View Message

Does anyone have a source for Alexis meaning "helper, defender"? It appears to be derived from Ancient Greek ἄλεξις, which the Liddle-Scott-Jones Online Dictionary defines as the abstract noun "help" (https://lsj.gr/wiki/%E1%BC%84%CE%BB%CE%B5%CE%BE%CE%B9%CF%82). This definition makes more sense to me - although I'm not an expert on Ancient Greek, it looks like ἀλέξω + -σῐς, which forms abstract nouns of action, process, or result (and is not an agentive suffix) according to Herbert Weir Smythe (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0007:smythp=840).
If I'm wrong about this, please let me know!

---

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." - Terry Pratchett