it's all Greek to me

English

WOTD – 18 January 2007

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

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

This is definitely all Greek to me!

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (AU):

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Phrase

(deprecated template usage) it's all Greek to me

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

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

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act I, scene 2:

     but those that understood him smiled at one another and
     shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me.

   • 1564, François Rabelais with Pierre Motteux (translator from French), Gargantua and Pantagruel, volume V, published 1694:

     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.”

   • 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 with Mahadev Desai (translator), An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, published 1940, Part II (VIII):

     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.

   Synonym: it's all Chinese to me

Coordinate terms

• make head or tail of
• double Dutch

Translations

I don't understand any of this

• 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”)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 一竅不通／一窍不通 (zh) (yīqiàobùtōng), 一窍不通 (zh) (yīqiàobùtōng, literally “lack the slightest knowledge”), 一無所知／一无所知 (zh) (yīwúsuǒzhī), 一无所知 (zh) (yīwúsuǒzhī, literally “know nothing about”), 完全不懂 (wánquán bùdǒng, literally “not understand at all”)

• 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
• 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”)
• Georgian: ჩინურია ჩემთვის (činuria čemtvis, literally “Chinese to me”)
• German: das kommt mir spanisch vor (literally “it seems Spanish to me”), etwas kommt jemandem spanisch vor (de) (literally “to seem Spanish to someone”), das sind für mich böhmische Dörfer (literally “that is Czech villages to me”), ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (literally “I only understand train station”), nur Bahnhof verstehen (de) (literally “to only understand train station”)
• 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”)
• Hebrew: זֶה סִינִית בִּשְׁבִילִי (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 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”)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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 “it's Greek; it 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”)
• Punjabi: ਕੀ ਮੈਂ ਫਾਰਸੀ ਬੋਲ ਰਿਹੈਂ (kī maĩ phārsī bol rihaĩ, literally “am I speaking Persian?”)
• Romanian: e chineză pentru mine (literally “it's Chinese to me”)
• Russian: кита́йская гра́мота (ru) (kitájskaja grámota, literally “Chinese writing”), (attributive) по-евре́йски (ru) (po-jevréjski, literally “in Jewish, in a Jewish way”)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: шпа̑нскa 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”)
• 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: please add this translation if you can
• Urdu: کیا میں فارسی بول رہا ہے (kyā ma͠i fārsī bol rahā hū̃, literally “am I speaking Persian?”)
• Vietnamese: nói tiếng Miên (literally “to speak Khmer”), nói tiếng Lào (literally “to speak Lao”)