μπουρδολόγος – a bullshitter from μπούρδες = nonsense, bullshit, hogwash.
Most often μπούρδες is used in the plural, though there is a singular noun: μπούρδα. Babiniotis says it comes from the French ‘bourde’, which he translates as ανοησία and βλακεία, both synonyms of μπούρδα. However, I’m not completely convinced. ‘Bourde’ in French means a lie or a blunder.
Anyway, why μπουρδολόγος? Well, the word came to mind because Alexis Tsipras, the biggest bullshitter in Greece, was in town at the weekend to speak at the Exhibition. I’m not making a political point here. I’m talking about him as a human being. If he told me today was the 22nd September, I’d check a calendar. Anyway, I should stop frothing at the mouth.
While electronic dictionaries are quick and convenient, there is always more to be gleaned from a good old-fashioned paper dictionary. For example, I learned that there is a homophone/homograph of Albanian origin. Μπούρδα also means a sack or sackcloth as in μια μπούρδα αλεύρι = a sack of flower. And μπούρδας is a synonym for μπουρδολόγος, though I have only heard the latter.
And the fun doesn’t stop there. The next entry is μπουρδελιάρης (plural μπουρδελιάρηδες), a frequenter of brothels. My instinctive translation was ‘brothel-creeper’ but that is not correct. Brothel-creepers were a style of shoe with thick soft soles:
