χασίκλα

[davidr]

Here's one more word from the same song. I can't tell whether it's feminine or masculine vocative. It isn't in the lyrics of the song, rather the musicians call it out to one another:

- Ω, ρε χασίκλα
- Τι είπες μωρή Μαρίκα

My one good dictionary does give χασίκλα, η but defines it using all masculine terms: "χασίκλας, μανιώδης χασισοπότης, ναρκομανής, αυτός που κάνει χρήση χασίς". So does it in fact refer to a male hash smoker and not a female? It certainly looks to me like the word means a woman who smokes hashish, but the all masculine words in the definition given in the dictionary is confusing me.

I apologize if I'm being dense here, but I want to get it right! Thank you for any help.

 

[daeman]

Μες στου Συγγρού τη φυλακή
βρίσκεις λουλά και τουμπεκί, όπλες
Έχει φίνους χασικλήδες
πού 'ναι όλοι μερακλήδες

Since the setting of the song is a prison, we can safely assume all persons in the song are male. It is (still) common in Greek to use feminine vocatives, adjectives or even names (like Μαρίκα) to address males mockingly or pejoratively, in such registers at least. This may very well be the case here.

So, not dense at all, just happened to stumble upon a peculiarity of Greek slang, where the existence of genders in nouns, adjectives, articles and pronouns is put to a use rather confusing for people not accustomed to it.:)

 

[drsiebenmal]

Hi, David,

I would say that what you have here is a case of either the m. χασίκλας or the f. χασίκλα in its vocative (κλητική) case, also evidenced by the Ω at the beginning.

For the use of the fem. χασίκλα regarding male smokers, sometimes, mostly in slang usage, the vocative form of a masculine word is used to create a new feminine word, which is then affectionately used to express admiration or universal acceptance.

Another example that comes to mind is the word παιχτούρα, η, used e.g. for excellent soccer or basketball players. This is derived from παίχτης, ο > παίχτουρας, ο (slang augmentative form) > παίχτουρα (vocat.) > παιχτούρα, η.

Similarly, χασικλής, ο > χασίκλας, ο > χασίκλα (voc.) > χασίκλα, η