There were several candidates for Word of the Week, mainly words to describe a fondness for bad language: αθυροστομία, βρωμολοχία, υβρεολόγιο but the winner is another word from www.menshouse.gr
άμπαλος = abalos
I had difficulty working out the meaning because my first instinct was to read it as “ambalos”. Had I read it as “abalos”, I would have made the connection with football.
If you are άμπαλος, it means you are crap at or not interested in football.
It occurred in an article about meanness. https://menshouse.gr/antras/60726/pos-xechorizis-ton-spagko-stin-taverna
The article begins:
Τρία πράγματα δεν συγχωρούνται ποτέ σε έναν άνδρα. Το πρώτο, να μη βλέπει μπάλα. Το δεύτερο να βρωμάει. Το τρίτο -και πιθανότατα το χειρότερο- να είναι τσιγκούνης. Δυστυχώς όμως (για όλους εμάς τους υπόλοιπους) αυτό είναι και το δυσκολότερο να εντοπιστεί. Γιατί ο άμπαλος είναι θέμα χρόνου (ή απλά της ερώτησης «ποιος είναι ο Ζίζι Ρόμπερτς») για να αποκαλυφθεί.
Three things can’t be forgiven in a man. Τhe first if he doesn’t watch football. The second is if he has BO. The third – and most probably the worst – is if he’s stingy. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, this is probably the hardest to detect. Because outing the guy who’s indifferent to football is just a matter of time (or asking the simple question “Who’s Zizi Roberts?”).
I like my football but I had no idea who Zizi was. If you’re interested, Zizi is from Liberia and played for Ionikos, Panionios and Olympiakos between 2000 and 2002.
Anyway, let’s focus briefly on the μπ sound. When learning modern Greek, the grammar books tell you that μπ is pronounced ‘b’ at the beginning of a word but ‘mb’ in the middle. While this holds true at the beginning of a word, the situation is more fluid in the middle. For example, μπαμπάς is always ‘babas’ (dad), whereas λάμπα is most often ‘lamba’ (lamp or bulb). It seems to depend a lot on etymology. Words from Ancient Greek like έμπειρος (experienced) tend to retain the μπ/mb sound, but borrowings like σόμπα (heater) tend to be pronounced ‘b’. However, there is a lack of consistency e.g. the word for button, κουμπί, [from AG κόμβος] can be pronounced kumbi or kubi.