(Piano music)

Hello and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go!

Happy Spring, everyone! The clocks moved, the days are getting bigger and the Sun is gracing us with its presence more often than not.

On the first of April in most parts of the world, it's custom to lie, trick and prank eachother. Do you know why? There are a few theories but the most popular one goes back to 1564 in France. Up until that point , the French celebrated New Year's Day on the 25th of March and the celebrations lasted until the first of April but that year, the King decided to sync with the rest of Europe and changed the celebration to January 1st. Not everyone got the memo immediately so, the ones who kept celebrating in March were teased, pranked and called one name in particular. In ancient Greek, the word for a person not contributing to society because they were unskilled or uneducated translates as ' a private person', one that is not being in sync or engaging with society productively. In Latin, the word escaped the April Fool's custom and that's how it travelled in English. ΙΔΙΩΤΗΣ/IDIOT

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email yourgreeksunday@gmail.com