Cyprus-Forum.com

[denizaksulu]

"Kalamarades" anyone care to explain?

Kalamari = squid (murekkep baligi) hence phoenix' stupid remark.

[denizaksulu]

"Kalamarades" anyone care to explain?

derogatory term we use to refer to Greeks.

Like we use the term 'karasakal' (not for the Greeks).

[denizaksulu]

I didn't realize that us referring to the GC's as "Rum" was derogatory, even the Turkish news on TV and the radio here AND in Turkey usually refer to them as "Rum" or "Guney Kibris Rum yonetimi".

It is NOT derogatory at all. We have other derogatory words, which I do not include in my vocabulary. Even Mevlana is Rumi.

[DT.]

I didn't realize that us referring to the GC's as "Rum" was derogatory, even the Turkish news on TV and the radio here AND in Turkey usually refer to them as "Rum" or "Guney Kibris Rum yonetimi".

It is NOT derogatory at all. We have other derogatory words, which I do not include in my vocabulary. Even Mevlana is Rumi.

gavour

[umit07]

So they like to call mainland greeks "calamari rings" . Does anyone kwow the meaning of the word "gaco" which is now quite popular when refering to some mainland turks?

I know the word "karasakal" ( black beard ) originated from the times when secret turkish army officers were working in cyprus with the TMT, at the time they would usually grow thick beards to disclose thier identity thus came to use the term "karasakal" in those times it wasn't used in an insulting manner.

Fica ( seaweed ) is another term used quite a bit.

[shahmaran]

Gavur is not actually that derogatory, it just means foreign or non-Muslim, or more precisely, from a religion which doesn't follow any prophet.

[shahmaran]

We also call mainland Turks "fica", meaning that brown seaweed that accumulates along the beach on a shit day, since the sea also brings the Turkish immigrants

[Tim Drayton]

So they like to call mainland greeks "calamari rings" . Does anyone kwow the meaning of the word "gaco" which is now quite popular when refering to some mainland turks?

I know the word "karasakal" ( black beard ) originated from the times when secret turkish army officers were working in cyprus with the TMT, at the time they would usually grow thick beards to disclose thier identity thus came to use the term "karasakal" in those times it wasn't used in an insulting manner.

Fica ( seaweed ) is another term used quite a bit.

According to Orhan Kabataş's Etymological Dictionary of Turkish Cypriot, the word gaco comes from the Gypsy language, where it is used to refer to non-Gypsies.

[Tim Drayton]

Gavur is not actually that derogatory, it just means foreign or non-Muslim, or more precisely, from a religion which doesn't follow any prophet.

The use of this term was actually forbidden in the Ottoman Empire in a decree of 1856 on the grounds that it was derogatory!

[umit07]

Thanks Tim for your explaination, but what I find weird is that the word "gaco" has become common in recent years old people have never heard about it being used in the past.