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Sa·mos

(sāmŏs′, sămōs, sämôs)

An island of eastern Greece in the Aegean Sea off the western coast of Turkey. First inhabited in the Bronze Age, it was later colonized by Ionian Greeks and became an important commercial and maritime power in the sixth century BC. Controlled in turn by Persia, Athens, Sparta, Rome, Byzantium, and the Ottoman Empire, the island became part of modern-day Greece in 1913.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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