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In this EASY GREEK video, which is about ‘the first 50+ Greek words beginners should know’ at at approximately 8:12 the two actors are in a restaurant where the one with a shock of black hair says to the close-shaven one ‘The food here is no good; it’s better over there’. He goes to the place...

No pardon needed! The discussion is very fascinating. Off topic posts are perhaps my speciality! Earion’s image of the ‘Athonite’ gods is interesting. i’m glad I asked for translations of this phrase! Thanks to all.

Thanks for the definitions, m_a_a! I was perhaps misled by the fact that some etymologists derive the Turkish fidan from the ancient Greek φυτόν, which has derivatives in many languages. This from Wiktionary:- Descendants Greek: φυτό n (fytó) → Catalan: -fit → English: phyto-, -phyte → Irish...

Thank for all contributions and examples. I found in my notebook, from wordreference greek, κακός μπέλας,/παλιάνθρωπος,/κάθαρμα/παλιοτόμαρο and τομάρι. But I prefer καλό φρούτο, but it has connotations of the English ‘weirdo with overtones of sociopathic behaviour. This interesting note is from...

Καλό φυντάνι is used in the latest transcript and video of EASY GREEK and is translated as ‘a fine piece of work’ i.e, ‘an unpleasant, difficult and in this context, a nasty person’. The note explains the word as meaning ‘a seedling’ but metaphorically as someone young and unexperienced. Also...

I like both of them: after all, Longinus’s work on the sublime was Περί Ύψους. So either alternative using the same word he did. Thanks, Nickel!

Sorry for the misunderstanding I too get irascible with auto-correct: Theseus, The stud, indeed, still…..😱

Tripe soup, after liver, garlic and onions! I wish I’d stayed at home!! Πατσάς might be a good remedy for hangovers but I’d stick with my Amstel and lashings of τσικουδιά from my own καζάνι….

I missed thanking you for this. A belated thanks!🙏

Χαχαχαχα, Κ! It is onions and garlic for me that call forth that μπλιαχ 🤢.

Thanks again, cougr. I don’t think in my original thread that I meant to criticise the Olympian gods’ frivolity but I did compare theirs with ours. They are immortal: we are mortal. We are flesh and blood: they have supernatural flesh (Plato implies they are spiritual) and ichor flows through...

Thanks, all for their very helpful comments and suggestions. As is now the case in England and America several mums or moms use the same slang phrases as their children. I have heard young colleagues in teaching, both male and female, who use words like ‘cool/ wicked/ dude’ to appear to their...

Blessed I-don't-give-a-toss! Not literary but fits the bill! Thanks, m_a_a!

Thanks, Νωβελίσσιμε! Also interesting and a relevant citation. The gods of Rome are not the same as the gods of Ancient Greece, despite attempts to identify the two. Reading Virgil is an entirely different experience from reading Homer. ‘Sublimely frivolous’ is not, in my opinion, applicable to...

What would we do without cougr! Thanks yet again. The idea of transcendence and sublimity is difficult to render into many languages! It can be described and hinted at by our poets. The Romans called it numen. Rudolf Otto in his book ‘The idea of the Holy’ described it as mysterium tremendum ac...

Karl Reinhardt in a memorable phrase about the Greek gods in Homer’s Iliad talks of them as displaying—in a wonderful oxymoron--‘a sublime frivolity—ein erhabener Unernst”.The gods are a paradox of great beauty and excellence whilst also being light-hearted and spontaneous, not caring about...

Thanks again, cougr!

Thanks, as ever, cougr! BTW is there a Greek interjection for the sound you make when being sick? Μπλίαχ;🤢

I have just heard someone, prominent in the Roman Catholic Church describing Pope Francis watching a dance performed in front of the late Pope with a priest in a cassock and a nun kicking their legs in the air as ‘a cringefest’. Any ideas as well as my last post!!

Truly brilliant, nickel. Believe you me, I have made many attempts to translate poems into Latin, Ancient Greek and Scottish Gaelic, but they have been attempts and, like all such efforts, often unsatisfactory to the translator. Thank you too from me. This is why I love this forum. So many...