Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
[edit] English
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Phrase
it’s all Greek to me
- (idiomatic) I don’t understand any of it; it makes no sense.
- I tried reading the instructions, but it’s all Greek to me.
[edit] Quotations
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1904 1907 1927 1965 |
2004 |
| ME: [[{{{enm}}}]] « |
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- 1599 — William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, i 2
- but those that understood him smiled at one another and
shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me.
- 1694 — François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, book V; translated by Pierre Motteux, 1694 (original French edition 1564)
- 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, The Settlers in Canada
- "Well," said Alfred, "it may be a letter, but I confess it is all Greek to me.
- 1849 — Herman Melville, Redburn. His First Voyage, ch VI
- 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. G. Wells, The War in the Air
- "It’s more like some firm’s paper. All this printed stuff at the top. Drachenflieger. Drachenballons. Ballonstoffe. Kugelballons. Greek to me."
- 1927-1929 — Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, Part II (VIII), translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai
- 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.
[edit] Translations
I don’t understand any of this
[edit] See also
