Pav Panayioti Mastihi

Two hysterically funny examples involving my sister.

In the 60s we grew up in Captain tow. My parents had a builder in, who always 'said leave it to me' whenever he was asked a question. The gave him the nickname ο ττουμης, but not obviously calling him that to his face. Embarrassingly my sister assumed it was his real name and called him κυριε Ττουμη, to his face once. Ooops εβαλεν το ποδι της μερα. ( (her literal translation of having out her foot in it.ç)

In the eighties she was an art student in London and called herself an aρτιστα in Grenglish, a commonly used word.Whilst on holiday in Cyprus, she went to a club with her friend with the sign outside saying ' αρτιστες δορεαν' They were told that they did not look like αρτιστες so they had to pay. She continued to insist that they should be given free entry, being oblivious to the fact that αρτιστα was a euphemism for 'ladies of the night'.

The first example show that people were not aware of made up grenglish words and in this case one that did not take off into the mainstream. The second shows separate meaning between the same word in english, standard greek and possibly standard greek, creating amusing communication breakdowns