[Ads-l] Query: "It's (all) Greek to me"

[Wilson Gray]

Well, as a Greek friend of mine once observed, "It's (all) mathematics to
me."


On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 10:06 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Query: "It's (all) Greek to me"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Today I received a request from Wolfgang Mieder for any information=20
> on the expression "to be (all) Greek to someone," and once more I=20
> I'm forwarding the query to ads-l.  Would anyone be able to help him?
> His message appears below my signoff.
>
> Gerald Cohen =20
> ____________________________
>
> [From W. Mieder]:
>
> ...I have a quick question:
>      I am working on the expression "to be (all) Greek to someone",=20
> and I am just wondering whether by chance you might have=20
> something on it. I have already assembled numerous references from=20
> 1566 to the present, and I am also quite convinced that it had its start=20
> with the medieval Latin "Graecum est, non potest legi" and its variants.
>       There is also the useful article by Clarence L. Kalisheck, "It's
> Greek to me," Notes and Queries, 197 (1952), 274-275.
> I included it in a large bibliography that I published some thirty years
> ago (Tempus fugit, my friend):
>
> Mieder, Wolfgang. Investigations of Proverbs, Proverbial Expressions,
> Quotations and Cliches. A Bibliography of Explanatory Essays which
> Appeared in "Notes and Queries" (1849-193). Bern: Peter Lang, 1984. 420 pp.
>
>      If you don't know this book, you might find it useful for your work.
> In any case, I thought I might ask you about the "Greek"-phrase. If you
> know anybody else who might have some material for me, please let me know.
>      All the very best, and many thanks,
>
> Wolfgang
>
> --
> Prof. Wolfgang Mieder
> Department of German & Russian
> University of Vermont
> 422 Waterman Building
> 85 South Prospect St.
> Burlington, Vermont  05405
> USA
>
> E-mail: Wolfgang.Mieder at uvm.edu=
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org