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We say that in English too...i think Shakespeare used it. I wonder if Europeans non-Greek have been saying that since Roman (Latin) times as a kind of fun desc
by jjtheblunt 4y ago
We say that in English too...i think Shakespeare used it. I wonder if Europeans non-Greek have been saying that since Roman (Latin) times as a kind of fun description.
- kbutler 4y agohttps://grammarist.com/idiom/its-greek-to-me-and-its-all-greek-to-me/ https://grammarist.com/idiom/its-greek-to-me-and-its-all-gre... Popularized by Shakespeare, but predates him as a latin phrase used by scribes: Graecum est; non legitur, which means “It is Greek and therefore is impossible to read.”
- frodetb 4y agoYou're right, that line from Shakespeare is even quoted in the paper. From the list of sayings they had collected from various languages, Greek seems like the most popular comparison, followed by Chinese. But since there's a Greek saying that uses Chinese in its comparison, it is Chinese that ends up at the end of the graph. Edit: I went back to check and that is not right. Chinese wins out by a lot. I simply misremembered.