value (warming, cooling, neutral)

subdivide the respective value (cf. Section 1, e.g. extremely/dangerously/pleasantly
hot/cold etc.).
For the warming dimension, Greek has four adjectives. The adjective zestós cov-
ers both ‘warm’ and ‘hot’ (similar to French chaud). Unlike languages such as English
(warm, hot), German (warm, heiß) and Swedish (varm, het), Greek does not lexicalise
the difference between ‘warm’ and ‘hot’. This is also the case with the synonym of
zestós, namely thermós, which also conflates ‘warm’ and ‘hot’. In other words, although
Greek has two adjectives, it does not distinguish ‘warm’ and ‘hot’. The adjectives are
near synonyms, both meaning ‘warm/hot’, but they differ with respect to register and
in their metaphorical uses (cf. Section 7). On the other hand, Greek makes finer dis-
tinctions in the dimension of extremely warm temperatures, distinguishing between
kaftós ‘burning hot’ for extremely high temperatures and zematistós ‘boiling/scalding
hot’, which refers to dangerously hot temperatures. Examples (3)–(6) illustrate the use
of these adjectives.
(3) perixínume ti zest-í
drizzle.prs.1pl def.f.acc.sg warm/hot-f.acc.sg
karidhópita me krío sirópi
walnut pie.f.acc.sg with cold.n.acc.sg syrup.n.acc.sg
‘Drizzle the warm walnut pie with cold syrup.’
(4) i therm-és pijés
def.f.nom.pl warm/hot-f.nom.pl spring.f.nom.pl
xrisimopiúde kiríos ja iamatikús skopús
use.prs.pass.3pl mainly for healing.m.acc.pl purpose.m.acc.pl
‘The hot springs are mainly used for healing purposes.’
(5) pléneté=ta me kaft-ó neró (> 60°C)
wash.imp.2pl=cl.n.acc.pl with burning hot-n.acc.sg water.acc.sg
‘Wash them with (burning) hot water (> 60°C).’
(6) to pedhí borí na
def.n.nom.sg child.n.nom.sg may.prs.3sg comp
kaí an agíksi to tigháni
burn.pfv.3sg if touch.pfv.3sg def.n.acc.sg frying pan.n.acc.sg
me to zematist-ó ládhi
with def.n.acc.sg boiling hot-n.acc.sg oil.n.acc.sg
‘The child may have his fingers burnt if he touches the frying pan with the
(boiling) hot oil.’
Among the warming temperatures, zestós is the basic and unmarked term because it
shows no restrictions of usage with respect to its combinability with nouns; i.e. zestós

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
modifies all classes of entities in both subdomains: tactile and ambient tempera-
ture (cf. Table 2). All other adjectives are more restricted in their combinability with
nouns and/or are more frequently used metaphorically.
Table 2. Entities (after Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2007) modified by the adjective zestós
‘warm/hot’, based on data from the Corpus of Greek Texts
kind of temperature entities modified examples of nouns modified
evaluation (english translation)
(subdomain)
tactile Surfaces in the natural sand, lava

temperature environment
Water in natural conditions lake, sea
Household and man-made carpet, compress, iron
surfaces
Water in household water, bath, shower
Drinks/food dish, soup, tea, beer
Household environment fire
Body parts feet, palms, breast
non-tactile Outdoor temperature forest, Athens
temperature ((un)inhabited places)
(ambient)
Time summer, winter, August nights
Weather weather, climate
Outdoor conductors of heat wind
Environmental sources sun
Indoor temperature (places, house, room, fireplace
sources of heat indoors)
Clothing temperature clothes, socks, cardigan, plaid
(clothing, bed clothing)
Table 2 also shows that zestós is used for entities that have very different tem-
peratures on an objective temperature scale, such as lava (700°C to 1,200°C) and sea
(the temperature of which is up to 25°C in summer). Similarly, zestós can be used in
relation to the sun, which is also modified by kaftós ‘burning hot’ (cf. Table 3). With
respect to temperature value, this means that zestós covers a very broad range of
the warming dimension. A further example is the property of zestós to combine with
both ‘summer’ and ‘winter’. A ‘warm winter’ is not a winter that objectively has the
same temperature as the summer, but a winter that is warmer than usual. With drinks
and food zestós is used for those normally served hot (such as tea, coffee) as well as for
those that are normally consumed cold or chilled on purpose (e.g. beer, vodka etc.)

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 Katerina Stathi
but are left outside the fridge for too long: zestí bíra “warm beer” refers to beer that is
not chilled and hence not enjoyable. Here zestós even covers a neutral temperature,
while in other languages, corresponding terms for lukewarm are preferred in such
contexts.
As mentioned above, for extremely high temperatures the entities modified by
zestós and kaftós ‘burning hot’ may partly overlap, as shown in Table 3:
Table 3. The ten most frequent nouns modified by the adjectives zestós
‘warm/hot’ and kaftós ‘burning hot’ according to the Word Sketches based
on the GkWaC. Nouns are given in English translation. Shared collocates
of the two adjectives are highlighted (italics)
Nouns modified by zestós Nouns modified by kaftós
‘warm/hot’ ‘burning hot’
1 water sun
2 hot beverage oil
3 chocolate water
4 bath savannah
5 wind breath
6 day lava
7 coffee wind
8 compress electric iron
9 bread summer
10 shower sand
According to the GkWaC, zestós and kaftós share two of their ten most frequent
collocates: neró ‘water’ and aéras ‘wind’. Zestó neró ‘warm/hot water’ is used for the
water which comes from the tap, whereas kaftó neró ‘burning hot water’ normally
is boiled water. Similarly, zestós aéras ‘warm/hot wind’ is more tolerable than kaftós
aéras ‘hot wind’, which mostly refers to wind in the desert or during abnormally high
temperatures.
On the other hand, the two adjectives combine with nouns referring to quite dif-
ferent entities. Table 3 shows that zestós is compatible with familiar everyday objects
or activities (drinks, food, washing oneself), whereas kaftós combines with entities
that are intangible (‘sun’, ‘lava’, ‘savannah’) or the touching of which would be painful
(‘sand’, ‘oil’, ‘electric iron’).
Consequently, extreme warming temperatures are more frequently expressed
by kaftós ‘burning hot’. In the tactile subdomain its most frequent use is with
nouns that refer to entities in the natural environment (e.g. earth, lava, ash), water in

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
natural conditions (e.g. springs, geyser) and indoors—usually above 60°C—as well as
household utensils (e.g. frying pan when frying). With drinks and food, kaftós is used
when it is important to stress that something does or must have boiling temperature.
It is also used for body parts, especially when somebody has fever (e.g. kaftó métopo
‘burning forehead’). In the ambient subdomain it typically refers to the feeling of
sun heat.
Finally, the use of zematistós ‘boiling hot’ is restricted to water, other liquids (usu-
ally oil) and food, and implies that contact with them is dangerous (cf. Section 6).
Summing up, Greek has four terms for the warming dimension. These do not
divide the dimension into equal parts. The adjectives zestós and thermós cover a much
larger range than kaftós and zematistós. The latter ones are restricted to extremely
high and dangerously high temperatures respectively. On the one hand Greek con-
flates ‘warm’ and ‘hot’. On the other hand it makes finer distinctions among higher
temperatures (cf. Section 4.5, Table 5). Thus the meaning of the adjectives can best be
described by means of the temperature sensation that is evoked in people and not as
an inherent physical property of certain objects in the external world. In other words,
semantically the adjectives are located on a relative scale rather than on an absolute
scale (such as the Celsius scale). Their meaning is thus embodied and has an anthro-
pocentric rather than a scientific basis (Koptjevskaja-Tamm & Rakhilina 2006: 256;
Goddard & Wierzbicka 2007: 778).
The cooling dimension includes five adjectives. The unmarked term is kríos
‘cold’, which combines with most nouns. As in the case of zestós ‘warm/hot’, the mean-
ing of kríos ‘cold’ is less specified than the meaning of the remaining adjectives in the
cooling dimension, as it normally modifies entities that differ in their temperature in
objectively measurable terms (e.g. ‘cold sea’ vs. ‘cold bed’); cf. (7).
(7) a. krí-a thálasa

cold-f.nom.sg sea.f.nom.sg
‘cold sea’
b. krí-os ximónas
cold-m.nom.sg winter.m.nom.sg
‘cold winter’
c. krí-o pjáto
cold-n.nom.sg dish.n.nom.sg
‘cold dish’
d. krí-a sedónja
cold-n.nom.pl blanket.n.nom.pl
‘cold blankets’
The adjective kríos ‘cold’ is also similar to zestós ‘warm/hot’ with respect to its
typical use, as evidenced by its most frequent collocates. Table 4 contrasts the most

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frequent collocates of the two adjectives (excluding nouns that suggest a meta-
phorical meaning). According to the data, kríos and zestós share ten out of their
respective fifteen most frequent collocates. Since the two adjectives are located at
the opposite ends of the temperature scale, they can be considered antonyms (cf.
Section 7).
As in the case of zestós, the meaning of kríos is defined on a relative scale rather than
with reference to an objective temperature scale. A ‘cold’ dish is at room temperature,
whereas ‘a cold winter’ presumably implies temperatures below zero.
There is also an equivalent to thermós ‘warm/hot’ in the cooling dimension,
namely psixrós ‘cold’; cf. (8). This near synonym of kríos is more restricted with respect
to its combinability with nouns and stylistically marked (cf. Section 7).
Table 4. The fifteen most frequent collocates of the adjectives zestós ‘warm/hot’ and
kríos ‘cold’ according to the Word Sketches of the GkWaC. Shared collocates of the two
adjectives are highlighted (italics)
Nouns modified by zestós ‘warm/ hot’ Nouns modified by kríos ‘cold’
neró ‘water’ neró ‘water’

rófima ‘beverage’ kobrésa ‘compress’
sokoláta ‘chocolate’ aéras ‘wind’
bánjo ‘bath’ duz ‘shower’
aéras ‘wind’ níxta ‘night’
méra ‘day’ perú ‘Peru’
kafés ‘coffee’ ximónas ‘winter’
kobrésa ‘compress’ pjáto ‘dish’
psomí ‘bread’ vrísi ‘tap’
duz ‘shower’ kaputsíno ‘cappuccino’
ghála ‘milk’ ghála ‘milk’
tsái ‘tea’ proinó ‘morning’
sirópi ‘syrup’ méra ‘day’
pjáto ‘dish’ sirópi ‘syrup’
níxta ‘night’ tsái ‘tea’
(8) a. psixr-á polik-á révmata

cold-n.nom.pl polar-n.nom.pl stream.n.nom.pl
‘cold polar streams’
b. psixr-á nerá tu planíti
cold-n.nom.pl water.n.nom.pl def.m.gen.sg planet.m.gen.sg
‘cold waters of the planet’

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
The adjective dhroserós, which can be translated as both ‘pleasantly cool’ and ‘fresh’,14
conflates ‘slightly cold, cool’ and ‘pleasant’. A corresponding term for the warming
dimension is lacking.15 The term dhroserós is primarily used to express tactile tem-
perature (when referring to water in natural conditions (spring) and indoors (bath),
drinks (water, refreshment) and food (jelly, salad)) and ambient temperature (when
referring to geographical places (oasis, island), time (summer), weather (climate), out-
door conductors of heat (breeze), and even environmental sources of heat (e.g. “cool
October sun”) as well as indoor places (storeroom), clothing and bed clothing). Exam-
ples are given in (9):
(9) a. pijí me dhroser-ó neró

source.f.nom.sg with cool-n.acc.sg water.n.acc.sg
‘source with cool water’
b. dhroser-ó dhásos apó péfka
cool-n.nom.sg forest.n.nom.sg of pines
‘cool pine forest’
For extremely cold temperatures the perfect participle paghoménos ‘frozen, icy’ com-
bines with nouns that cover all three subdomains of temperature. It occurs frequently
in the tactile subdomain when referring to natural environment, water in natural
conditions (cf. (10a)), and household as well as man-made household equipment, with
drinks and food that come from the fridge (e.g. beer) or are served with ice. When
referring to food that is normally consumed warm, but has become cold, paghoménos
may be used, in which case it is a hyperbole with the effect of negative evaluation. It
is also used with body parts that are cold. For ambient temperature the participle
is frequent with nouns referring to geographical places (cf. (10b)), especially to unin-
habited places (continent, mountains), time (morning), outdoor conductors of heat
(wind), indoor temperature, e.g. a very cold room which has not been heated for a
long time. With respect to clothing temperature, the term is found with bed clothing
(blankets). In the subdomain personal-feeling temperature, the term is used with
living beings; cf. (10c). The adjective pajerós ‘icy’, on the other hand, is restricted to
ambient t emperature; cf. (11):
(10) a. vútiksa sto paghomén-o ejéo

dive.aor.1sg into:def.n.acc.sg frozen-n.acc.sg Aegean.n.acc.sg
‘I dove into the frozen Aegean (Sea).’
. The use of the adjective in the sense ‘fresh’ will be ignored in further discussion.
. Terms for ‘slightly warm’ can be derived through suffixation (cf. the discussion about
zestútsikos in Section 3.3). Such words were not treated as central temperature terms.

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b. pnéi énas paghomén-os aéras

blow.prs.3sg indef.m.nom.sg frozen-m.nom.sg wind.m.nom.sg
‘A freezing wind is blowing.’
c. esthánome polí paghomén-i
feel.prs.1sg very frozen-f.nom.sg
‘I feel thoroughly frozen.’
(11) a. stin pajer-í ke
in:def.f.acc.sg icy-f.acc.sg and
xionismén-i mósxa
snow.covered-f.acc.sg Moscow.f.acc.sg
‘in icy and snow-covered Moscow’
b. mesa sti skotin-í ke
inside in:def.f.acc.sg dark-f.acc.sg and
pajer-í níxta
icy-f.acc.sg night.f.acc.sg
‘in the dark and icy night’
Greek also has one term for neutral temperatures, the adjective xliarós ‘lukewarm’.
This adjective combines only with entities like water, drinks and food (cf. Section 6).
It is used when drinks and food are consumed lukewarm on purpose, such as when a
dish may be served warm or lukewarm (salad, appetiser etc.). On the contrary, a non-
hot tea or soup or a non-chilled beer are not ‘lukewarm’ but ‘cold’ (krío tsái “cold tea”,
kría súpa “cold soup”) or ‘warm’ (zestí bíra “warm beer”) respectively. In this respect
Greek behaves like Italian (caldo and not tepido) and (Czech teplé and not vlažné)
and unlike Swedish (Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2007). Note that xliarós cannot be used in
comparison, i.e. ‘more lukewarm than’. The expression of neutral temperatures is
restricted to the word class of adjectives (cf. Table 1).
4.3.2 Nouns
We saw in Section 4.2 that the system of temperature terms consists of fewer nouns
than adjectives. In contrast to the four adjectives for warming temperatures, only
three nouns are available for this dimension. The noun zésti (colloquial zésta) is the
unmarked term for temperatures above the temperature of the human body; it corre-
sponds to French chaud or chaleur. Unlike the corresponding adjective zestós ‘warm/
hot’, however, the noun zésti is most frequently used for very high temperatures, i.e.
‘heat’. This meaning description is justified if we consider the combinability of the
noun. First of all, the noun is most frequently modified by attributive adjectives refer-
ring to extreme and unpleasant heat (usually of the summer). The ten most frequent
collocates of zésti (according to the GkWaC) are: afóriti ‘unbearable’, ipervolikí ‘extreme’,
polí ‘much’, anipófori ‘unbearable’, apopniktikí ‘suffocating’, megháli ‘heavy’, trelí ‘crazy’,
arketí ‘enough’, kalokeriní ‘summer + N’, pnijirí ‘sweltering’, tromerí ‘horrible’. These

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
adjectives make up 69.3% of all uses of Adjective + zésti and show that the noun is
more often used to talk about high warming temperatures than about lower ones.
This result is compatible with the combinability of zésti with verbs: the second most
frequent verb combining with zésti is adéxo ‘endure’.16 Thus the collocational behav-
ior of zésti indicates a subjective evaluation of the temperature concept. This evalua-
tion allows for conclusions about the perceived intensity of the concept at issue: the
noun is more often used for very high temperatures corresponding more frequently
to ‘heat’ than to ‘warmth’. It seems more appropriate to talk about high temperatures
than about “normal” ones. An extra-linguistic reason for this might be that (very) high
temperatures are rather normal but, as the adjectives show, also evaluated negatively.
As was mentioned in Section 2.1, the high temperatures during summer are only
bearable because of the winds blowing in the Aegean. In general, people prefer cooler
temperatures to heat. An intra-linguistic (systemic) reason might be the existence of
the derived noun zestasjá ‘warmth’ (cf. 4.2) with which zésti divides up the domain
of “normal” warming temperatures. By contrast, in the class of adjectives, where an
equivalent of zestasjá is lacking, zestós covers both ‘warm’ and ‘hot’. Consequently, the
adjective zestós and the corresponding noun zésti are not totally equivalent terms with
regard to temperature value. This is a kind of asymmetry, which follows from the prop-
erty of the adjective to modify entities, which is not the case for the corresponding
noun. The entity that appears within the scope of the adjective is also the factor that
determines the standard, which cannot apply to the corresponding noun.
One heuristic to determine which temperature subdomain is expressed by a noun
is to look at the meaning of postnominal modifiers (genitives or PPs). This proce-
dure shows that unlike most other temperature nouns, which express only ambient
temperature, zésti can also be used for tactile and personal-feeling tempera-
ture, although the latter uses are very restricted. (12) gives an example of ambient
temperature:
(12) i zésti tu kalokerjú

def.f.nom.sg heat.f.nom.sg det.n.gen.sg summer.n.gen.sg
‘the heat of the summer’
For extremely hot temperatures (usually above 38°C) the noun káfsonas is used, which
can be translated as ‘extreme heat’ and which is only used for ambient temperature.17
According to its collocational behaviour the noun is associated with very high and
. The most significant verb is káno ‘make’ in the impersonal expression káni zésti ‘it is hot’,
which is the usual expression for ambient temperature (cf. Section 5).
. The noun is also used in the sense of ‘heatwave’ which is not of primary interest in the
present analysis.

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 Katerina Stathi
unpleasant temperatures. One of the most significant postnominal modifiers is fonjás

‘killer’, which is used as an apposition to káfsonas as in the newspaper heading in (13):
(13) káfsonas-fonjás stin kípro
extreme heat-killer in:def.f.acc.sg Cyprus.f.acc.sg
‘Killer heat in Cyprus’
In addition, káfsonas is most frequently used as the object of the verbs adéxo ‘suffer,
endure’ and apsifáo ‘ignore’ (i.e. to go somewhere despite the heat outside), verbs that
imply a subjective (negative) evaluation. Contrary to zésti, káfsonas does not occur
with degree adverbs such as ipervolikós ‘extreme’. This is evidence that this noun does
not involve a scalar concept like zésti and that it is inherently ‘extreme’, such that a
further explicit mention of extremity seems redundant.
Within the cooling dimension the noun krío ‘cold’ is the unmarked term for
reference to temperature below that of the human body. Typical modifiers of the
noun krío refer to intensity of the cold, i.e. too much cold (as opposed to moderate
cold). The most significant adjectival modifiers are tsuxterós ‘biting’, polí ‘much’, iper-
volikó ‘extreme’, arketó ‘enough’, foveró ‘terrible’, tromeró ‘horrible’, áfthono ‘abundant’.
Although lígho ‘slight’ is also among the most frequent collocates, it seems that it is
more normal to talk about intense cold as opposed to moderate cold. Similar to the
adjective kríos the noun krío may cover the whole scale of the cooling temperature
scale as is revealed by its co-occurrence with verbs like paghóno ‘freeze’ and tsakízo ‘to
bring sb. to their knees’ (cf. (14)) as well as in (hyperbolic) expressions like psofáo sto
krío (‘to freeze’, literally ‘to die from cold’).
(14) a. mas tsákise to krío
cl.1pl break.aor.3sg def.n.nom.sg cold.n.nom.sg
‘The cold brought us to our knees.’ (lit. “broke us down”)
b. sto verolíno psofísame
in:def.n.acc.sg Berlin.n.acc.sg die.aor.1pl
sto krío
in:def.n.acc.sg cold.n.acc.sg
‘In Berlin we froze.’ (lit. “we died from cold”)
The noun psíxos similarly refers to temperatures below that of the human body.18 This
term refers only to very low temperatures as shown by its most significant adjectival
modifiers: ‘arctic’, ‘extreme’, ‘deadly’, ‘great’, ‘winter’, ‘Siberian’.
. Note that there is no corresponding temperature noun in the heating dimension derived
from the adjective thermós ‘warm, hot’. The noun thérmi ‘fervor’ is only used metaphorically.

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
For cool temperatures Greek uses two terms. The noun dhrosjá is the cool tem-
perature that frequently occurs during the hot summer and is perceived as pleasant
(cf. Section 2.1). This is confirmed by the two most significant verbs having dhrosjá
as an object, ‘enjoy’ and ‘pursuit’. On the other hand, psíxra refers to temperatures that
are slightly cold but may be pervasive and not so pleasant (usually the temperatures
that exist during the morning or night and during autumn).
For extremely low temperatures the noun paghonjá refers to a situation of frosty
temperatures and pajetós even to iciness, i.e. temperatures below zero where waters
freeze. The most significant modifiers of paghonjá are ‘winter’, ‘great’, ‘horrible’. The
noun pajetós may also be used with amplifiers such as ‘intense’.
4.3.3 Verbs
Verbs are the main strategy for the expression of personal-feeling temperature.
Three of the four verbs (cf. Table 1) relate to warming temperatures. Like the noun
zésti, the verb zesténome ‘feel hot’ is used for reference to higher temperatures only.
On the other hand, zesténome does not refer to extremely high temperatures such
as having fever. As (16) and (17) show, zesténome neither refers to having fever nor
to feeling comfortably warm. The higher part of the scale is covered by the two
verbs kéo and zematáo. The verb kéo ‘burn’ is used for extremely high temperatures,
meaning ‘to feel extremely hot, to be burning hot’. This verb is normally used when
somebody has fever, frequently in the expression kéo ston/apó ton piretó ‘burning
with fever’; cf. (15).
(15) asthenís pu kéghodan apó ton piretó

patients rel burn.ipf.medp.3pl from def.m.acc.sg fever.m.acc.sg
‘Patients who burnt from fever…’
(16) A: éxis piretó?

have.prs.2sg fever.m.acc.sg
B: óxi, zesténome.
no feel.hot.prs.1sg
‘Do you have fever?’ – ‘No, I feel hot.’
(17) A: kriónis (akóma)?

be cold.prs.2sg (still)
B: óxi, efxaristó, tóra zesténome
no thanks now feel.hot.prs.1sg
‘Are you (still) cold? – No, thank you, now I feel hot.’
*‘Are you (still) cold? – No, thank you, now I feel comfortable.’

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 Katerina Stathi
Finally, the verb zematáo ‘be extremely hot, be boiling hot’ (corresponding to the
adjective zematistós ‘boiling hot’) may also be used to express that somebody has fever;
it is much stronger than kéo.
In the cooling dimension the unmarked term for expressing that someone is
feeling cold is krióno ‘be cold’; cf. (18):
(18) to pedhí krión-i.
def.n.nom.sg child.n.nom.sg be cold.prs-3sg
‘The child is (feeling) cold.’
In addition, paghóno ‘to freeze’ encodes the feeling of extreme cold.

Some additional verbs (not included in Table 1) conflate temperature and bodily
reaction, e.g. turturízo and tremuljázo ‘to shiver from cold’. There is no lexicalisation
of freezing because of fever.
4.4 F
urther distinctions
In addition to the central temperature terms, which express the basic distinctions
between warming and cooling temperatures, additional distinctions within the
basic ones are encoded. The adjective dhroserós ‘pleasantly cool’ and the corresponding
noun dhrosjá have already been mentioned (cf. Sections 4.3.1 and 4.3.2). By contrast,
psíxra ‘coolness’ lacks the semantic component pleasant. On the pleasant/unpleasant
dimension, we also find zestasjá ‘pleasant warmth’ (especially in one’s home), which is
also used in the sense ‘cosiness’. The noun káfsonas ‘extreme heat’, on the other hand,
can also be translated as ‘unpleasantly extreme heat’ (cf. 4.3.3).
Other temperature related terms conflate the basic distinction warm/hot or
cold with humidity. The compound noun kufóvrasi conflates hot and wet, i.e. hot
temperature and high humidity with absence of wind (lull). This noun is equivalent
to e.g. German Schwüle. The noun ajázi ‘wet and bitter cold (especially in the morn-
ing)’, borrowed from Turkish (ayaz ‘dry and bitter cold during clear winter nights’),
conflates cold and wet.19 Finally, the noun xionjás, derived from xióni ‘snow’ refers
to very cold temperatures with snow or cold that signal snowfall. This noun conflates
cold and snow.
4.5 I nterim conclusion

In this section we looked at the temperature terms in Greek in order to find out which
temperature values are lexicalised. We looked at the different word classes and
. The development of the borrowed term ajázi is interesting, since it shifts from originally
dry and bitter cold to wet and bitter cold.

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
iscussed the meaning of the central temperature terms in detail. In this final subsec-
d
tion the basic findings are summarised.
First, as regards word classes, temperature terms are distributed unevenly across
the three major lexical classes. Second, with respect to temperature value, the
adjective class has the highest number of distinctions. Adjectives lexicalise warming,
cooling, and neutral temperatures, whereas nouns and verbs lexicalise only the
basic distinction between warming and cooling temperatures.20
The central temperature terms can now be arranged on a scale that illustrates
how the temperature zones are divided up in Greek. In Table 5 the terms are arranged
on a scale from 1 to 7 from coldest to hottest (cf. Sutrop 1998: 77). The table shows
how the adjectives, nouns, and verbs are arranged on the temperature scale and
which values each of them covers. The dashed lines indicate that the term in bold
face extends over more than one value and may thus overlap with other terms.
For example, the adjective zestós covers the values neutral (as in zestí bíra ‘(luke)
warm beer’), warm, hot and painfully hot. In the two latter values it overlaps
with kaftós and zematistós respectively. Likewise, the adjective thermós covers the
values warm and hot, i.e. it is more restricted than zestós. In the case of verbs, it is
krióno that extends to the values cold and frozen/icy. In the latter value it overlaps
with paghóno, and so on.
An asymmetry in the lexicalisation of temperature terms across word classes is
immediately visible. As already mentioned in 4.3.2, neutral temperature is lexi-
calised only by an adjective; Greek lacks a noun or verb for this value. Conversely,
whereas nouns exist for both ‘pleasant warmth’ and ‘pleasant coolness’, only ‘pleasantly
cool’ (dhroserós) is lexicalised in the class of adjectives. Moreover, the class of verbs
lacks terms for the value ‘feeling/being cool’ (i.e. a verb corresponding to dhrosjá) as
well as for ‘feeling/being slightly warm’ (i.e. a verb corresponding to the noun zestasjá,
which also lacks a corresponding adjective).
An important observation is the distinction between adjectives such as zestós
whose meaning is relative to a standard, i.e. it depends on the entity at issue, and
adjectives like kaftós that relate to an absolute value on the temperature scale. The
former extend over more temperature values than the latter, which are restricted to
one value only. A further interesting point (cf. also 4.3.2) is the semantic shift that
accompanies the nominalisation zésti and the verb zesténome which both involve more
absolute temperature values, since they relate to a more restricted part of the scale than
the corresponding adjective whose meaning depends on the entities it modifies. This
is a further kind of asymmetry between word classes.
. Both warmth and heat are included in the warming dimension.

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 Katerina Stathi
Table 5. Temperature terms in Modern Greek: Adjectives, nouns, and (stative) verbs
Temperature
value

Scale
1 paghoménos paghonjá paghóno

frozen,
icy
pajerós pajetós
2 kríos psixrós psíxos

cold
krío krióno
psíxra
3 dhroserós dhrosjá
cool
4 xliarós
neutral
5 zestós thermós zestasjá

warm
zésti zesténome
6 kaftós
hot
7 zematistós káfsonas kéo

painfully hot
After this analysis of temperature value the next section deals with the way
temperature evaluation is encoded.
5. M
orphosyntactic properties of temperature terms: The expression
of temperature evaluation
In the previous section we saw which temperature values are encoded in Greek and
how they are distributed across word classes. In this section we will see how the differ-
ent terms are used in syntactic constructions in order to express subdomains or kinds
of temperature evaluation. In Section 1 (cf. (1)) it was mentioned that languages

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
differ according to whether they use distinct morphosyntactic means for each sub-
domain, tactile, ambient and personal-feeling temperature, or whether they
lump two subdomains together (e.g. by distinguishing between tactile vs. non-
tactile temperature) or even all three subdomains. The aim of this section is to
determine how the kinds of temperature evaluation are expressed in Greek. The
examples in (19)–(21) translate the English sentences in (1):
(19) tactile temperature
a. i pétres íne zest-és
def.f.nom.pl stone.f.nom.pl be.prs.3pl hot-f.nom.pl
‘The stones are hot.’
b. i zest-és pétres
def.f.nom.pl hot-f.nom.pl stone.f.nom.pl
‘The hot stones.’
(20) non-tactile (ambient) temperature

a. kán-i zésti edhó
make-prs.3sg heat.f.acc.sg here
‘It is hot here.’
b. o ánemos íne zest-ós
def.m.nom.sg wind.m.nom.sg be.prs.3sg hot-m.nom.sg
‘The wind is hot.’
(21) non-tactile (personal-feeling) temperature

zesténome
feel.hot.prs.1sg
‘I am hot.’
The data in (19)–(21) show that Greek uses different strategies for the three subdo-
mains of temperature evaluation. tactile temperature is expressed by adjec-
tives in predicative (19a) or attributive (19b) function. All ten central adjectives
discussed in Section 4 are used in this way. For ambient temperature two strategies
are available: In a non-referential construction temperature nouns occur as the objects
of the verb káno ‘make’ in an impersonal construction such as (20a). Additionally,
adjectives are used in referential constructions such as (20b), modifying entities like
geographical places, time, weather, outdoors conductors of heat etc. (cf. Section 4.3.2).
Finally, personal-feeling temperature is expressed by verbs as in (21).
These patterns show that, in Greek, adjectives not only outnumber nouns and
verbs, but they also have a wider range of functions than the other word classes since
they express both tactile and ambient temperature. By contrast, nouns and verbs
are restricted to one function only: the expression of ambient and personal-feeling
temperature respectively.

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 Katerina Stathi
With regard to adjectives, the Greek data in (23) confirm Plank’s (2003) observa-
tion that adjectives in attributive constructions tend to admit tactile and ambient
temperature, but require more effort for personal-feeling temperature, illustrated
from German in (22) (Plank 2003):
(22) a. die kalt-en Steine (tactile)

def.m.nom.pl cold-m.nom.pl stone.m.nom.pl
‘the cold stones’
b. die kalt-en Täler (ambient)
def.n.nom.pl cold-n.nom.pl valley.n.nom.pl
‘the cold valleys’
c. *die kalt-en Kinder (personal-feeling)
def.n.nom.pl cold-n.nom.pl child.n.nom.pl
‘the cold children’
d. die frierend-en/
def.n.nom.pl be cold.ptcp-n.nom.pl/
sich kalt fühlend-en Kinder
refl cold feel.ptcp-n.nom.pl child.n.nom.pl
‘the freezing children, the children who feel cold’ (personal-feeling)
(23) a. i krí-es pétres (tactile)

def.f.nom.pl cold-f.nom.pl stone.f.nom.pl
‘the cold stones’
b. i krí-es pedhiádhes (ambient)
def.f.nom.pl cold-f.nom.pl valley.f.nom.pl
‘the cold valleys’
c. *ta krí-a pedhjá(personal-feeling)
def.n.nom.pl cold-n.nom.pl child.n.nom.pl
‘the cold children’
d. ta paghomén-a pedhjá
def.n.nom.pl freeze.ptcp-n.nom.pl child.n.nom.pl
ta pedhjá pu krión-un
def.n.nom.pl child.n.nom.pl rel be cold.prs-3pl
‘the freezing children, the children who feel cold’ (personal-feeling)
In Section 4.3.1 (cf. (10c)) we saw that it is primarily the adjective paghoménos ‘fro-
zen’ that can also express personal-feeling temperature; since paghoménos is a
(perfect passive) participle, its affinity to personal-feeling temperature can be
explained by its verbal nature (cf. also the similar case for German in (22d)). Therefore,
the crucial point is that in Greek the verbal strategy is typical for encoding personal-
feeling temperature.

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
Temperature nouns are restricted to the expression of ambient temperature

and are not used to refer to tactile or personal-feeling temperature. Thus,
whereas ambient temperature may be expressed by adjectives and nouns (cf. (24)),
nouns in the equivalent construction (Noun + NPGEN) are only acceptable for ambi-
ent temperature; cf. (25):
(24) ambient temperature
a. zest-í érimos
hot-f.nom.sg desert.f.nom.sg
‘hot desert’
b. i zésti tis erímu
def.f.nom.sg heat def.f.gen.sg desert.f.gen.sg
‘the heat of the desert’
(25) tactile temperature
a. zest-í ámos
hot-f.nom.sg sand.f.nom.sg
‘hot sand’
b. ??i zésti tis ámu
def.f.nom.sg heat def.f.gen.sg sand.f.gen.sg
‘the heat of the sand’
Finally, verbs are restricted to the encoding of personal-feeling temperature. In

other words, this subdomain is expressed by predications in Greek.
The distribution of word classes across the kinds of temperature evaluation
is summarised in Table 6.
Table 6. The interaction of word class and subdomain of temperature evaluation
in Greek. The more asterisks the stronger the association between a word class and the
expression of a subdomain
Word tactile ambient personal-feeling
class temperature temperature temperature
Adjectives *** ** *
Nouns ***
Verbs ***
Table 6 shows that there is a division of labour in the expression of temperature

evaluation between the word classes. Each word class is specialised in the expression
of one subdomain (three asterisks). On the other hand, this specialisation is not abso-
lute: Adjectives show some versatility since they also express ambient temperature,
but less typically (two asterisks) than tactile temperature. They are used for the
expression for personal-feeling temperature even more rarely (one asterisk).

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 Katerina Stathi
Consequently, with respect to the observable patterns for encoding kinds of

temperature evaluation, Greek employs a different lexeme (L) in a different syn-
tactic construction (C) for each kind of temperature evaluation. This is summarised
in (26) with an example from the warming dimension:
(26) tactile ambient personal-feeling
L1 (zestós) + C1 L2 (zésti) + C2 L3 (zesténome) + C3
6. Asymmetries in the system of Greek temperature terms
In the previous sections we explored the organisation of the Greek system of tem-
perature terms by discussing the dimensions of temperature value (Section 4) and
kinds of temperature evaluation (Section 5). This discussion revealed two asym-
metries in the way in which the system of temperature is organised: One involves the
interaction between word class and temperature value, which reveals an uneven
distribution of temperature terms across word classes (cf. Table 5). The second asym-
metry involves the interaction between word class and kinds of temperature eval-
uation. It was shown that each of the word classes is prototypically associated with
one subdomain of temperature evaluation (cf. Table 6).
In addition to these, temperature systems typically involve more asymmetries,
since they are organised with respect to interactions between the three dimen-
sions temperature value, kinds of temperature evaluation and entities (cf.
Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2011: 403ff.). In this section I focus on two further asymmetries
that result from the interaction between these three dimensions in Greek. I will first
discuss the interaction between kinds of temperature evaluation and tempera-
ture value (Section 6.1) before turning to the interaction between temperature
value and entities (Section 6.2).
6.1 I nteraction between kinds of temperature evaluation

and temperature value
Considering the discussion of asymmetries in Sections 4 and 5, the question arises as
to whether we find all temperature values equally expressed in the three subdo-
mains of temperature evaluation. For example, do we talk about ambient tem-
perature with the value neutral? Is personal-feeling temperature combined
with the value cool?
Koptjevskaja-Tamm (2011: 404) observes that “the systems of personal-
feeling temperature terms often show a reduced set of temperature-value
oppositions compared to those for tactile and ambient temperatures”. Greek is
no exception. Table 6 may serve as an orientation here. There are more gaps in the
system of verbs—which basically encode personal-feeling temperature—than

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
in the system of nouns which encode ambient temperature. More specifically,

personal-feeling temperature encodes only values toward each end of the scale
(being cold or hot) rather than neutral values and values around the comfort zone
(feeling ok, slightly warm or cool). It thus seems more appropriate to talk about
one’s personal-feeling temperature in marked rather than in unremarkable
situations.
By contrast, ambient temperature lacks only a term—a noun—for neutral
temperatures. Apparently, it does not seem appropriate to talk about the weather
and similar entities if there is nothing remarkable to say. As we will see in the next
subsection, neutral temperature is not only restricted to the tactile domain but
also to specific entities.
6.2 I nteraction between temperature value and evaluated entities

A further type of asymmetry concerns the interaction between temperature value
and evaluated entities. As Koptjevskaja-Tamm (2011: 404ff.) observes, different
subsystems of linguistic temperature systems apply only to particular entities. In
Greek one subsystem relates to the special treatment of ‘water’, which is the preferred
collocate of the adjective xliarós ‘lukewarm’ according to the GkWaC Word Sketch:
neró ‘water’ is modified 293 times by the adjective xliarós; the second most preferred
collocate ghála ‘milk’ occurs only 31 times in the same syntactic construction. The
behaviour of xliarós ‘lukewarm’ is not remarkable, since its restriction to entities like
water and other liquids is widely attested (cf. Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2011: 407). A simi-
lar bias towards occurrence with ‘water’ also characterises the adjective zematistós
‘boiling hot’, which occurs 23 times as a modifier of neró ‘water’ and twice as a modi-
fier of ládhi ‘oil’.
Thus, in Greek water—essential for human life—and other liquids to a lesser
degree constitute a subsystem of their own. This subsystem relates to the asymmetric
interaction between temperature values and entities; only a restricted set of enti-
ties combines with certain values: in Greek this applies to the values neutral and
painfully hot.
7. Lexical relations among temperature terms
In this section the overview of the Greek system of linguistic temperature terms con-
cludes with a brief look at the lexical relations among temperature terms.
The existence of the adjective pairs zestós/thermós ‘warm/hot’ and kríos/psixrós
‘cold’ (cf. Section 4) raises the question of synonymy in the dimensions of heat and
cold respectively. In this section we will take a closer look at the synonymy and ant-
onymy among these adjectives.

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 Katerina Stathi
7.1 Synonymy
In lexicographic practice the terms zestós/thermós ‘warm/hot’ and kríos/psixrós ‘cold’
are treated as synonym pairs. As shown in Table 5, zestós and thermós ‘warm/hot’
overlap partly and kríos and psixrós ‘cold’ overlap fully on the scale of temperature
values. Why should a system of temperature terms have two terms for ‘warm/hot’
and ‘cold’ respectively? Is there a difference between the terms, although they share
(almost) the same extension? I hypothesise that the two terms for each temperature
value perform different functions since it is a well-known fact that there are very few
absolute synonyms in languages. Hence, it is necessary to determine whether and to
what extent these terms overlap in their meanings. The diagnostic for synonymy used
in this section is substitutability in the same context (cf. Murphy 2003: 159), more spe-
cifically, the combinability with the same nouns. The discussion is restricted to attribu-
tive use of adjectives. If there are semantic differences between the adjectives, then this
should be reflected in the nouns with which they typically combine. In particular, if
zestós and thermós ‘warm/hot’ on the one hand and kríos and psixrós ‘cold’ on the other
are not absolute synonyms, then they should combine with different (semantic types
of) nouns (and hence entities). The nouns with which the adjectives typically com-
bine were compared by means of the Sketch Difference tool on the basis of the GkWaC
corpus (cf. Section 3.2).
Starting with heat, the sketch difference for the two adjectives shows three pat-
terns with respect to modified nouns: (1) zestós-only patterns, (2) thermós-only pat-
terns, and (3) common patterns of both adjectives. Nouns that combine only with one
of the adjectives are shown in Table 7 which illustrates a division of labour between
them. The adjective zestós basically combines with the nouns for water, drinks, bath,
and day. Eight out of its ten most salient collocates suggest a literal meaning of the
Table 7. Patterns for “zestós only” and “thermós only”. The nouns are given
in English translation. Metaphorical uses are highlighted in grey
zestós ‘warm/hot’ modifies thermós ‘warm/hot’ modifies
water thanks
hot beverage request
chocolate congratulations
bath greeting
coffee welcome
atmosphere wish
day supporter
hospitality incidence

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
adjective. The picture is reversed for thermós: all statistically significant collocates indi-
cate metaphorical uses of the adjective. The adjective zestós is also used metaphorically,
but in this type of use it combines with different nouns from thermós.
On the other hand, there are also nouns that are modified by both adjectives.
Yet even in this case, there are clear usage preferences for occurrence with one or
the other adjective (cf. Figure 1). Only the four nouns in the middle of the two
extremes (‘sea’, ‘steam’, ‘month’, ‘environment’) are modified by both adjectives with
equal frequency.
preference preference for

for zestós thermós
day (iméra) kiss sea wind reception
(ánemos)
weather hospitality steam summer spring
corner month welcome
day (méra) environment applause
atmosphere bandage
stream
wind (aéras)
climate
winter
year
spot
Figure 1. Nouns modified by both adjectives zestós and thermós ‘warm/hot’, ordered on a scale
according to their co-occurring preferences with zestós (left) or thermós (right). The nouns are
given in English translation
This picture can be interpreted as confirming that zestós and thermós are not abso-
lute synonyms but quasi-synonyms in the sense of Murphy (2003).
Following the same method, the Word Sketch for kríos vs. psixrós ‘cold’ confirms
that the two adjectives are used differently. Figure 2 shows the entities that are quali-
fied by both adjectives but show clear preferences for one of them. On the one hand,
kríos combines with everyday vocabulary that refers to familiar entities. The more tech-
nical or scientific the context becomes, the more we observe a preference for psixrós.
Table 8, which summarises the different patterns for both adjectives, strength-
ens this observation. Similar to thermós, the most frequent collocates of psixrós
occur in metaphorical use (grey boxes) or in specialist terminology. All nouns in
metaphorical use occur in fixed expressions—the most frequent one being psixrós
pólemos ‘Cold War’.

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 Katerina Stathi
preference preference
for kríos for psixrós
day month gaze temperature pad
room engine eye motor climate
blood wind wind (ánemos) stream
weather (diminutive) region
wind (aéras) environment
night winter
water light
surface
Figure 2. Nouns modified by both adjectives kríos and psixrós ‘cold’, ordered on a scale
according to their co-occurring preferences with kríos (left) or psixrós (right). The nouns are
given in English translation
Table 8. Patterns for “kríos only” and “psixrós only”. The nouns are given
in English translation. Metaphorical uses are marked grey
kríos ‘cold’ modifies psixrós ‘cold’ modifies
sweat war
compress fusion [techn.]
water compression (of oil)
shower logic
night reading
tap invasion
Peru node [anat.]
winter executor
dish toxin
cappuccino spark plug
The difference between the two adjective pairs can thus be summarised as follows:
zestós ‘warm/hot’ and kríos ‘cold’ are basic terms that are used more widely and com-
bine with a larger set of entities of different kinds (cf. Section 4.3.2). Their counterparts
thermós ‘warm’ and psixrós ‘cold’ either occur in scientific or other specialist contexts
or in metaphorical expressions (cf. Section 8). This distribution is also confirmed if we
look at these adjective pairs from the perspective of antonymy.
7.2 Antonymy
The basic opposition in the class of adjectives is between kríos ‘cold’ and zestós ‘warm/
hot’. This is roughly equivalent to the opposition between the French words froid and

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
chaud. According to the discussion in 7.1, another antonym pair should be psixrós
‘cold’ vs. thermós ‘warm/hot’, which are equivalent in their combinability with nouns.
These oppositions are indeed confirmed by the data. We do not find cases of these
pairs mixing; cf. (27)–(28):
(27) ta duz prépi na éxun

def.n.nom.pl shower.n.nom.pl must comp have.prs.3pl
zest-ó ke krí-o trexúmen-o neró
hot-n.acc.sg and cold-n.acc.sg running-n.acc.sg water.n.acc.sg
‘The showers must have hot and cold running water.’
(28) se tópus me polí psixr-á i

in places with very cold-n.acc.pl or
polí therm-á klímata
very hot-n.acc.pl climate.n.acc.pl
‘in places with very cold or very hot climate’
Why should two terms for ‘warm/hot’ and ‘cold’ exist in the first place? As mentioned
in Section 2.3, due to diglossia the Greek vocabulary has more than one term for
many concepts. The temperature term system has been influenced by the basically
spoken variety—to which zestós ‘warm/hot’ and kríos ‘cold’ belong—and the formal
and mostly written variety, from which thermós ‘warm/hot’ and psixrós ‘cold’ originate.
In the course of time, the terms have specialised and their application largely depends
upon the modified entity. Moreover, a group factor relating to metaphoric uses, in
which modified entities are nested, might account for the overwhelming frequency
with which thermós and psixrós are used metaphorically.
The antonym of a temperature term may shift according to the entity modified.
For example, the antonym of zestós when talking about clothing that keeps you warm/
cold is not kríos but dhroserós ‘cool’.
In the class of nouns, the basic opposition is the pair zésti ‘heat’ vs. krío ‘cold’ (cf.
Section 4). The two respective verbs zesténome ‘feel hot’ and krióno ‘feel cold’ form the
hot/cold opposition in the class of verbs; cf. (29):
(29) ekso krión-o ke mésa zesténome

outdoors feel.cold-prs.1sg and indoors feel.hot.prs.medp.1sg
‘Outdoors I feel cold, and indoors I feel hot.’
8. Figurative use of Greek temperature terms
Figurative use of temperature terms is systematically observable in the class of adjec-

tives and verbs; metaphorical use of temperature nouns is very marginal.

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 Katerina Stathi
The adjective zestós ‘warm/hot’ is used metaphorically for reference to emotions.

A person who is characterised as zestós overtly expresses feelings of love, friendship or
tenderness. Actions can also be qualified metonymically by zestós (words, gaze, smil-
ing). Places qualified by zestós are ‘cosy’, and create positive feelings of shelter and com-
fort (e.g. “a warm and hospitable refuge”). Somebody who is zestós about something is
‘enthusiastic’ about it. Finally, zestós is also used to refer to “warm colours”.
The synonymous adjective thermós shows similar meaning extensions, but the
two adjectives differ in their collocations in metaphorical usage (cf. Table 8). Like
zestós, thermós is metaphorically used to qualify persons that openly show their posi-
tive feelings of love and friendship. Metonymically, the adjective might qualify situ-
ations where a person behaves open-heartedly (e.g. patriotism, welcome). A related
metaphorical use can be paraphrased as ‘devoted’ (e.g. supporter). Another metaphor-
ical meaning refers to somebody with strong sexual desire/activity. The adjective can
also be used to qualify a situation with much activity and busyness (e.g. a busy election
campaign period).
On the other hand, kríos ‘cold’ metaphorically refers to absence of strong or overtly
expressed emotions. A person characterised as kríos is not capable of expressing emo-
tions. Metonymically, actions can be qualified as devoid of emotions or as creating
negative feelings of fear, disgust, discontent etc. (e.g. gaze). The adjective kríos is also
used in the equivalent of cold-hearted (me kría kardhjá “with (a) cold heart”). The syn-
onymous adjective psixrós is used in a similar way. A person characterised as psixrós
is not moved or influenced by emotional or moral considerations (e.g. diplomat, exe-
cutioner) or does not openly show positive emotions. They are reserved: For many
Greeks, central and northern Europeans are considered psixrí “cold”. M etonymically,
the adjective can also qualify actions (look/gaze, welcome, relations). In the sexual
domain, a woman characterised as psixrí is not capable of experiencing sexual arousal
(cf. the corresponding adjective frigid in English).
The adjective xliarós ‘lukewarm, tepid’ is also used metaphorically. Somebody or
something so characterised is indifferent, unenthusiastic or unexciting (e.g. welcome,
supporter, applause).
These semantic extensions can be described as expressions for affection or
hostility. Uses of temperature terms in the sense of affection and hostility are com-
mon in many languages. Shindo (1998: 46) explains this use as a metonymic model
connected with the warmth or cold of the human body: “When we are satisfied with
our parents’ affection, we feel warm as if we are surrounded by comfortable warm air.
On the other hand, when we are aware of a person’s hostility, we feel severely cold”
(Shindo 1998: 47). In other words, the literal meanings of temperature terms are not
only based on the subjective experience of temperature sensation through the human
body; semantic extensions of temperature terms also seem to be based on bodily
experience.

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Temperature terms in Modern Greek 
9. C
onclusion
Modern Greek temperature terms are adjectives, nouns, and verbs as well as adverbs
derived from adjectives. All word classes lexicalise the basic temperature distinction
between warming and cooling temperatures. Adjectives additionally lexicalise neu-
tral temperatures. In the warming dimension, Greek does not make a distinction
between warm and hot but conflates both in the basic adjective zestós and further in
the adjective thermós.
The subdomains tactile, ambient, and personal-feeling temperature are
relevant distinctions in Greek, prototypically correlated with a particular word class
and syntactic construction. Nouns express mainly ambient temperature, and verbs
are primarily used for the expression of personal-feeling temperature. Adjectives
may be used for all subdomains but are basically responsible for the expression of
tactile and, to a lesser degree, ambient temperature.
On the basis of the analyses presented, I suggest that Greek has a tempera-
ture system with two basic terms, namely the adjectives zestós ‘warm/hot’ and
kríos ‘cold’. These terms fulfil the criteria established for basicness (cf. Plank 2003):
(i) They are more frequent than any other term in the corpora. We can therefore
conclude that they are both salient and generally known to the speech community.
(ii) Their meanings are generally agreed on. This does not contradict the obser-
vation (cf. Section 4.3.1) that the meanings of these adjectives are construed on a
subjective, embodied and anthropocentric basis. (iii) Both zestós and kríos are syn-
chronically morphologically simple (cf. 4.3.1). (iv) They show an unremarkable
morphosyntactic behaviour. Both adjectives are used attributively or predicatively
and they agree with the head noun in gender, case and number. (v) They are of native
origin (cf. 4.3.1). (vi) They are specialised for the expression of temperature, which
is their more frequent use as opposed to their near synonyms thermós and psixrós,
which are more frequently used metaphorically. (vii) They combine with large sets of
entities and are not too restricted in their application.21 In Section 4.3.1 it was shown
that the adjectives combine with all kinds of nominal referents in the tactile and
ambient subdomains. All other temperature terms have more limited applicability
both with regard to temperature value and kind of temperature evaluation
and/or to subclasses of entities which, according to Plank (2003), does not make
them good candidates for basic-term status.
. Yet, they are still restricted in not being able to express personal-feeling temperatures.

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 Katerina Stathi
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This is a contribution from The Linguistics of Temperature.

This paper gives a descriptive overview of the Modern Greek system of

(1) 1. tactile temperature The stones are hot.

© 2015. John Benjamins Publishing Company

The basic distinction is between tactile and non-tactile temperature. non-

© 2015. John Benjamins Publishing Company

2.1 Language location and climatic conditions1

. Source: Hellenic National Meteorological Service 〈www.hnms.gr/hnms/english/index_

© 2015. John Benjamins Publishing Company

2.2 A morphosyntactic sketch of Modern Greek

© 2015. John Benjamins Publishing Company

(2) a. o krí-os ximónas4

‘the cold winter’

2.3 Greek diglossia and structure of the vocabulary

© 2015. John Benjamins Publishing Company

3.1 The semantic approach

3.2 Corpora and corpus methodology

© 2015. John Benjamins Publishing Company

© 2015. John Benjamins Publishing Company

3.3 Selection of temperature terms

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4.2 Overview of temperature terms

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Table 1. (Continued)

Adjectives Nouns Verbs

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4.3 The meaning of Greek temperature terms

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adjectives that belong to one temperature value (warming, cooling, neutral)

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tactile Surfaces in the natural sand, lava

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(7) a. krí-a thálasa

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neró ‘water’ neró ‘water’

(8) a. psixr-á polik-á révmata

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(9) a. pijí me dhroser-ó neró

(10) a. vútiksa sto paghomén-o ejéo

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b. pnéi énas paghomén-os aéras

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(12) i zésti tu kalokerjú

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unpleasant temperatures. One of the most significant postnominal modifiers is fonjás

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(15) asthenís pu kéghodan apó ton piretó

(16) A: éxis piretó?

(17) A: kriónis (akóma)?

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In addition, paghóno ‘to freeze’ encodes the feeling of extreme cold.

4.5 I nterim conclusion

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Adjectives Nouns Verbs

1 paghoménos paghonjá paghóno

2 kríos psixrós psíxos

5 zestós thermós zestasjá

7 zematistós káfsonas kéo

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(20) non-tactile (ambient) temperature

2.2 A morphosyntactic sketch of Modern Greek

2.3 Greek diglossia and structure of the vocabulary

3.1 The semantic approach

3.2 Corpora and corpus methodology

3.3 Selection of temperature terms

4.2 Overview of temperature terms

4.3 The meaning of Greek temperature terms

4.5 I nterim conclusion

6. Asymmetries in the system of Greek temperature terms

6.1 I nteraction between kinds of temperature evaluation

6.2 I nteraction between temperature value and evaluated entities

7. Lexical relations among temperature terms

8. Figurative use of Greek temperature terms