23/018 Greek Word

κατσιβέλα – a gypsy woman. Not a compliment. The masculine equivalent is κατσίβελος.

My interlocutor said the word is used in Xanthi, and www.slang.gr supports this: Συνώνυμο του γύφτος, ευρέως γνωστό στην Θράκη.

– Δες τον κατσίβελο τι φοράει!
– Κατσιβέλια ρε, τι περίμενες;…

As you can see from the above example, being a bad dresser is an additional meaning. Interestingly, the above abstract noun is stressed on the penultimate syllable. Babiniotis stresses it thus: κατσιβελιά. And he adds: 1) η βρόμικη και απεριποίητη εμφάνιση (dirty and unkempt appearance) and 2) συμπεριφορά που χαρακτηρίζεται από μικρότητα και φιλαργυρία (petty behaviour and miserliness).

Where does the word come from? Probably from one of the Romance dialects that were once widely spoken in the Balkans. Maybe from ‘captivellus’: a captive and therefore unhappy and unfortunate.

Comments are closed.

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.

Up ↑