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Day: July 3, 2017

Will the Greek understand what the words “philistine” and “spartan” mean in the figurative context, in Greek?

By: | Post date: 2017-07-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

I’m reiterating what my fellow Greeks are saying, but to be really really explicit: The metaphorical meaning of Philistine (Φιλισταίοι) to mean someone anti-intellectual is absent from Greek. The typical words would be άξεστος “uncouth”, χωριάτης “peasant”, (learnèd) άμουσος “un-Mused, alien to the muses”, (Turkish) χαϊβάνι “animal”. Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής says that άμουσος = […]

Why were the Ionian Greeks called the Ionians Greeks when the Sea of Ionia is on the other side of Greece?

By: | Post date: 2017-07-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Ancient Greek, Linguistics

To elaborate on Niko Vasileas’ answer and Michael Anderson’s answer: Nominative Iōn, Genitive Iōn-os, Adjective Iōn-ikos or Iōn-ios refers to the tribe of Ionians. Adjective Iŏn-ios refers to the sea, and is traditionally derived from the lover of Zeus, Io (mythology): Nominative Iō, Genitive Ious < *Iŏ-os. Io, transformed into a cow, is supposed to […]

What is the word similar to “Bingo” or “Hallelujah”, used by Greeks, in modern Greek?

By: | Post date: 2017-07-03 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: Linguistics, Modern Greek

To add some further nuances: When an interlocutor has finally understood something we’ve been hinting at—one of the contexts “Bingo!” is used in English—Greek uses α μπράβο! “Ah, well done”, with the emphasis on the “ah”. Kind of like “there you go”. More exasperated variants of “finally! at last!” (Dimitrios Michmizos’ answer) are έλεος! “Mercy!”, […]