24th October 2024: A few days ago, a loud-mouthed, self-promoting cretin, Lidia Thorpe, hurled abuse at Charles III during his first visit to Australia as Head of State. The BBC described her as aboriginal. If Thorpe is aboriginal, then I must be from Outer Mongolia and typing this from my yurt. My guess is that... Continue Reading →

Whenever I see anything with the root εργ (work) in the same sentence with ex-Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, I have a little giggle to myself. On the few occasions I have been asked to give my opinion on Tsipras, I have replied, “Είναι ένας άεργος, άνεργος ακάματης.” A workshy, unemployed lazy fuck. His whole life... Continue Reading →

One indicator of progress in language learning is one’s ability to produce synonyms. Greek has several words for slap. A small list of nouns and their verbs: χαστούκι         χαστουκίζω σφαλιάρα        σφαλιαρίζω μπάτσα           μπατσίζω (μπάτσος is also slang for a policeman!) κόλαφος          κολαφίζω (used mainly metaphorically) But one should never underestimate the capacity of Greek to... Continue Reading →

απέχω παρασάγγας (από) = to be a far cry from, to be wildly different, be miles away The παρασάγγης was a Persian unit of distance, approximately 5,243 metres according to Babiniotis. www.wiktionary.org states it was the equivalent of 30 Greek stadia or 5,554 metres - or the distance a foot soldier could be expected to... Continue Reading →

βίλλα/βίλλος - dick, cock in the Cypriot dialect I wonder why there are - like mainland Greek’s πούτσα/πούτσος - feminine and masculine variants. Not that I have been engaging in dick discussions with Cypriots. The word came up in a chat about football. I suppose it could be argued that the Beautiful Game has no... Continue Reading →

Another borrowing from English that is being used instead of κυλάω. Κύλιση (scrolling) is also losing out to σκρολάρισμα.

In the passive (μπουρδουκλώνομαι) it means ‘trip’, often as a result of having one’s feet among cables and wiring. It’s a word that would have come handy in our last gig when six of us were occupying a small stage with instrument, mic and electric cables posing a real trip hazard.

24/004 Greek Word – κουνουπίδι = cauliflower… … but on overhearing two young gentlemen in conversation, I learnt that κουνουπίδι as in έγινα κουνουπίδι means “I got hammered” ie very drunk. The discussion became livelier when one of them described his inebriation as έγινα κωλοτρυπίδι, an unlisted variant of κωλοτρυπίδα (literally arsehole). The best English... Continue Reading →

Our first example of “Greeklish” of 2024. I was discussing some of the latency problems we experience when having a Zoom music session with friends in Malta. The normal Greek for ‘latency’ is καθυστέρηση, but Greeks prefer to use the noun λαγκ (τρώω λαγκ) and the verb (λαγκάρω)

In LinNG 24/002 I talk about how an “I-don’t-give-a-fuck” attitude still prevails in Greek public life. As long as my house and immediate environment are OK, fuck everything else. The Greeks have borrowed the term ζεμανφουτισμός from the French je-m’en-foutisme, but they have a much better one of their own: σταρχιδισμός, a noun derived from... Continue Reading →

τεμπελόπιτα = lazy pie. A combination of τεμπέλης (indolent) + πίτα (pie or pita bread). What it means is any pie that avoids the hassle of making a pastry. And here is a recipe with the added attraction of tsipouro (τσίπουρο) among the ingredients: https://www.bovary.gr/living/taste/tempelopita-i-paneykoli-pita-me-feta-kai-tsipoyro

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... Continue Reading →