Kaliarda XXXIII: The Context of Kaliarda

A number of Kaliarda words contain allusions to contemporary or older history and literature; Kaliarda speakers were clearly well-read:

aɣiosaviatiko

crab (Agios Savvas’ cancer hospital; Greek karkinos “cancer” and Latin cancer both originally mean “crab”)

vavelo

someone knowing foreign languages < Babel

varavotekno

criminal: “Barabbas child”

venizeloðosmeni

Constantinople: “given away by Venizelos”

ɣerako

bracelet: from the folk song Gerakina, with the chorus “drung drung drung, her bracelets clang”; ftinoɣerakines “cheap bracelets” are handcuffs

ɣi eliniki

soldier: “Greek soil”

juðas

policeman, informant, spy: “Judas”. Hence juðu “Judas chick” = “police”, juðaðiko “Judas shop” = “Ministry of Public Order”; juðaro = “to betray”

ɡodoafiona

religion: “God opium” (Marx: “Religion is the opium of the people”)

etruska

Kaliarda: “Etruscan”

zuzunosailok

ant: “bug Shylock” (i.e. thrifty insect)

ilioɣaza

light: “sun gauze” (according to Petropoulos, from Varnalis‘ verse “O saffron-coloured gauze of dawn”)

iraklopriko

spices: “woman dowry” (spices used to be expensive enough to use as dowry)

iexoviazo

refuse to bear arms: “to Jehovah” (Jehovah’s Witnesses were the best known class of conscientious objectors)

kazeini

malicious gossip; tuberculosis: “casein” (strong glue: gossip and TB both stick to someone)

keaðas

brothel: “Kaiadas, the gorge where Spartans threw their disabled children”

kaliostraro

to enchant (18th century magician Cagliostro)

kameliodona

tuberculosis (allusion to Alexandre Dumas fils’ La Dame aux Camélias, whose protagonist died of TB)

katelanos

tough man: “Catalan”, from the persistent negative memories in Attica of the 14th century Catalan Company, which Petropoulos indicates had been revived in Athens as a gang name

kukuvaɣia

undercover policeman: “owl” (nighttime bird, and regarded as foreboding death); also Ancient Greek ɣlauks and derived ɣlaukos

katsikes

left-hand: “goatish”, and provates right-hand: “sheepish”: from Matthew 25:33 “And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.”

kerveru

trustworthy, trust: “Cerberus”. Hence kerveropuros “Cerberus old man” = “trustworthy” and kerverotekno “Cerberus twink” = “trustworthy young man”

kuasimoda

hunchback: “Quasimodo”

lanaradzis

worker: Lanaras factory, or lanari “carder”

libro d oro

police record: Libro D’Oro, the catalogue of Venetian nobility

luivraxnos

radio announcer: “Louis hoarse”, alluding to marathon runner Spyros Louis (so someone who talks as fast as Louis ran, and who is hoarse). The proverbial expression “become Louis” = “disappear by running fast” survives today.

markomixelu

madness: from Markomichelakis’ clinic in Neo Faliro

bairaktarizo

to punish (Bairaktaris, the notorious police chief of Athens)

bairon

polite, well-dressed, well-bred gay: Lord Byron; also filelinas “Philhellene”, which is how Byron is known in Greece

bakoloneslonakis

admiral: “ship Nelson guy”

batistakis

butler: Battista is a stereotypical Italian butler name

biskototekno

supporter of dictator Papadopoulos (from Papadopoulos biscuit factory)

blakis buropombonaris

Louis Armstrong: “black player of brass/wind instrument”

boðoseika

public toilet: from Bodosakis fertiliser company

nemroði

hunting: “Nimrod”

davelakis

criminal: robber Christos Davelis (died in 1856, remained renowned in folklore) (But davelo also means “to take” in Kaliarda.)

doɣis

deceased friend: “Doge”

okioluis

hare: “ears Louis”, alluding to marathon runner Spyros Louis (so someone who runs as fast as Louis, and has big ears). The proverbial expression “become Louis” = “disappear by running fast” survives today.

oktaris

member of parliament: “eight-er” (allusion to salary of 8000 drachmas a month)

oriental

luxurious, magnificent

piuso

bread, from epiousios “daily, supersubstantial” in the Lord’s Prayer (“Give us this day our daily bread”). Hence piusopuros “bread old-man = baker”, piusotrima “bread shavings = flour”, piusotsarðo “bread hut = bakery”

posiðonitsa

twenty drachma coin: “little Poseidon chick” (Poseidon being depicted on the twenty drachma coin between the World Wars)

puki

fairy: “Puck” (formerly rendered in Greek translations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream orthographically as Puk, now rendered phonetically as Pak)

rampa tu mola

Karagiozis, shadow puppetry: “Mollas’ Stage”, alluding to Karagiozis-puppeteer Antonis Mollas (1871–1949)

renotsarðoruna

gendarme: “queen hut cop”, since the palace was guarded by gendarmes

rovespakis

republican < Robespierre; hence rovespu “republic”

rozorovespakis

communist: “red republican, red Robespierre”

sailokiazo

to be a miser < Shylock; sailakumba “Shylock put-down [money]” = “money deposit”; sailokoboksas “Shylock bundle” = “jewelry box”; sailokopuro “Shylock old man” = “old miser”, sailokotsarðo “Shylock hut” = “Postal Savings Bank”; sailotezoriazo “to Shylock treasure = “to save up”

siðeromol tu lui

express train: “Louis steam engine”, alluding to marathon runner Spyros Louis (so a train which runs as fast as Louis ran).

skrudzo

miser: Scrooge

solonakis

prudent, wise: “little Solon”

dzasrovespakis

fascist: “away with republicans” (Robespierre)

dzidzis, dzidzikis

carefree, bohemian: “grasshopper”, from Aesop’s tale of the Ant and the Grasshopper

fariso

hypocrite: “pharisee”

fula

fat prostitute: proper name Foula; Petropoulos proposes as its referent the wife of Dimitris Athanasopoulos, who murdered him in 1931 in a notorious criminal case

frosaropuri

shrew, malicious woman: “Frossard old woman”, Frossard being the protagonist of Les Deux Orphelines (1875) by Adolphe d’Ennery

xitleropulo

goose: “Hitler bird” (alluding to goose-stepping, and punning on similarity to mainstream xina “goose”)

xristomol

vinegar: “Christ drink” (since Christ was given vinegar to drink on the cross)

*nifokukula

Turkish coffee: “bride hood” (allusion unknown, unless this is an allusion to the comical coinage nifokokozomon “sober bean juice” in the play Babel (1836), satirising in that instance pedantry)

*dzas dzuzis

Adolf Hitler: “away Jesus” = “Antichrist”

Some Kaliarda words involve derogatory attitudes towards other social groups. (Shared oppression has not traditionally led to notions of allyship—although the Roma do appear to have been exempted from venom, with the benign tsinganoromvia “Gypsy barrel organ = tambourine”:

ketseðomura

ugly old woman “felt face”

koen-sapuni

pogrom, persecution of Jews: “Cohen soap” (from the notion that Nazis made soap from Jewish corpses)

lakirovizu

TV anchorwoman: “speech boobs”

marioneta

paraplegic: “puppet”

olio koen

soap: “Cohen oil” (from the notion that Nazis made soap from Jewish corpses)

teknoxavro

crowd, jostling: “child synagogue” (mainstream Greek uses xavra “synagogue” < Hebrew chavurah to refer to jostling)

Geographic terms, referring to ethnicities or locations, are also often derogatory:

aðerfoxori

London: “sissy-ville” (from the reputation the UK had in the 1960s as a pioneer of gay rights)

asprokoli

Acropolis: “white-arsed” (soundalike)

vlaxoxilari

from Rumeli (Central Greece, mountainous): “hillbilly [Sir Edmund] Hillary”

vrakokopeli

Cretan: “breeches kid” (breeches are Cretan traditional dress; kopeli is Cretan for “lad, kid”)

ɣermanoɡreka

Syntagma Square, tourist haven: “German Greek”

ɡrekoturkemenos

Anatolian Greek: “Greek turned Turk”

ɣrekokaθiko

Athens: “Chamberpot of Greece” (Athens is in a geographic basin)

zimarosolinas

Italian: “dough tube guy” (i.e. pasta)

turkual, ismir-turkual

grotesque oriental jewelry: “(Izmir) turquoise”, with turquoise distorted to look even more like “Turkish”

ismir-patsul

heavy cheap perfume: “Izmir patchouli”

kanulu

Omonia Square: “Waterjet chick” (from the fountain there)

karaɡunotsarða

Thessaly: “Karagounides huts” (Karagounides were the farming population of Western Thessaly)

karamarmaru

Athens Stadium: “Marble (augmentative) chick”

karamudzu

[cis female] prostitute: “pussy (augmentative) chick”

katsikaðeros

from Rumeli (Central Greece); katsikaðero (neut): hillbilly, rustic < “goatish” (cf. Koutsavakika vlaxaðero “hillbilly” < vlaxos “Vlach; hillbilly”)

kuelorosola

Klafthmonos (“Lamenter”) Square: “tears”; the square was in fact named so for the protests of civil servants who were fired each elections—the square used to be the site of the Finance Ministry

marmaro-aθlopatsia

Athens Stadium: “marble athletics-square” = “marble stadium”

misofesu

Thrace: “half fez” (i.e. half-Turkish)

blakobubulo

black race: “black crowd”; xionobuluko white race: “white crowd”

musandopalikaru

Crete: “fake brave place” (from Cretan pride in their bravery)

mudzotopos

Paris: “Cunt-ville” (renowned for beautiful women, opposed to London)

deska

Germany < Italian tedesco “German”

kseroskatu

Epirus: “dry [your own] shit place” (proverbial attribute of misers, who would dry their own shit to eat as rusks later)

pitsun siti

Peristeri (“Dove”), suburb of Athens: Italian piccione “pigeon” + English city

protopresvira

Thessalonica: “First Elderwoman”, because the archbishop of Thessalonica is addressed as His All-Holiness, like the Patriarch of Constantinople is

renoɣlastra

Athens Royal Gardens: “Queen’s Flowerpot”

romanas

Roma, Gypsy; romano kilibe was a kind of belly dance done by gays in their tavernas

simito

Epirus: Bagelland (from proverbial notion that newborn boys in Epirus are slapped on the neck and told “may you be a bagel-seller in Constantinople”, άντε και στην Πόλη σιμιτζής)

sfazofesas

Armenian: “massacred by fezes (= Turks)”

terogamila

Central Greece: “land camel” (because it is mountainous)

teromudza

Peloponnese: “land moudza” (insulting gesture with spread palm)

dzinavotopos

London: “in-the-know (i.e. gay) place”

dzordzis o kavalitos

Lycabettus Hill: “George (English) the rider”, after the church of St George there and the rhyme of “rider” with Lycabettus.

tiraxosevas

Sevastakis shoe store: “Shoe Sevas(takis)”

tiraxostoun

Petridis shoe store: “Shoe Stone” (Petridis < Petros “Peter” is derived from petra “stone”)

turistovraxos

Hydra, Mykonos (often), Spetses (occasionally): “tourist rock”

turistofaka

The Acropolis: “tourist trap”

turkokutrukelo

Smyrna, Izmir: “Turk ?”

faflatoθalasoskatas

Cretan: “poltroon sea shit”

felaxoblakoskinis

black: “fellah black skin”

fesas

Turk: “fez wearer”; fesovakuli “Turkish church” = “mosque”

fterokapakis

Italian: “feather cap”, referring to the uniform of bersaglieri and other units in the Italian army

xionu kustoðia

white race: “(snow-)white guard”

*adzemakis

Persian < adzemis < Turkish acem

*grandabota

Italy: “big boot” (from the shape of the country)

Petropoulos said there were around forty words for gay (bottom) in Kaliarda; this is what I found:

anemi

mincing gay: “spinning wheel”

anemomilos

mincing gay: “windmill”

vlaxodana

provincial gay: “hillbilly whore”

ɣiðoteknosintiriti

provincial gay: “upkept by goat children”

ðiapompu

gay surrounded by young men: “publicly ridiculed”

ðiskos

switch: “LP record” (having two sides)

epitafios

gay surrounded by well-dressed young men: “Epitaphios” (funeral procession ritual on Good Friday, when churchgoers put on their best clothes and walk around the church)

zuɡlolubina

out gay: “jungle queer”

kapa

gay, from kappa, first letter of kori “maiden”

karalubu, karalubo

malicious gay: “queer (augmentative)”

kek

uninitiated young boy, courted by a top: “cake”

kluva

street quean: “police van”

kotula

young top who occasionally is a bottom: “young chicken”

kof mesik

notorious gay < kofa < kufala “hollow” (i.e. “slut”, of woman) + me sik “chic”

krifi

closeted gay: “hidden”

krotalo

street quean: “noise chick” (she is accompanied by outcry)

laterna

made-up gay: “barrel organ” (because barrel organs were heavily ornamented)

leði

bottom: “Lady” (as title of British nobility)

lubina

gay < Romani lubhni “whore”; variants: luba, lubesko, lubunia, lubo

misoɣunu

gay who has done hair removal: “half fur chick”

modernotekno

young gay: “modern (= anal sex) child”

bairon

polite, well-dressed, well-bred gay: Lord Byron; also filelinas “Philhellene”, which is how Byron is known in Greece

bidzanu

starving gay

dovas

hated and repulsive gay

kseskismeni, kseskistra

street quean: “ripped apart woman” (referring to sex)

ksefonismeni

poor gay: “shouted down”

plen lubinia

notorious gay: “full queer”

sikia

gay: “fig tree” (derogatory mainstream Greek term)

siko

underage gay: “fig” i.e. immature counterpart of sikia “fig tree” = “gay”

tarafoluba, tarafolubesko

out gay, clearly initiated gay: “guild queer”

teknitsa

young girl; young gay, twink: diminutive of tekno “child; twink”

dzazkarabazu

mincing gay: “unscrewed”

ipsometru

provincial gay: “altitude” (alluding to them being from the mountains)

fiongos

bottom presenting like a top: < dzidzifiongos “dandy”, lit. “pretty ribbon”; having sex with a bottom presenting like a top is called “binding a ribbon” (ðanteliazo, ðeno, avelo fionɡo)

fransi

gay: French français “French”?

psoraðerfi

poor gay: “louse sissy”

*karabines

outrageous gay: “queer (augmentative)”

*lutrokabines

gay owner of an apartment: “toilet and bath” (from wording of to-let notices)

*neroxitis

gay employee of straight brothel: “kitchen sink”

*damdelari

gay cruising the streets: French dame de la rue “lady of the streets”

*ksekoliθra

horny gay: “arse-out socket”

These are the remaining words to deal with sex and sexuality that I have gathered:

atmokavlu

steam bath, Turkish baths: “steam horny”

afroðito, karafroðito

prostitute < Aphrodite, afroðisios “venereal” (kara- “augmentative”)

adzinavoto feɣi

third gender (in the 60s, referred to the conflation of homosexuality and trans gender): “unknown leaf” (pun on feɣi < French feuille “leaf”, Greek φύλλο, used for its homonym φύλο “gender”)

axarnoeleni

old prostitute: “Helen of Acharnon St”

vatikano

gay brothel: “Vatican”

vekogrekiotiki partuza

switching in gay sex: “Ancient Greek gangbang”

vromadroðo

syphilis: “stinking venereal”

ɣamias tis pinas

pimp: “hunger fucker”

ɡazoza, ɡaza

enema: “lemonade”

ɡazozu

nurse, maid in brothel: “enema chick”

ɡuniota

lesbian < French?

ðelta

vagina: “delta”

ðiakopes sto portofino

stay at Syngrou hospital for venereal diseases: “holiday at Portofino”

ðiplo batimani

lifting legs during sex; sexually experienced gay: “double battement” (ballet move involving lifting one leg); batimaro is “to kick”

ektrosi

anal douche after sex: “abortion”

elko-afroðo

syphilis: “ulcer venereal”

iraklota

“feminine”: supine, face up

kalderimi tis xaras

cruising by top: “cobbled street of joy”

kaloɣeroɣlikes

horniness: “monk’s sweetness”

kaloɣerokendima

masturbation: “monk piercing”

kapiazo

to feel up < kapi “spoon” (English cup?); kutalia “spooning” means the same in both Kaliarda and Koutsavakika

normal

“normal”: prone, face down

karafroðitobaro

venereal disease: “prostitute penis”

karafroðitostasi

period: “prostitute pause”

karafroðitotsarðo

brothel: “prostitute hut”

katsikano

female breast < katsika “goat”

kavlokunimata

thrusting of top during sex: “erection moves”

kavlomaɣnitis

sex appeal: “erection magnet”

kavlomaksilaro

vagina: “erection pillow”

kavlopipilo

female breast: “erection suckling”

kelebia

condom: “jellabiya” (Arabic robe)

kontra-pombon

69: “opposite blowjob”

kumunoskeli

period: “commie thighs”

kupobeles

eunuch: “cut testicles”

kuraveltozumo

sperm: “fuck juice”

kuraveltopuriazo

to be impotent: “fucking old-man”

kurunes

cockteasing: “crow”

krevatoðeksiosi

night-long anal sex: “bed reception”

kolotsitono

to have forceful anal sex: “arse stretch”

laxaniazozumo

sperm: “panting juice”

lukia

slut (not whore): “Lucy”; possibly related to Koutsavakika luki “drainpipe = anus”

madam ɡu

lesbian < guniota

matiazo

to peep (in standard Greek: to single out something by glancing)

modernizo

to have anal sex: “to be modern”

modernosixliazo

to become impotent: “to shrivel while being modern (= having anal sex)”

munopasxa

period: “cunt Easter” (which in Greece features red easter eggs)

musandoperno

to flirt: “to fake take (= have sex)”

musandopasas

sexual aggressor: “fake pasha”

mudzokontratempo

deflowering: “cunt pressure”

mudzomusafiru

service staff at brothel: “cunt guest chick” (because she is a guest at the brothel, rather than core staff)

mudzotsarðo

brothel: “cunt hut”

bagazi

bulge in pants: “baggage”

bamia

small penis: “okra”

barosimo

venereal disease: “sickness stamp” (allusion to stickiness of VD)

beliera

jockstrap: “testicle holder”

bulkume, purkume

sperm, ejaculation

bulkumeðotsarðo

brothel: “sperm hut”

brateliazo

to feel up < bratelo “hand” (cf. mainstream Greek vazo xeri “to put hand” = “ibid.)

naziazo

to have sex < nazi “flirt, coquettish behaviour”

dap

masturbation (older Kaliarda: to beat up)

dezaro, avelo dezi

to be horny, dezi “desire, horniness” < deziraro “to desire”

dezoðikeliazo

to peep: “horny looking”

dezolaxtaras

sadist: “horny yearner” (only in the masculine)

dezobula

penis wart: “horny ball”

dezodupu

masochist: “horny beating chick” (only in the feminine)

dezoplenis

sensuous: “horny full”

dezoxorxora

idiosyncracy (= fetish, kink?): “horny fire”

desapote sermelia

penis without foreskin: “uncovered penis” (lit. “hatless” < French de + chapeau)

perno

to have sex as passive partner: “to take (someone)”; hence *parθikame “we were taken” = “I was fucked”

paketo

bulge in pants: “package”

parateri

(cis) woman: “redundant” (to gay relationships)

parke

blowjob: “parquet, flooring”

partuza

group sex (now mainstream Greek) < French partouse

pentikosti

married woman (or gay man): “Pentecost” (originally: fiftieth [day]), by analogy with mainstream slang sarakosti “Lent” (originally: fortieth [day]), used with the same meaning, alluding to Lent being a period of deprivation

piasman, piasmande, piastiko

groping: < piasimo “holding”

pipiloɣamulis

tender lover: “darling fuck” (lit. “suckling fuck”)

pipiloɣatulis

tender lover: “darling kitten”

plejaro dap

to masturbate: “to play wank”

plenobeles

horny: “full testicles”

pombon

blowjob < bon-bon “lolly”; pombino frape “ibid.”

pulomusafiro

enema: “anal guest”

presvia

public urinal: “embassy”. “Embassy of the United Arab Republic” = “Athens Town Hall public toilet”; “Embassy of Great Britain” = “Syntagma Square public toilet”, named for the Grande Bretagne Hotel nearby; “Embassy of Free States” = “Field of Mars public toilet”; “Embassy of the United States” = “Omonia Square public toilet”.

ruzoskelo

period: “red legs”

sarmela, semelia, sermela, mela, melitsa

penis

sarmelozumo

sperm: “penis juice”

sarmeloxamoɣelo

coitus: “penis smile”

sarmuta

female prostitute: Koutsavakika: “fat woman”

safrans tuzur

the twink has come looking for money: Pseudo-French

semelonome

to get married to a man: “to be dicked”

semnaðerfi

lesbian: “modest sister”

sividzilu, sividzo, dzivdzilu

lesbian < dziv dziv

dziv dziv

lesbian sex: probably onomatopoeic

soloflokiazo

to masturbate: “to cum solo”

spanokukula

condom: “beardless hood”

sikafra

cancer, syphilitic ulcer: “fig (= faggot) venereal”

sfera

small penis: “bullet”

teknadzu

someone into twinks (fem., with queer referent); has passed into mainstream Greek, as woman into toyboys, cougar

teknokalierɣistra

sperm: “child cultivator”

teknorokanadzis

“pederast”, top: “chews twinks”

teknodezopsino

to deprave, to lead into prostitution; “child horniness bake”

tekno tis violetas

client of gay prostitutes: “money twink”

dzasaro flokia

to ejaculate immediately: “to expel sperm”

dzinavokosmos

gay community: “in-the-know world”

dzinavopoltos

vaseline: “in-the-know (i.e. gay) jelly”

dzinavoxirokrotis

gay ally: “applauder of those in-the-know (i.e. gay)”

dzus-pulomusafirizome

to cleanse one’s anus of sperm: “to drive away the anal guest”

turloliɣuris

top: “longing for the swollen” (i.e. anus)

tutafe

hedonist < French tout à fait “absolutely”

tutu, tuta, tutuka

small penis: “whistle” (nursery word)

tremozumo

sperm: “trembling juice”

trombies

thrusting motions of top during sex: “pumping”

tsapela

someone whose anus is tense: “string of dried figs”

fakiropipiza

erect penis: “snake charmer flute”

feɣi de roza

anus: French feuille de rose “rose petal; analingus” (cf. rosebud)

fistiki

small penis: “peanut”

floki

sperm < “lint”

fsi fsol

coitus: onomatopoeic, possibly influenced by German Ficki-Ficki

fotoɣenia

bulge in pants: “photogenic”

xorxoriazo

to be horny, to burn with desire: “to be on fire”

psamoskelu

horny: “excited thighs”

psixotraɣopuros

top: “soul priest”; Koutsavakika psixopapas has the same meaning

psolaraɣma

vagina: “dick haven”

psolovrondi

masturbation: “dick beating”

*aðerfomana

supporter of gays: “sissy mother”

*lamno

to fuck: “to row”

*sapo

glans: French chapeau “hat”

*suɣlaro

to fuck enthusiastically: “to skewer”

*dzivanostasio

hangout for effeminate gays: “in-the-know station”

*sfraɣiðiazo

to have a permanent relationship: “to be sealed”