philhellene means philhellenic. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 79 out of 100.
Why this word is great
PHILHELLENE — [Adjective, Noun] A profound admiration for Greece and its culture, historically denoting a foreign supporter of its 19th-century war for independence. From Ancient Greek φιλέλλην (philéllēn), from φιλ- (phil-, "loving") + Ἕλλην (Hellēn, "a Greek"). Unlike "Hellenophile" (which suggests a more general, academic fondness) or "Graecophile" (a rarer, cooler synonym), "philhellene" is a word freighted with the political fervor of a specific historical moment. It is the young English Romantic bankrupting himself to sail to a war for ruins, the tarnished coins raised in Parisian salons, and the lonely grave at Missolonghi—the ache of loving an abstraction enough to die for its shadow.
noun
- A lover of Greece or Greek culture.
- Specifically, a supporter of Greek independence, especially during the Greek war of independence in 1821-29.“Some historians have suggested that modern ‘humanitarian intervention’ began with the philhellenes in Greece in the 1820.”