τσιφούτης – tsifoutis = mean, stingy
Recently I wrote that for a nation of moderate drinkers (by north European standards, at any rate), Greeks are not lacking in expressions for ‘drunk’. It is the same with parsimony. If one were asked to describe Greeks in one word, I imagine ‘mean’ or ‘stingy’ would be far down the list. More than likely, these words would not appear at all. Greek, however, is not short of words to describe this human failing.
τσιφούτης comes from Turkish ‘çifit’ or çifut’. In fact, almost all Greek words starting with τσ- are loan words, many of them from Turkish (A quick check of the first hundred words beginning with τσ- suggests maybe around 20 to 25%.) Returning to stinginess, the first word a learner of Greek might learn for ‘mean’ would probably be τσιγκούνης (tsigounis), again beginning with τσ- and again of Turkish origin. Grammatically, τσιφούτης (plural: τσιφούτηδες) is a noun, whereas τσιγκούνης is an adjective – τσιγκούνης (m), τσιγκούνα (f), τσιγκούνικο (n). As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of synonyms:
καρμίρης or καρμοίρης
σπάγγος literally = string
σπαγγοραμμένος literally = sewn with string (instead of going to the expense of buying thread!).
σφιχτός literally = tight
σφιχτοχέρης literally = tight-fisted, tightwad
τσίπης
φειδωλός – more literary: thrifty
φιλάργυρος = maybe the standard translation for ‘miser’
φραγκοφονιάς (My personal favourite – someone who would murder for a franc)
φτηνιάρης (φτηνός = cheap) – cheapskate is a good translation
The word φραγκοφονιάς reminds me of two things: first, the variety of words for currency in Greek, currency that was once used in Greece; and secondly, the role of the Franks in Greek history from medieval times. More of that in my next post.