Wednesday, February 15, 2023

A word and an idiom

One day, another resident here was trying to remember a name and asked me, "What's the name of that polyglot who lives on your floor?"  I turned to her in surprise that she used that word, which I think I've only seen in books and articles and never before heard in a conversation.  The look on my face must have made her think I hadn't a clue what she's just said, so she revised it by saying something like, "Who is that person on your floor who knows a bunch of different languages?"

pol·y·glot /ˈpälēˌɡlät / noun = a person who knows and is able to use several languages.  Example:  "My neighbor Sharon is a translator and is fluent in half a dozen languages besides English."

What does it mean when someone says, "It's all Greek to me"?  Basically, it means that "I don't understand it at all."  Dictionary.com gives this definition:
This expression was coined by Shakespeare, who used it literally in Julius Caesar (1:2), where Casca says of a speech by Seneca, deliberately given in Greek so that some would not understand it, "For mine own part, it was Greek to me."  It soon was transferred to anything unintelligible.

1 comment:

Harvee said...

I read for entertainment too, as well as to get to know how and what other people do and think, and why, according to each author. I'm also an armchair traveler and love books set in far off or remote locations and places I've never been.

Only electric stoves for me.

I'd rather fly than take a really long car ride these days.

I'm an early riser, as are you today. Have a good day and weekend!

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