It’s amazing how the Greeks managed to create one of the most complex and nuanced languages with only 24 letters. It goes to show you that more isn’t necessarily more, but neither is it necessarily less. The Germans (and German is the cognate of English, i.e. it is the root language of English), managed to achieve their linguistic complexity through the stringing together of different words. For example, the street name on which the train station is located might well be called, “Trainstationstreetonthelefthandsideofthecity”. Hence the enormously long words on street signs that drive tourists crazy in any German city.
English on the other hand takes a more complex approach, putting together words into bundles of meaning, the meaning of which isn’t necessarily transparent, e.g. “Spiritual Materialism” is the term for someone who hides his ego under a cloak of poverty and piety, as in “I’m closer to God than you are because I’m poor, devout, pious, etc.”. Just hearing the words Spiritual Materialism doesn’t necessarily tell you what it is. The Germans would just as soon have called the phenomenon, “I’mclosertogodthanyouarebecausei’mpoordevoutandpious”. But you get my drift.
The Greeks take a slightly different route, somewhere in between the two. They will string together two or three words, but the sum total of the net word is greater than its parts. One great such word that I love is: Koutoponiros. It is made up of two words:
Koutos: Dumb
Poniros: Cunning or sly
So in effect the word literally means Dumbsly. It is used to describe people who think they are sly but wind up outsmarting themselves. For example, I once had an employee who would routinely fudge his expense reports to make a few extra bucks. Our VP Finance would catch these (usually very minor transgressions like tips, or meter parking) and go ballistic. I would simply shrug my shoulders and say “Forget it”. I figure that every year he “took” the company for about $500. So every year, at bonus time, I would pay him $1500 less in bonuses than I had been authorized to pay out….just to balance the books. I’m sure to this day he smiles smugly thinking that he got away with something…not realizing that he got screwed for far more than he made off with! That is a classic example of someone who is koutoponiros [noun, male].
Of course this phenomenon is very widespread and not limited to morally challenged people like my former colleague. The world is full of people looking for a “deal” or the goods to “fall off the truck”. Almost inevitably there are few true deals and they are far between. As the Jews say: “Sevel is sevel” (junk is junk). It always pays to buy quality, stay away from status objects…and have the wisdom to know the difference. The wisdom part is the tough one!
your cousin George said:
Good post ! My fav Greek expression is “helvetopsyhos” which translates into “having the soul of a Swiss”. I’ve heard Andreas’ son, Nik, use it to describe cold people about 11 years ago. To this day, it brings a smile to my face every time I think of it.
Steve said:
Another good one! And yes, especially true if you’ve spent any time in Switzerland.
LeisureGuy said:
On, come on. I was in Switzerland and the people were laughing, warm, friendly, … oh, wait. That was Italy. 🙂
I think you may have a typo in the money amounts, but the story rings true. As you may know, being a toll collector is boring in the extreme, but you do deal in cash, so quite a few toll collectors skim a little cash.
But the statistics and tracking of toll revenue is highly sophisticated, so it’s quickly evident who is skimming and how much. The discovery is that if you allow a certain amount of skimming—say $1000 per year—it works out fine: the pay scale is adjusted to compensate, and the toll collector is motivated to stick at the job for the free money.
They do track the amount being skimmed, and if a toll collector starts taking too much, they park a police car in front of the booth for a day or two, and the skimming drops back.
A business magazine had an article on this tactic and its questionable morality. Don’t recall the resolution.
Steve said:
No typo. I would penalize him $1500 for the $500 skimming. Seemed fair since I wasn’t sure it was only $500…could have been more. Had to build in a safeguard, heh, heh!
Steve said:
Hahaha. Yes, Switzerland. I stayed at the airport Hilton with my 2 small kids and wife while in transit to Greece. They loaned us a voltage converter. Next morning we were running late for the airport bus and I forgot to return it to the check-out. They could see us struggling with our two toddlers, luggage, etc., trying to make the bus…no way…”Go back and get it” said the clerk, “or we will charge 10 Euros penalty to your credit card”. Three paradigms:
Swiss: “Go back and get it”.
USA: “Not to worry Sir, we’ll send a maid to get it”.
Greek: “Don’t worry…the next guy in the room will probably need it”.
And adding insult to injury, in all my travels around the world (Malaysia, Israel, Denmark, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, etc.), the only place I ever got robbed was in Switzerland! My briefcase stolen from between my legs while I was at a payphone at the train station!!!!
LeisureGuy said:
I think you would greatly enjoy the movie Bread and Chocolate. Hilarious and touching.
Steve said:
I’ll get it. Thanks.