English-speaking students of Ancient Greek often refer to the Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon for help. It has just undergone a re-writing so deep and wide in scope that the editors have dropped the names of the original compilers; it is now called the Cambridge Greek Lexicon. More information can be found here: https://greekreporter.com/2021/05/27/cambridge-university-creates-monumental-new-ancient-greek-dictionary/
The new lexicon also promises to give more accurate translations especially in cases where the Victorian compilers tended towards bowdlerisation and euphemism. For example, the CGL promises to translate the Ancient Greek τιλάω as something like “to have the shits” rather than the twee 19th century “to have a thin stool”, which brings us to our word of the week:
τσίρλα – tsirla = explosive diarrhoea. At least, that was the translation I was offered. At first sight this looks like a borrowing from Turkish given that it begins with τσ- like many Turkish borrowings, but the word comes down through the ages from the afore-mentioned τιλάω, so at least 2.5 millennia of υδαρές, διαρροϊκό αποπάτημα (watery, diarrhoea-like waste) according to the Ελληνικό Ερμηνευτικό Λεξικό.
Word Reference translates τσίρλα as the “trots” or “runs”, while www.slang.gr offers the alternative τσιρλιό and adds τσιρλιάρης for good measure, the latter being a synonym for χέστης, a shitebag or coward.
τσίρλα is often found with the verbs πιάνω and πάω as in these examples from the Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας:
Κάθε φορά που κρυολογώ με πιάνει τσίρλα = Whenever I catch cold, I get the shits
Κάθε φορά που κρυολογώ μου πάει τσίρλα = as above
Κάθε φορά που κρυολογώ μ’αρχίζει τσίρλα = Whenever I catch cold, I start to get the shits
Incidentally, where did we get these ridiculous words and phrases for bodily functions? ‘Stool’ in English is daft, likewise the French ‘go to the saddle’ (aller à la selle). I bet the horse or donkey would be upset. Greek, too, has a few. In my twenties, I went to the doctor with bronchitis. His surgery was a blue haze from the Gitanes or Gauloises he was smoking (great for my chest infection). After examining me, he asked me “Ενεργείσαι” which I misinterpreted as “Are you energetic”. I replied that normally I was, but with the infection…. He the simplified matters by saying, “Όχι, αγόρι μου, χέζεις;” or “No, son, can you shit?”