Green horses
More Greek etymological madness!
There is a saying in modern Greek, πράσινα άλογα (prásina álogha), which literally means “green horses”. It is usually added to the end of a sentence to show that something is crazy, unbelievable, foolish and to express disbelief for a statement.
i.e «Είπε ότι θα είναι πάντα στην ώρα του από δω και στο εξής και πράσινα άλογα»
(“He said he will always be on time from now on and green horses”)
The sentence indicates that the person has not stopped being late or that there is disbelief expressed that this person has the ability to even start trying being on time.
Why green horses though? How did this come to be?
Interestingly, no, it was not formed as a concept due to the inherent improbability of a horse being green. It originally had nothing to do with horses, let alone green ones.
The phrase originates from the ancient «πράσσειν άλογα» (prásin álogha) which means “acting thoughtlessly”.
The sound similarity between πράσσειν (prásin, acting) and πράσινα (prásina, green) is entirely incidental. The άλογα (álogha, thoughtlessly / horses) is on the contrary the same word! You see, the “official” Greek word for horse is ίππος (hippos or ippos). However, all animals were often called in ancient and especially medieval times as άλογα, from the negative α- and the noun λόγος which means logic, reason. Therefore animals were called álogha, beings without logic. The more the language evolved the word started describing horses more specific until in modern Greek it became the standard word for horse, overcoming ίππος by a long shot.
The phrase was surviving throughout in some way or another, however now the meaning of άλογα was getting enriched (it still also means “thoughtlessly”). Simultaneously, the infinitive «πράσσειν» was slowly fading, especially because its other lexical variant «πράττειν» (prátin, also means acting) was more popular and its verb is still used in its -t- variant nowadays.
So as πράσσειν was gradually becoming rarer and άλογα was getting a double meaning, people either out of humour or out of poor vocabulary morphed the phrase into πράσινα άλογα, green horses!
Interestingly it still expresses judgement against someone’s perceived stupidity, unreliability or madness (acting thoughtlessly)!
81 notes
·
View notes
The "Americanization of the global internet" post and slow deterioration of local native culture gave me an idea: many users don't even know there is native language communities on this website, so if you know of a regional group/"subculture" on Tumblr, reblog/comment with the tags they use so people can find them and connect with other folks from their countries or speakers of a language they'd like to learn
I will try to update this post with every new addition to hopefully make a comprehensive list of Tumblr regional communities
Edit July 29th: the post has reached a point where Tumblr won't let me add any more links, so from now on all tags are plain text to make it fair
The list so far:
Europe
• Czech
#česky, #hezky česky - general Czech language posts, frequently featuring user-written poetry, art, sometimes politics and current events, warning: often contains vent posts
#čumblr - Czech but frequently used by Slovaks as well, primarily memes and fandom things, shipping, art, cultural things, frequently overlaps with #česky
#obrození, #obrozujeme - memes and fandoms as well but with more emphasis of maintaining and developing Czech culture, is a mostly humorous parody/self-proclaimed continuation of the Czech National Revival of the 1800s, overlaps with #čumblr and #česky
• Slovak
#slovensky - general Slovak language posts
#slumblr, #sumblr, NEW - #ťumbľr - Slovak, general posts, memes, fandom and culture things, sometimes overlaps with #čumblr
• Polish
#polska, #polish - Polish, general posts, art, politics and current events
#polblr, #polishposting, #polskie rzeczy - Polish, more humorous general posts and memes, often overlap with the above
• Ukrainian
#ukraine - general Ukrainian posts, often in English
#укртумбочка - mostly used by artists
• General Slavic
#slav, #slavic, #slavposting, #slavic stuff - mixed Slavic, usually cultural things, memes, art and photography, sometimes politics, sometimes visited by other East Europeans
• Irish
#gaeilge - Irish, general posting but especially cultural things and memes, often features posts for language learning
• Welsh
#cymraeg, #tymblr - general Welsh posting, memes
• Romanian
#romanian - general Romanian tag
#romanisme, #vlandom - Romanian, mostly memes and humor
• Hungarian
#magyar, #hungarian, #tumbli - Hungarian language, mostly quotes
• Finnish
#suomitumblr, #suomitumppu, #suomipaskaa, #suomeksi, other variations beginning with suomi - general (shit)posting
any and all swear words such as #perkele, #vittu, #saatana, #helvetti and #paska - shitposts, overlap with above
• Dutch
#dutch, #the netherlands, #netherlands, #holland, #nederland, #nederlands - general Dutch posts
#nedermemes, #dutchcore - memes, shitposting
• German
#deutsch, #german stuff - general German posting
#BundesTag - memes and humor
blogs like @official-deutschebahn, @official-german-medienlandschaft and other official-deutsche- blogs, "because THE joke of German tumblr is to act like an overly bureucratic public institution"
• Swedish
#sweblr, #swedenposting, #svea rike - memes, shitposts, fandom stuff, sometimes political
#svenskt, #sverige - general Swedish stuff
#all makt åt tengil vår befriare, #sa du sten - used mostly by @svenskjavel
#borås - posts and memes about the city, "kinda like Swedish Ohio"
#lesbisk, #bög, #bisexuell, #pansexuell, #hbtq+, #hbtq, #homosexuell, #asexuell - Swedish queer tags
• French
#upthebaguette, #french side of tumblr, #whatthefrance - general French posting but especially memes, comics, art
#bagaitte - French queer posting
• Greek
#greek tumblr, #ελληνικα, #ελλαδα, #γρεεκ, #ελληνικο ταμπλρ - general stuff
#greek memes - memes
Catalan
#coses de la terra - general stuff
Belarusian
#беларускі тамблер - general stuff, fandoms
#артшляхта - art
Italian
#itablr - general stuff, not very populated yet
#welcome to italy, #italian things, #italian stuff, #italy tag, #roba italiana
#sanremo - for the Sanremo Music Festival, also #domenica in but only after the end of the festival
Italians also frequently gather under #leonardo rai, #medici, #i medici, #montalbano and #il giovane montalbano
Estonian
#eestiblr, #eesti - general stuff
@unofficial-estonia - blog
Danish
@useless-denmarkfacts - blog
Spanish
#español - general Spanish (* I noticed some Mexicans using these too so there may be overlap with American Spanish-speaking countries as well)
#citas, #frases - quotes
#humor grafico - memes
Scottish Gaelic
#gaidhlig, #gaelposting - general, art, language
Africa
Moroccan
#المغرب, #Maroc -general, often photos
Asia
• South Asian
#desiblr, #desi, #desi tag - general South Asia posting, memes, humor, sometimes also used by Arab people
• Indian
#dabara tumblr, #தம்பிளர் - suggested tags for South India
Russian
#русский тамблер, #русский tumblr - general stuff, memes
Sri Lankan
#අරගලයට ජය, suggested tags LKA or #Lankablr if anyone's interested
Indonesian
@useless-indonesiafacts - blog
Israeli
# עברית# ,ישראבלר - general stuff (sorry if these are broken, tumblr keeps fucking with right-to-left scripts)
Arabic
#عربي - general
#كتب, #كتاب, #كتابات - books and writing
Oceania
Australian
#auscore, #straya - general stuff, culture, memes and shitposts
#auspol - politics
Aotearoa (New Zealand)
#māori, #te reo māori - Māori tags
Americas
Brazilian
#brazil, #brasil, #Come to brazil, #br posting, #meu brasil brasileiro, #tumblr br - general and memes
Turtle Island (North American) Indigenous
#ndn, #ndn tumblr - usually about culture, memes etc
"If you're looking for something specific to your tribe, try the non-English spelling of your tribe's name (Tsalagi for Cherokee, for example)"
Not location-specific
Jewish
#jumblr, #frumblr - general stuff, history, discussions, posts mostly in English
Romani
#romani, #rroma, #rrumblr - romani sides of tumblr, general stuff, history, discussions, mostly in English
Please share around wherever you're from, US American local cultures are welcome as well, especially indigenous (though that should go without saying)
Reminder that this is a post made to allow people to find others of the same culture/language, be respectful and do not use these tags to target groups and spread hate
15K notes
·
View notes
Hey folks, this image of Apollo was done for a private commission. Xoxo
The following text is reposted from my previous Apollo Olympians image.
“Phoebus, of you even the swan sings with clear voice to the beating of his wings, as he alights upon the bank by the eddying river Peneus; and of you the sweet-tongued minstrel, holding his high-pitched lyre, always sings both first and last…And so hail to you, lord! I seek your favor with my song.” (-Homeric Hymn, translated by H.G. Evelyn white)
APOLLO (uh-PAH-low), God of prophecy, oracles, music, art, protector of and disease of boys and men, and archery. Just as his twin sister Artemis is patron to women and girls, Apollo is both protector, and killer from disease of boys and men. In my Illustration the god holds his bow and arrows behind, while he strums the lyre gifted to him by trickster Hermes. Near the sun flies his ally and divine messenger, a white raven. The column on the right is capped with a cow, representing his sacred animal as a god of herds. The serpent Python sits dead at his feet, killed by Apollo’s arrow so that the god could take over the Delphi temple location. The temple complex sits beneath the god, while on the far right, the Pythia (Apollo’s oracle priestess) sits upon a tripod, breathing the hallucinatory gasses seeping up from the earth to get her prophecies which she bestows upon visitors.
The laurel tree has associations with Apollo because the god, chasing a Naiad (water nymph) named Daphne call out to Gaia (mother earth) for help, who transformed the nymph into a laurel tree, which the god adopted as his sacred tree. In book 1 of the Iliad, Apollo supports the Trojans by raining down a plague on the Greeks, and later helping Paris to kill Achilles. Apollo’s cruelty is shown in Ovid’s mythical lyre contest with the inventor of the flute; a satyr named Marsyas. When Apollo suggested they play their instruments upside down, the satyr lost, and was flayed (skinned) alive as punishment for his hubris.
4K notes
·
View notes