it's all Greek to me

English

WOTD – 18 January 2007

This is definitely all Greek to me!

Alternative forms

• it's Greek to me, that's Greek to me, that's all Greek to me

Etymology

First quoted as “it was Greek to me” in Julius Caesar by Shakespeare, maybe translated from a Medieval Latin sentence.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪts ˌɔːl ˈɡɹiːk tə ˌmiː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Phrase

it's all Greek to me

1. (idiomatic) I don't understand any of it; it makes no sense.

   Synonyms: it's all Chinese to me, (I can’t) make head or tail of (it), double Dutch

   I tried reading the instructions, but it’s all Greek to me.

   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 112, column 1:

     But thoſe that vnderſtood him, ſmil'd at one another, and ſhooke their heads: but for mine owne part, it was Greeke to me.

   • [1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart] and [Peter Anthony Motteux], The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume II, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, book the fifth:

     During the processions they trilled and quavered most melodiously betwixt their teeth I do not know what antiphones, or chantings, by turns. For my part, ’twas all Hebrew-Greek to me, the devil a word I could pick out on’t;]

   • 1844, [Frederick] Marryat, chapter XI, in The Settlers in Canada. […], volume II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], →OCLC, pages 181–182:

     "Well," said Alfred, "it may be a letter, but I confess it is all Greek to me. I certainly do not see why you wish to keep it a secret. Tell me."

   • 1849, Herman Melville, “He is Initiated in the Business of Cleaning Out the Pig-pen, and Slushing Down the Top-mast”, in Redburn: His First Voyage. […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 45:

     I ran after him, and received an order to go aloft and “slush down the main-top mast.” This was all Greek to me, and after receiving the order, I stood staring about me, wondering what it was that was to be done.

   • 1904, George M. Fenn, The Ocean Cat's Paw:

     “Look here, Mr. Count,” he said; “I am only a rough Englishman, and a lot of what you have been saying about mission and that sort of thing is just so much Greek to me.”

   • 1907, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The War in the Air: […], London: George Bell and Sons, published 1908, →OCLC:

     “It's more like some firm's paper. All this printed stuff at the top. Drachenflieger. Drachenballons. Ballonstoffe. Kugelballons. Greek to me.”

   • 1929, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter VIII, in Mahadev Haribhai Desai and Pyarelal Nair, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume II, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC:

     A Parsi lawyer was examining a witness and asking him question regarding credit and debit entries in account books. It was all Greek to me.

   • 1965, Harry Ray Bannister, The Education of a Broadcaster, page 16:

     Cavanaugh explained the network-affiliate relationship, which of course was all Greek to me and remained so even after his explanation.

   • 2004, Jacob Taubes, The Political Theology of Paul, page 99:

     […] it was expected of me, or it was considered an honor, to lecture on seventeenth-century philosophy: Descartes (which was all Greek to me), Descartes to Spinoza.

Translations

I don’t understand any of it

• Arabic: يَتَحَدَّثْ بِٱللُّغَة ٱلصِّينِيَّة (yataḥaddaṯ bi-l-luḡa(t) ṣ-ṣīniyya, literally “speaking in Chinese”)
• Armenian: դա ինձ համար չինարեն է (da inj hamar čʻinaren ē, literally “it's Chinese to me”), դրանից բան չեմ հասկանում (dranicʻ ban čʻem haskanum, literally “I don't understand any of this”)
• Chavacano: Aleman ese comigo (literally “it's German to me”)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 一竅不通／一窍不通 (zh) (yīqiàobùtōng), 一無所知／一无所知 (zh) (yīwúsuǒzhī), 完全不懂 (wánquán bùdǒng, literally “not understand at all”), 看起来像天书 (Kànqǐlái xiàng tiān shū), 这是鬼画符吗 (Zhè shì guǐhuàfú ma), 听起来像鸟语 (Tīngqǐlái xiàng niǎoyǔ), 火星文 (zh) (Huǒxīng wén, literally “Martian language”)

• Czech: to je pro mě španělská vesnice (literally “it's a Spanish village to me”), španělská vesnice (cs) (literally “a Spanish village”)
• Danish: rent volapyk (literally “pure Volapük”), det er græsk for mig (literally “it is Greek to me”), en by i Rusland (literally “a town in Russia”)
• Dutch: dat is Chinees voor mij (literally “this is Chinese to me”), (colloquial) ik versta er geen bal van (literally “I don't understand a ball from it”)
• Esperanto: ĝi estas por mi volapukaĵo
• Finnish: se on minulle täyttä hepreaa (literally “it is totally Hebrew to me”)
• French: c’est du chinois (fr) (literally “it's Chinese”), c’est de l’hébreu (fr) (literally “it's Hebrew”), c’est du russe (fr) (literally “it's Russian”), c’est du javanais (fr) (literally “it's Javanese”)
• Georgian: ჩინურია ჩემთვის (činuria čemtvis, literally “Chinese to me”)
• German: ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (literally “I only understand train station”), das sind für mich böhmische Dörfer (literally “it's Czech villages to me”), das ist (alles) Chinesisch für mich (literally “it's all Chinese to me”), jemand spricht spanisch (literally “someone speaks Spanish”)
• Greek: είναι κινέζικα για μένα (eínai kinézika gia ména, literally “it's Chinese to me”), δεν καταλαβαίνω γρι (den katalavaíno gri, literally “I don't even understand a bit”), αυτά μου φαίνονται κινέζικα (aftá mou faínontai kinézika, literally “it seems Chinese to me”)
• Gujarati: શું હું ફારસી બોલું છું (śũ hũ phārsī bolũ chũ, literally “am I speaking Persian?”)
• Hebrew: זֶה סִינִית בִּשְׁבִילִי (he) (ze sínit bishvilí, literally “it's Chinese to me”)
• Hindi: क्या मैं फ़ारसी बोल रहा हूँ (kyā ma͠i fārsī bol rahā hū̃, literally “am I speaking Persian?”)
• Hungarian: ez nekem kínai (literally “it’s Chinese to me”), ez nekem kínaiul van (literally “it’s in Chinese to me”)
• Icelandic: þetta er hebreska fyrir mér (literally “this is Hebrew to me”)
• Indonesian: itu bahasa planet (literally “that's the language of a planet”), bahasa planet (literally “language of a planet”), bahasa dewa (literally “language of deities”)
• Italian: per me è arabo (literally “it's Arabic to me”), non ci capisco un tubo (literally “I don't understand a tube of it”), è ostrogoto (literally “it's Ostrogoth”)
• Japanese: 珍紛漢だ, 珍糞漢だ, 陳奮翰だ (ちんぷんかんだ, chinpunkan da, literally “it's gibberish”), 珍紛漢紛だ (ちんぷんかんぷんだ, chinpunkanpun da, literally “it's gibberish”)
• Khmer: ខ្ញុំមិនយល់​សោះ (khnhommĭnyôlsaŏh, literally “I don't understand”)
• Korean: 횡설수설이다 (hoengseolsuseorida, literally “it's gibberish”)
• Latin: graecum est; nōn legitur (literally “it's Greek; it cannot be read”), graeca sunt; nōn leguntur (literally “they're Greek; they cannot be read”)
• Macedonian: шпанско село (špansko selo, literally “Spanish village”)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: det er helt gresk for meg (literally “it's full Greek to me”), det er gresk for meg (literally “it's Greek to me”)

  Nynorsk: det er heilt gresk for meg (literally “it's full Greek to me”), det er gresk for meg (literally “it's Greek to me”)

• Polish: to dla mnie chińszczyzna (literally “it's Chinese to me”)
• Portuguese: para mim você está falando grego (literally “you are speaking Greek to me”), isto é chinês para mim (literally “That sounds Chinese to me"”)
• Punjabi: ਕੀ ਮੈਂ ਫਾਰਸੀ ਬੋਲਦਾ ਪਿਆਂ (kī maĩ phārsī boldā piā̃, literally “am I speaking Persian?”)
• Romanian: e chineză pentru mine (literally “it's Chinese to me”)
• Russian: китайская грамота (ru) (kitajskaja gramota, literally “Chinese writing”), (attributive) по-евре́йски (ru) (po-jevréjski, literally “in Jewish, in a Jewish way”)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: шпа̑нска сѐла (literally “Spanish villages”)

  Roman: špȃnska sèla (literally “Spanish villages”)

• Spanish: me suena a chino (literally “sounds like Chinese to me”), esto es chino para mí (literally “this is Chinese for me”), ^{(please verify)} esto está como en chino (literally “this stands like Chinese”), no entiendo ni jota (literally “I don't understand even one J”), no entiendo ni papa (literally “I don't understand even one potato”)
• Swedish: det är rena grekiskan (literally “it is pure Greek”)
• Tagalog: parang intsik (literally “it looks like Chinese”)
• Thai: เป็นสิ่งที่ฉันไม่เข้าใจ (bpen sìng têe chăn mâi kâo jai, literally “it's something I don't understand”), ฉันไม่เข้าใจอะไรเลย (chǎn mâi kâo jai à rai ləəi, literally “I don't understand anything”)
• Turkish: bir şey anladıysam Arap olayım (literally “let me be Arabic if I understand anything”)
• Ukrainian: Це для мене китайська грамота (Ce dlja mene kytajsʹka hramota, literally “That's Chinese writing to me”)
• Vietnamese: nói tiếng Miên (literally “to speak Khmer”), nói tiếng Lào (literally “to speak Lao”)

Further reading

• Mark Liberman (2009 January 15) “The directed graph of stereotypical incomprehensibility”, in Language Log‎^[1]