Did You Know?

English borrowed "epigone" from German in the 19th century. The Germans themselves had taken the word from the Latin epigonus, which means "successor." The Latin term followed the Greek epigonos, which was often used in plural to designate the sons of seven legendary Greek leaders who were defeated at Thebes. "Epigonos" in turn came from the Greek verb epigignesthai, meaning "to be born after." "Epi-" can mean "after," and gignesthai means "to be born."