Malakia
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''Malakas'' ( ) is a commonly used profane
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
slang word, with a variety of different meanings, but literally meaning "man who masturbates". While it is typically used as an insult, with its literal equivalent in Commonwealth English being "
wanker Wanker is slang for "one who wanks (Masturbation, masturbates)", but is most often used as a general insult. It is a pejorative term of English origin common in United Kingdom, Britain and other parts of the English-speaking world (mainly Com ...
” and “jerk off” in American English, the meaning varies depending on the tone and context used. It can be an exclamation of pleasure, an expression of dark horror, a cry of anger, a declaration of affection, and other different things. Common alternative meanings include "
asshole The word ''asshole'' (in North American English) or arsehole (in all other major varieties of the English language) is a vulgarism used to describe the anus, and often used pejoratively (as a type of synecdoche) to refer to people. History ...
", "
motherfucker ''Motherfucker'' (; ), sometimes abbreviated as ''mofo'', ''mf'', or ''mf'er'', is an English-language vulgarism. It is a form of the profanity ''fuck''. In common usage, it is rarely used to refer to one person having intercourse with a wo ...
" "jerk" or "
idiot An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. "Idiot" was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot ...
", and the contrasting "
dude ''Dude'' is Regional vocabularies of American English, American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner (a dandy) or a conspicuous ...
", or "mate", depending on the context. It has been described as "the most used Greek slang word".


Overview

''Malakas'' derives from the Greek word '' malakos'' (), which means "soft" or "spoilt, well-used to luxuries of life". It is one of the most frequent words picked up by tourists (often in its
vocative case In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numeral ...
form, i.e. ''malaka'' ) and travelers to
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
and is not unusual among the younger
Greek diaspora The Greek diaspora, also known as Omogenia (), are the communities of Greeks living outside of Greece and Cyprus. Such places historically (dating to the ancient period) include, Greeks in Albania, Albania, Greeks in North Macedonia, North Maced ...
, even when the level of Greek is low. While "malakas" is a strictly masculine noun, a female form of the word exists, ''malako'' (), but is a recent coinage and not as widely used, whereas ''malakismeni'' () seems to be rather more vintage, but also more common, though this form is only used as a slur.Cf. th
lemma "μαλάκω"
an
references for "μαλακισμένη"
on slang.gr. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
In everyday speech, the word ''malakas'' is often used as a synonym of
idiot An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. "Idiot" was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot ...
. While the term is inappropriate and is traditionally used as a slur, it is acceptable and very commonly used among close friends, especially males, where it takes on a meaning similar to "dude" or "mate". ''Malakas'' is very rarely used in its literal meaning (man who masturbates).


''Malakia''

''Malakia'', literally meaning
masturbation Masturbation is a form of autoeroticism in which a person Sexual stimulation, sexually stimulates their own Sex organ, genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. Stimulation may involve the use of han ...
, is often also used in a similar sense as ''malakas'' to refer to nonsense, something worthless or of poor quality, or a mistake. It can also be used literally. The use of ''malakia'' to mean "masturbation" traces back to
medieval Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the ...
. It is used in this sense in the ''Life of Saint Andrew the Fool'' and in the ''Life of Saint Niphon'', both of which date to the tenth century. In
ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
, ''Malakia'' (, "softness", "weakliness") meant moral weakness or "
effeminacy Effeminacy or male femininity is the embodiment of feminine traits in boys or men, particularly those considered untypical of men or masculinity. These traits include roles, stereotypes, behaviors, and appearances that are socially associated wi ...
". The contrary characteristic was ''karteria'' (, "patient endurance", "perseverance"). The
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
"''malakizome"'' (μαλακίζομαι) also exists. Even though its literal meaning is "I masturbate" it is mostly used to define that someone is wasting his time or failing to achieve something.


See also

* *


Notes


References

* * *{{citation , last=Tegopoulos , first=Fytrakis , year=1997 , title=Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό ("Mízon ellinikó lexikó") , publisher=Ekdoseis Armonia A.E. , isbn=960-7598-04-0 Profanity Greek slang Modern Greek words and phrases Masturbation