(pixelgeek @ Jun. 03 2008,01:59)
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(nealhunt @ Jun. 02 2008,12:49)
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In the face of the multitudinous butchering of all manner of historical and literary references committed by GW, is a mix of latin-greek-germanic actually a big deal?
Obviously you didn't minor in Linguistics :-)
Legion has linguistic roots going all the way back to PIE with cognates in Germanic, Slavic, Hellenic, and others.
A couple minutes on Google Scholar show Griffon's origins are highly speculative, but its presence in Hellenic could be a borrowing from the Semitic family or from the Satem branch of IE (which might imply a deeper IE root). Etymological sources list its presence in English as OF, Latin, and Greek, in that order, indicating a latinate source as more likely.
Both terms appear the written language ca late 13th/early 14th century when, as you know, virtually all newly borrowed vocabulary was French or Latin. Direct borrowing from Greek is possible but unlikely based on time period and early sources.
