<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Is It All Greek To You? Thank Medieval Monks, And The Bard, For The Phrase<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">July 05, 2015 6:29 PM ET<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">NPR Staff<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Listen to the Story<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">http://www.npr.org/2015/07/05/420335188/is-it-all-greek-to-you-thank-lazy-monks-and-the-bard-for-the-phrase<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All Things Considered<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">2:21<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Greek flags fly beside those of the European Union in Athens. Many people chalk the phrase up to Shakespeare, but its origins likely date back much earlier than that --€” to medieval monks eager for a cop-out.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Greek flags fly beside those of the European Union in Athens. Many people chalk the phrase up to Shakespeare, but its origins likely date back much earlier than that --€” to medieval monks eager for a cop-out.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you've been following the Greek financial crisis, you've certainly seen this old cliche in the headlines.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In USA Today, there was "If 'it's all Greek to you,' here's the skinny on debt crisis." The BBC says, "All Greek to you? Greece's debt jargon explained."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We're all guilty of it. Even NPR had "If the mess in Greece is all Greek to you, then read this."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Shakespeare lovers are well aware this phrase comes from the Bard — or, well, partly. Ben Zimmer, a language columnist for the Wall Street Journal, says that Shakespeare is probably responsible for the popularity of the phrase.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">"It appears in his play Julius Caesar," he says. "There's a character who's describing the speech of Cicero, who is a learned scholar; he actually knew Greek. But this character didn't really understand what Cicero was saying, and he says,
'For mine own part, it was Greek to me.' "<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But Shakespeare didn't actually come up with the phrase "it's all Greek to me." The phrase appeared in a translation of an Italian play decades earlier.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The EU and national flags fly in the foreground of the Parthenon, as Greek voters prepare to decide whether to continue negotiating for more international loans.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Two-Way<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If The Mess In Greece Is All Greek To You, Then Read This<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Its true origin is a bit of a mystery, though Zimmer says there's a pretty good guess. Back in the days before the printing press, medieval monks would copy old Latin manuscripts to preserve them, but the Greek alphabet threw them for a
loop.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">"And so if they were copying a Latin manuscript, and they came across a Greek quotation in a manuscript, they might have trouble actually trying to copy that part," Zimmer says. "And so as a kind of a cop-out, they might just write in Latin,
Graecum est, non legitur, which means, 'This is Greek. It cannot be read.' "<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But it seems like those medieval monks — or whoever's behind "it's all Greek to me" — were just expressing a universal human sentiment.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Zimmer says there's a version of this phrase in many languages.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">"In Finnish, you might say, 'It's all Hebrew,' " he says. "In Italian, you might say, 'This is Arabic,' or 'This is Aramaic to me.' "<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And in Greek? The expression is, "This is all Chinese to me."<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>