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It is a marvellous quote and I am so grateful for the promptness and quality of your replies. I need not say more. I have loved Kazantzakis as soon as I read him in English but I think I am now able to cope with his Greek original. I think his appeal to me is that he captures the soul not only...

What is the origin and meaning of this saying? I can translate it but the articles I can find about this common phrase are a little obscure to me. There is a helpful article in slang.gr on the saying but I don’t find the Greek easy to understand. This is a saying which clearly has a long...

Here is the full quote of which I should like the Greek original:- “There is a kind of flame in Crete - let us call it "soul" - something more powerful than either life or death. There is pride, obstinacy, valor, and together with these something else inexpressible and imponderable, something...

Thanks for the information and very useful link, cougr!🙏

BTW, I can’t find what "Άσ' τα αξεκαθάριστα means. The adjective αξεκαθάριστος eludes my searches. Is it a common adjective in this phrase? Why isn’t it in my lexicons? Thanks in advance for the answer.

Thanks, ‘Man! The first lesson I was taught by my strict father, an English Classicist and an Anglican priest, was the myth of the god Momus! When you criticise others by pointing an accusatory finger in their direction is that the other fingers are pointing towards you! I always value...

I suppose I should mention, since ‘Man said ‘Με κάθε σεβασμό’, which in English always implies ‘with no respect (to you)’, that I am passing tacit judgement on these offenders since I have access to the facts from relatives working in the police who were advised not to disclose the details to...

Thanks, ‘Man, for the proverb, which is highly quotable and, with the pertinent observation from ο Δούκας μας, it is not doomed and destined for the dustbin of clichés. And to cougr for his usual and always appreciated help😊

Apparently first used by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham as applied to governance. I think the British politician Gordon Brown popularised the term and when I first heard him use the words I was heartened: at last: a rallying cry of the people and its governments to turn from secrecy...

Two more words for my armoury! Thanks, Marinos and cougr. 😃

So apotropaics both with μη σου τύχοι being the stronger. Thanks for all the time you have spent on my behalf! I am so grateful for all the efforts of colleagues. 🙏

Thanks for all these, AoratiMelani! All the negatives as well.

Thanks, m_a_a! We often use it in a negative sense,which I should have mentioned. Here is an example:- In 1944, Hal Boyle wrote in his column, Leaves From a War Correspondent's Notebook that in England, «You don't say someone gives you a pain in the neck. You just remark 'He's not my cup of...

Two interesting points to this phrase are, first, this use of ‘now’ as a discourse particle, here surely not τώρα and, second, the modern Greek idiom for ‘a cup of tea’ , δηλ. " in the metaphorical sense when a ‘cup of tea’ is used to describe something that someone enjoys or finds appealing...

I so much appreciate, m_a_a, your extended note on the varied meanings and nuances of τσιμπάω! It makes the verb’s general meaning easy to grasp in all contexts, in cluding of course, slang. The English ‘gas-guzzler’ with the corresponding Greek φαγάνα or ρουφήχτρα are transferred usages of...

Answers to my queries keep on coming! There is more and more to ‘read, mark learn and inwardly digest’ from learned colleagues! Just one query from all this excellent information:- μου τσιμπάει τα λαδάκια. No dictionary, whether slang or otherwise, has this idiom for ‘to burn oil’. Nor could I...

Thanks for all this, ambrosia! It contains not only the literal meanings but also the figurative meaning of the verb ύπονομεύω δηλ. κρυφά και δόλια για να βλάψω κάποιον as it is used in Hamlet ‘to ‘hoist with his own petard’. 😀

BTW in pontios’s greyscale writing this dialogue occurs:- Καλημέρα όλη μέρα. Τι επίθεση αυτή χωρίς καν προειδοποίηση; Μοντιέ, πορκουά; [ πουρκουά?] - το σανβουαρ είναι σαν ένας συνδυασμός του "χωρις δεύτερη σκέψη" και του "ενστικτωδώς", σχεδόν λειτουργεί σαν ιμπρεσιονιστικά/at first glance -...

There is such a wealth of information here, which I shall work through diligently. I thank everybody for their contributions and cannot single out anyone for special praise, except cougr for his translations. I thought it was a simple question but nothing on lexilogia is simple! But if Theseus...

Sorry about the accent. Σάνβουαρ appears to be the best accentuation, m_a_a. I was careless. The phrase seems to be used as στάνταρ(τ) is in some ways in the sense of σιγούρα. The reference I gave at https://www.slang.gr/lemma/15148-sanbouar is worth looking at, although I found the examples...