Greek metaphorical phrases

 

Greek metaphorical phrases

Today we will talk about the most popular metaphorical phrases we use to make our speech more vivid, more beautiful. Let’s see first of all the meaning of 2 very important words for today’s lesson.

Κυριολεξία/Literalism and μεταφορά/metaphor. When we use the words with their literal meaning we say that we talk literally, when we don’t use the words with their literal meaning we talk metaphorically. Let’s see an example to understand what is a metaphor.

Φοράω χρυσά σκουλαρίκια/ “I wear gold earrings”. I use the word gold to tell you of what  material my earrings are made, but when I say that Ο Γιώργος έχει χρυσή καρδιά/George has a gold heart, of course I don’t mean that his heart is of gold, but that he has a very good heart, that he has a very good character.

Now that we understood what is a metaphor, let’s see the most popular phrases. The metaphorical phrases like the similes that we learned in the former lesson will help you to understand the Greeks better and to speak better.

So we said that when someone is very good, we say that he has a gold heart. Also we can say Χρυσό παιδί ο Γιώργος/“George is a gold guy”. Again it means that George has a good character. If we are talking about a woman we can say Χρυσή κοπέλα η Παναγιώτα./“Panagiota is a gold girl”. The adjective χρυσός-χρυσή-χρυσό /gold is often used in metaphorical phrases because of the economic importance of this material.

Let’s see a new metaphor. When we want to say that someone is very rich we say that τρώει με χρυσά κουτάλια/he eats with gold spoons.

Many metaphorical phrases we use with the word δόντι/“tooth” as well. For example: Ήλιος με δόντια/sun with teeth. Of course we don’t mean that the sun has teeth. It is a metaphor used very often at winter when it is sunny but the temperature is very law.

When we say Πονάει το δόντι του Γιώργου/“George’s tooth hurts” we mean that he has to go to the dentist, but when we say Πονάει το δοντάκι του /“his little tooth hurts” it means that he is interested in a woman. It is usually about a phrase we use about someone who is in love but he doesn’t admit his feelings. Έχει δύο μήνες που χώρισαν, αλλά ακόμη πονάει το δοντάκι της/“it’s two months since they broke up, but still her little tooth hurts”, so she still cares about him.

The food that has much salt we say that it is salty, but when you live in Greece also a price can be salty. Ωραίο είναι το σπίτι, αλλά η τιμή του είναι πολύ αλμυρή/“the house is beautiful but the price is quite salty/expensive”

When we learn bad news and we are disappointed we say Πέφτω από τα σύννεφα/“I fall from the clouds”. Of course I cannot literally fall from the clouds but I use the phrase to emphasize that I feel disappointed.

Let’s go to the next metaphorical phrase. George says η μαμά μου κόβει το ψωμί σε φέτες/“my mom slices the bread” and he speaks literally, but his mom, as every Greek mom who feels super proud because she believes that she gave birth to Einstein says Κόβει το μυαλό του γιου μου/“my son’s brain cuts”. When we say that someone’s mind cuts we mean that he is smart.

When we want to say to someone that we are listening carefully to what he is telling, that we are interested in the topic he is talking about, we can sat κρέμομαι από τα χείλη σου/“I am hanging from your lips”. Contrariwise when we talk to someone and we understand that he doesn’t listen to us we usually say to him πού ταξιδεύει ο νους σου;/“where is your mind travelling?”. With this way we ask him what is he thinking about.

When we speak literally we say that a dove flies, but we can also use the verb to πετάω/fly metaphorically too. When I want to say that I am very happy, we say πετάω από τη χαρά μου/ “I am flying because of my happiness”.

The αηδόνι/nightingale is a very beautiful bird that sings with a unique way. This is why when someone has a very good voice, either if he is a singer or not, we say that είναι αηδόνι/he is a nightingale.

The child that is very mischievous we say that είναι θηρίο/it is a beast and the good and quiet child είναι αρνί/ is a lamb. He who is very light/he has a few kg, we say that είναι πούπουλο/he is a feather.

Normally we say that μασάμε την τροφή μας/we chew our food. When we say that someone chews his words/ μασάει τα λόγια του, we mean that he doesn’t speak clearly, that he tries to hide something.

Someone eats his food but when you are a Greek you also eat wood. Tρώω ξύλο/I eat wood means that someone beats me. Also for someone who is too jealous we say that the jealousy is eating him/τον τρώει η ζήλια, so he is so jealous that he harms himself.