σερέτης plural σερέτηδες
Continuing from GW 12/2022 σερέτης is another word that has travelled from the Arab world to Turkey and then on to Greece. Initially, I was looking for a proper noun because many of the streets near me have the names of notable Greeks: Seferis, a Nobel Prize winning poet; Tsitsanis a famous song writer, one of whose compositions, Μπαξέ Τσιφλίκ, is dedicated to the area; Koundouriotis – a hero of the 1821 Revolution. I googled Σερέτης, a common enough surname, but I failed to find anyone of note. Then I came across the word with a small σ. A σερέτης is an awkward, unpleasant pothead with a penchant for violence. Why would anyone want the surname “Drug-addled knife-wielding-thug”? The word is very common Rebetika music:
Αν είσαι φίνος μάγκας, πού ‘ν’ τα μπεγλέρια σου; If you’re a real dude, where are your worry beads?
Αν είσαι και σερέτης, πού ‘ν‘ τα μαχαίρια σου; if you are also a ‘seretis’, where are your knives?
(From the song Ο Μανόλης ο χασικλής (‘Manolis the Pothead’) music by Giannis Dragatsis-Ogdontakis and lyrics by Kostas Marselou-Nourou.
www.slang.gr characterizes the σερέτης as all the above and adds “η ήρεμη δύναμη, αυτός που δεν χρειάζεται να αποδείξει τίποτα πλέον, αλλά όλοι ξέρουν περί τίνος πρόκειται”, the strong silent type who doesn’t need to prove himself anymore, but everyone knows what he is about. The video clip is of a song called Ο Σερέτης. The lyrics are embedded.