words derived from Greek through the literary route drop the inflectional endings (tripod, zoology, pentagon) or use Latin endings (papyrus, mausoleum), some preserve the Greek endings: -ον: phenomenon, criterion, neuron, lexicon; -∅: plasma, drama, dilemma, trauma (-ma is derivational, not inflectional); -ος: chaos, ethos, asbestos, pathos, cosmos; -ς: climax (ξ x = k + s), helix, larynx, eros, pancreas, atlas; -η: catastrophe, agape, psyche; -ις: analysis, basis, crisis, emphasis; -ης: diabetes, herpes, isosceles. In cases like scene, zone, fame, though the Greek words ended in -η, the silent English e is not derived from it. In the case of Greek endings, the plurals sometimes follow the Greek rules: phenomenon, phenomena; tetrahedron, tetrahedra; crisis, crises; hypothesis, hypotheses; polis, poleis; stigma, stigmata; topos, topoi; cyclops, cyclopes; but often do not: colon, colons not *cola (except for the very rare technical term of rhetoric); pentathlon, pentathlons not *pentathla; demon, demons not *demones; climaxes, not . Usage is mixed in some cases: schema, schemas or schemata; lexicon, lexicons or lexica; helix, helixes or helices; sphinx, sphinges or sphinxes; clitoris, clitorises or clitorides. And there are misleading cases: pentagon comes from Greek pentagonon, so its plural cannot be ; it is pentagons—the Greek form would be *pentagona (cf. Plurals from Latin and Greek). Verbs A few dozen English verbs are derived from the corresponding Greek verbs; examples are baptize, blame and blaspheme, stigmatize, ostracize, and cauterize. In addition, the Greek verbal suffix -ize is productive in Latin, the Romance languages, and English: words like metabolize, though composed of a Greek root and a Greek suffix, are modern compounds. A few of these also existed in Ancient Greek, such as crystallize, characterize, and democratize, but were probably coined independently in modern languages. This is particularly clear in cases like allegorize and synergize, where the Greek verbs ἀλληγορεῖν and συνεργεῖν do not end in -ize at all. Some English verbs with ultimate Greek etymologies, like pause and cycle, were formed as denominal verbs in English, even though there are corresponding Greek verbs, παῦειν/παυσ- and κυκλεῖν. Borrowings and cognates Greek and English share many Indo-European cognates. In some cases, the cognates can be confused with borrowings. For example, the English mouse is cognate with Greek /mys/ and Latin , all from an Indo-European word *mūs; they are not borrowings. Similarly, acre is cognate to Latin and Greek , but not a borrowing; the prefix agro- is a borrowing