Μπουμπουνοκέφαλος: bone-head - dumbhead
I had toyed with the idea of having a "word of the day," which would be various new Greek words I ran across that I thought were interesting. But, I end up decided against it, because just putting up a word and it's definition and some comment like: "I just love the word φεγγάρι and the sound it make when it rolls off the tongue," would be idiotic and not interesting or helpful to others reading the blog. Indeed, every word in the Greek language, as in all languages, is special in some way: when was it first used? What are some surprising usages and meanings of the word? What are common ways the word is misused? How has it's usage or pronunciation changed over time? What language did it come from? Has it reentered the language after leaving it, e.g. Μπράβο: βάρβαρος -> barbaros (lat.) -> bravo (it) -> μπράβο(ελ).
Something along that line would be interesting, but a colossal amount of dedicated work, requiring a level of skill far beyond my own. However, here is a word that I've been looking for some time: Μπουμπουνοκέφαλος. I had thought the pronouciation was 'Πουπουνοκέφαλος'.
It's an insult that was popular in Greek tv and movies in the 60s and 70s but, in current usage seems to have died out a bit - much like many English insults that would have been contemporary with it. I ran into it watching old Greek dubbed episodes of Lucky Luke. Below is a clip from an episode where where the perennial bad guys, the Dalton Brothers, assume fake identities and go into hiding in Canada. The dimwitted brother, Averil, can't quite grasp the idea and ends up being called Μπουμπουνοκέφαλος Τζονες.
