I4/20/98: Packed up for our next departure. Had a last walk around Samos town. Calm seas and a lovely sunset meant the 9-hour ferry ride to Naxos was quite nice.
4/20/23: Our accommodations in Samos were luxurious though inexpensive because we were traveling in the off season. This was the case for all of our trip through Greece and Turkey. If you ever travel to these countries, plan your trip for March and April.
After strolling around town, we boarded the ferry at 3:00pm. The boat we took from Kuşadası to Samos was a small boat, only large enough for about 50 passengers and their baggage. This next boat was more like a small cruise ship. It had an enormous cargo bay with a ramp, and could carry perhaps 30 cars or small trucks. The passenger capacity was easily over 250. The entire Greek island archipelago in the Aegean is criss crossed by ferry lines like taxis in Athens. Schedules are regular, and prices, at least back then, were quite reasonable. This makes it possible to visit many islands in a single trip.
We ran into a couple we had seen earlier on the trip, Jim and Holly, who were also heading to Naxos. After settling in on the ferry, Jim and I played a game of Scrabble with another solo traveler. Josh was from Canada, in his early 20s, and every other sentence he spoke was punctuated with the F-bomb. Jim was as good at Scrabble as my grandparents had been. It was fun to get a word game in on the road. If I could play that game on that day again, I think it would be fun to limit players to only using words that have Greek origins. I Looked Up “Etymology,” So You Don’t Have To. Here are a few other words you probably use regularly but may not realize are etymologically Greek:
- Democracy: δήμος + κράτος = people + power
- Logo: λογος = word (cf. -λογία as a suffix = study of (as in “etymology”…)
- Etymology: ετυμολογία = study of a word to find its true origin
- Cemetery: κοιμάμαι = to sleep
- Sophia: σοφια = wisdom (cf. – σοφια as suffix =
- Acrobat: άκρη + βαίνω = edge + to walk
- Marmalade: μέλι + μήλο = honey + apple
- Sarcasm: σάρξ > σαρκασμος > σαρκαζην = bitter taunt, literally means “to flay a person with your words”
- Planet: πλανώμαι = to wander (I.e., planets are wandering stars.)
“It comes from-a the Greek… So there you go!”
See also: Windex: ωινδεξ = all-in-one remedy.
Note: both clips are from the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Note also: the Online Etymological Dictionary is a great resource for all you other word nerds out there.