25/008 Greek Word – παράβολο =  a government document that costs you a fuck load of money.

It is basically a Request to Pay a government fee. You receive the document, and you go to a bank or post office and pay. I am in the process of changing my UK driving licence to a Greek one. For one licence I was given five παράβολα totalling just over €231.

From the Greek παραβάλλω from which English gets words like ‘parable’ and ‘parabola’. In Greek I think παραβάλλω means ‘compare’ or ‘contrast’ in the academic sense as in: Compare Flaubert’s treatment of Madame Bovary with Mauriac’s of Thérèse Desqueyroux.

God knows how the meaning moved from comparison to payment.

One of the challenges of Modern Greek is distinguishing the meanings between root verbs like βάλλω and their prefixes. To the best of my knowledge, there are αναβάλλω, αποβάλλω, διαβάλλω, εισβάλλω, εκβάλλω, επιβάλλω, καταβάλλω, μεταβάλλω, παραβάλλω, περιβάλλω, συμβάλλω, υπερβάλλω and υποβάλλω. The basic noun forms end in -βολή as in καταβολή and μεταβολή.  Then you can have two prefixes hooked together e.g. προκαταβολή (= deposit) and αντικαταβολή (= payment on delivery). My favourite multi-prefix word combines αντι +επι+εξ (=εκ) in the word αντεπεξέρχομαι (= cope, manage). Is there a root verb with four prefixes?