For an election period, things seem quite quiet. The first round was a disaster for the opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras, the biggest chancer in Greek politics. It’s a terrible situation when you don’t want the government to win and when you want the opposition to lose. No joy at all. Here in Thessaloniki, Tsipras did... Continue Reading →
23/011 Greek Word
εκπαραθυρώνω – defenestrate I love it when a word is immediately understandable. In Greek, like English, it can be used literally and metaphorically. The current metaphorical favourite in British English is ‘throw someone under/in front of a bus’. Were I to translate that into Greek, I would probably choose εκπαραθυρώνω. As Greek has borrowed extensively... Continue Reading →
Greek Word 23/010
παράσυρση = running over and dragging a pedestrian or a cyclist along the road. Word’s spellcheck does not recognise the above. It offers alternatives like παράλυση and παράφυση. Nor does Babiniotis have it as a headword or even within the definition of its parent verb παρασύρω. The word caught my attention when I saw this... Continue Reading →
23/006 Life in Northern Greece: Graffiti
Graffiti used to be a simple affair. Political graffiti in Greek and football graffiti mainly in the Latin alphabet. For instance, ‘IRA’ did not signify support for Irish Republicans – it was short for Iraklis, a transliteration of the Ηρα of Ηρακλής (Hercules), Thessaloniki’s third football team. There was plenty of it, and practically every... Continue Reading →
23/009 Greek Word
ετεροδημότης (fem: ετεροδημότισσα) = someone who lives in one municipality but who is registered to vote in another. It’s election time. Maybe it’s because I live outside the city that the campaigns seem less febrile than usual. Besides, Sunday 21st May will likely be Round 1, so the real battles will take place from Monday... Continue Reading →
23/005 Irish Music in Northern Greece
April was quiet. On the 2nd of the month, we did our April session. It was our quietest since we began in October 2021, with only seven of us playing. Further bad news – three of our regulars, Kostas from Tir Fada and his twin sons are moving to Crete. This is in addition to... Continue Reading →
23/005 Life in Northern Greece Το Περίπτερο
The “periptero” is a fixture of Greek life which might slowly be disappearing as more convenience stores like 4all and Today are muscling in on it. Although similar in concept to the French kiosque, the περίπτερο defied translation. Long ago when I was working in an English-speaking environment in Thessaloniki, it wasn’t uncommon to hear... Continue Reading →
23/008 Greek Word
σκαρφίζομαι = dream up, make up, come up with an (improbable) story, επινοώ I got this from the telly. There is a channel on Nova called Epic Drama, mostly consisting of murder mysteries such as the Canadian series Murdoch, a UK/Austrian series called Vienna Blood, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, and other UK staples such as... Continue Reading →
23/007 Greek Word
Λέτσος = shabbily dressed, a borrowing from the Italian ‘lezzo’. The Dictionary of Greek goes further: Άνθρωπος βρόμικος και κακοντυμένος, κουρελής μτφ. α) άνθρωπος χωρίς αξία και σοβαρότητα β) άνθρωπος με άσχημους τρόπους και άσχημη εμφάνιση. What amused me, on overhearing two women talking, was that they were not talking about some tramp hovering nearby... Continue Reading →
23/006 Greek Word
κουτσουπιά = Judas tree, also known as δέντρο του Ιούδα We drove down to Athens on 9th April, our Easter Sunday and Orthodox Palm Sunday. The motorway was unusually quiet - almost like driving in Peak Covid again. For large stretches, on both sides of the motorway one could see beautiful lilac-coloured trees. Apparently, they... Continue Reading →
23/004 Life in Northern Greece
Street names tell you a lot about a nation’s history. In my hometown in Ireland there is a Parnell Street and an O’Connell Street, named in honour of Charles Stewart Parnell and Daniel O’Connell, and these street names will be repeated in most Irish towns. On emigrating to Glasgow, I made a number of mistaken... Continue Reading →
23/004 Irish Music in Northern Greece
Only in Greece! How can a small mountain town of 14,000 inhabitants host a 4- or 5-day St. Patrick’s festival? Well, Grevena manages it, and it is a commercial and artistic success. We set off at 10:30am on Saturday, 18th March, our destination a restaurant called Marmita in a village called Megalo Sirini (Μεγάλο Σειρήνι)... Continue Reading →
23/005 Greek Word
καρμίρης, plural καρμίρηδες, feminine form καρμίρω Basically, it means a miserable git, a bit of a miser, too mean to enjoy life if it involves spending money. Άνθρωπος μίζερος, κακομοίρης που δεν χαίρεται τη ζωή, για να μην ξοδέψει λεφτά. (Babiniotis) It seems to have developed from an earlier form of κακομοίρης, the Hellenistic κάρμοιρος... Continue Reading →
23/003 Life in Northern Greece
Taleporistan, a country in the south-east of Europe sometimes known as Greece. Ταλαιπωρία [taleporia] is a word one learns comparatively early when living in Greece. It means hassle or hassle plus, the shite we all have to deal with when queuing in banks, government offices, hospitals, or merely trying to survive the day in Greece.... Continue Reading →
23/003 Irish Music in Northern Greece
Looking forward to our session next Sunday, 12th March. I will need to send a reminder out to the troops. A group of us have begun practising in earnest for a gig on 19th. We are meeting in a tiny theatre called Nemesis – a name that doesn’t augur well! Tuesdays and Thursdays up to... Continue Reading →
23/004 Greek Word
μπούλιγκ = bullying One of the surprising problems teachers encounter among English language learners is the -ing form of two-syllable verbs ending in “y” e.g bully, carry, marry, scurry, worry. Even good students will say and write bulling, carring , marring, scurring, worring, finding it hard to produce all three syllables. The problem is less... Continue Reading →
23/003 Greek Word
I’m more interested in the suffix than the word itself. ψαρίλα = the unpleasant smell of fish. Not a compliment. Babiniotis states: η δυνατή και απωθητική μυρωδιά του ψαριού Often preceded by μυρίζει or βρωμάει, it is a complaint. I suppose βρωμάει gives it added force.Μυρίζει ψαρίλα = It stinks of fish Βρωμάει ψαρίλα =... Continue Reading →
23/002 Irish Music in Northern Greece
Is it a whole month since I’ve posted anything? Our session on Sunday 12th February went very well. Twelve or thirteen of us showed up. Again the bar was busy. Always good to see. Our next task is to get ready for March and activities for St. Patrick’s Day. We kick off the week with... Continue Reading →
23/001 Irish Music in Northern Greece
14th January. A week ago about seven of us met here for cheese, mulled wine and a run-through of the sets for tomorrow’s session. We were not at our best, so I hope all goes well tomorrow. When we were using Zoom to practice during lockdown, we used YouTube clips converted to mp3s. These were... Continue Reading →
23/002 Life in Northern Greece
Hyperbole is a Greek word. And we have heard plenty of it recently regarding the detained Eva Kaili. First of all, her party (PASOK) disowned her instead of suspending her pending the results of the investigation. Not content with this guilty-until-proven-innocent manoeuvre, the leader of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, levelled the ridiculous accusation that Kaili was... Continue Reading →