What is cod-Greek?

I’ve seen other such expressions, such as cod-Latin, and cod-Spanish. Cod-Latin is a synonym of Dog Latin, a fake Latin used playfully to imitate real Latin. The Wikipedia example is

Stormum surgebat et boatum oversetebat
The storm rose up and overturned the boat

Illegitimis non carborundum is another such instance. (“Don’t let the bastards get you down.”)

Cod-Greek would similarly be fake Ancient Greek, made up with English words and vaguely Greek-looking endings.

Got any references, OP?

2 Comments

• Tim May says:

  2017-10-21 at 06:55

  You probably know this, but rendering Illegitimis non carborundum (or any of the other variants on the phrase) as “Don’t let the bastards get you down” elides half the joke; it’s “Don’t let the bastards grind you down”. Because carborundum is silicon carbide, an industrial abrasive. Hilarious, eh? Well, maybe not, but at least it’s comprehensible.

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  • Nick Nicholas says:

    2017-10-22 at 02:56

    That was obtuse of me; thanks!

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