καμπάνα – (kambana) bell, bell-bottoms, a fine Obviously a borrowing from Latin, καμπάνα has several extended meanings including the flared trousers popular in the 70s, also called bell-bottoms. In an article about the biologist, Professor Sotiris Tsiodras in www.instanews.gr the writer states “ο Σωτήρης Τσιόδρας … έκρουσε …. το καμπανάκι του κινδύνου για τον αριθμό... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 11/2021
Orthodox Easter is on May 2nd and very few people will be travelling for the second successive year. A drip-drip of ministerial leaks and utterances have prepared us for the non-surprise announcement by the Prime Minister yesterday, an unfortunate date as 21st April 1967 was the date of Greece’s last military coup. The date for... Continue Reading →
Greek Word of the Week 10/2021
χουνέρι (khuneri) Another borrowing. Persian in origin but coming to Greece via Turkey. Having checked various dictionaries and online sources, I’ve found that there is little agreement on the precise definition of the word. This gives me the confidence to add my own translation. My old Crighton does not have the word. Nor does my... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 10/2021
My original intention when creating this blog was to focus on Irish music and life in Northern Greece, specifically on Thessaloniki. Circumstances that we are all aware of have limited musical performance. Moreover, my comments on Greece have focused on the country as a whole and its response to Covid 19. This has meant that... Continue Reading →
Irish Music Scene & Life in Northern Greece 9/2021
It’s been a great week in terms of discovery. I have always poo-pooed the idea of ABC musical notation, failing to understand why anyone would choose to labour over the differences between G, (the G below middle C [the comma is a symbol, not punctuation]), G and G’ instead of “learning the dots” as it... Continue Reading →
Greek Word of the Week 9/2021
There were several candidates for Word of the Week, mainly words to describe a fondness for bad language: αθυροστομία, βρωμολοχία, υβρεολόγιο but the winner is another word from www.menshouse.gr άμπαλος = abalos I had difficulty working out the meaning because my first instinct was to read it as “ambalos”. Had I read it as “abalos”,... Continue Reading →