Dead metaphors concern words or phrases in which either the metaphorical correspondence between the source-domain and the target-domain or the literal meaning of the source-domain is not available. In the present study a small number of dead metaphors of Modern Greek are examined (ψυχή ‘soul’, σκήνωμα ‘dead body’, ψόφος, κακάρωμα ‘death’, σαλεύω ‘go nuts’, χυδαίος ‘vulgar’, αφελής ‘naïve’), which belong to the second category of dead metaphors, according to the Career of Metaphor Hypothesis (Bowdle & Gentner 2005). In this category, while both the abstract metaphoric category and the metaphoric meaning of the source-concept are present, the literal meaning of the source-concept is absent and is completely ignored by speakers. The present study supports that the researcher can restore the conceptual metaphors from which the dead metaphors have arisen through the etymological knowledge of their conceptual sources.