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Day: January 3, 2016

Why do Greek people call their grandmothers “Yaya”?

By: | Post date: 2016-01-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

Because that’s the Modern Greek word for grandmother. 🙂 The Triantafyllidis dictionary gives a shrug for the etymology: Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής λ. νηπιακή: γιάγια και μετακ. τόνου για προσαρμ. στα άλλα ανισοσύλλαβα ουσ. Baby talk: yáya and accent shift to adapt to other imparisyllabic nouns Babiniotis’ dictionary gives the same shrug. The motivation is […]

What does the Greek word “malaka” mean?

By: | Post date: 2016-01-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

To elaborate on the other answers, malakas does indeed mean “masturbator”, but note that it does not have the same connotation as either American jerk < jerk off or Commonwealth wanker. A jerk and a wanker are both obnoxious, presumably because masturbation is narcissistic. A malakas is a fool, a dupe. (Cartoons will often feature […]

What does “Kata ton daimona eaytoy” mean and why does it have more than one meaning?

By: | Post date: 2016-01-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Literature

Thank you to Achilleas Vortselas for doing most of the work. The proximate source is possibly the album of Rotting Christ, as he explains. But as the Wikipedia page about the album, Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού, says, the phrase occurs on Jim Morrison’s tombstone: Jim Morrison . (The OP knew this too, if I can […]