My wife wanted me to get her something from the pharmacy, but she cautioned me against going to my usual go-to guy because he tends to offer the priciest products rather than cheaper alternatives. Instead, she urged me to go to the nearby μουντρούχα because her prices are better.
The Irish writer, Hugh Leonard, opened his biography Home Before Night with the words, “My grandmother made dying her life’s work.” And just as μουντρούχα is a great word for Leonard’s granny, it is an equally apt description of our dour, sullen, antisocial pharmacist, whose every laboured step looks as if it could be her last. She once refused to accept bronze coins from me. Nothing lower than 10c is legal tender in her shop.
The word is not in Babiniotis’s dictionary. Nor can I find its etymology anywhere, but it might be of Albanian origin. Wiktionary gives μούχλας and μαμούχαλος as synonyms, and www.slang.gr gives this as an example:
Η Κατερίνα κουβάλησε με τα χίλια ζόρια τον μουντρούχο τον αρραβωνιαστικό της στο πάρτυ, αλλά μάταιος κόπος… Αυτός καθόταν σε μια γωνιά και δεν μιλούσε σε κανέναν = Katerina moved heaven and earth to drag her antisocial fiancé to the party. In vain. He just sat in a corner and spoke to no-one.
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