Why are Latin and Greek words still heavily used everywhere? Like university frats and sororities, latin honors, and Biological terms? Why would they not use the English equivalent words instead for these words specifically?
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In addition to the uses people have mentioned, Latin and Greek still retain a lot of the prestige they have had for a very long time.
Western civilization is largely thought to stem from the Roman/Latin and Greek cultures, and at various points in history, (what we’d now call) Westerners looked back to Roman and Greek cultures to reinforce their own. Everything from legal systems, religious doctrines, science and technology, and even architecture, is directly or indirectly influenced by these.
As far as language goes, this prestige meant that it was more prestigious to use Latin and Greek-based words than to use an English one. When grammar mavens started to write self-help books to help the rising merchant class speak and write more like the prestigious nobles, they deliberately wrote style rules that made English more like Latin and Greek.
As our modern education systems developed in the early 1800s, the creators were heavily influenced by the prestige and centrality of Roman/Latin and Greek cultures. So this prestige continued a very long time, especially as the English style got taught to generation after generation. As college men founded social academic clubs, they naturally adopted some of that prestige for their endeavors, describing the clubs with a latin term (fraternities) and giving them names rooted in Greek lettering (Phi Beta Kappa, etc). As women’s colleges popped up they naturally did likewise.
That prestige has dimmed considerably with the rise of the study of economics and business (mid 19th century), the rise of anthropology and social science (20th century), and the importance in academia of science and technology (19th and 20th c). But it lingers.
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