# Water in the wine



## goonhilly

Το μήνα δεν έχει Ρωσία, βάζε στο κρασί νερό

Apart from the obvious what does this mean and I get the impression that the person saying this is being a little unhelpful to someone overplaying a sickness or hangover


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## uress

Ρωσία??? 

Mήνα που δεν έχει ρ, βάλε στο κρασί νερό.

But what is your question?


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## goonhilly

Is that some type of idiomatic expression?


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## goonhilly

Ahhh did not see that Ρωσία had automatically inserted sorry I meant to say month does not have an R Ρω in it!


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## Perseas

«βάζω νερό στο κρασί μου» means literally "to put water into my wine" and metaphorically "to water down my claims". The metaphorical use is very commom today.

I didn't know about this proverb until I saw it on the internet some months ago. Maybe the proverb has the literal meaning. Months without «ρο» are from May to August in Greek, and I guess it means that specially on summer months (when we have more free time) we should be more careful about drinking too much.


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## uress

When I was a child and heard this saying for the first time I got it explained like that: in the month with a name without r, i.e. in summer, it's hot and you can get easily drunken, so it's better to water your wine to avoid it.


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## goonhilly

I remember my grandmother who was born 1894 going on about never eating pork if there was an R in the month in UK so I guess it might be something similar. There are a lot of sites that illustrate in Greek the grape etc and putting water in the wine in those months but I have not seen it used in a discussion between two speakers in a Greek text book and you are very right as the lady was making claims about how her friend was going to go to the doctors about feeling rough and not well but the reality is that she had had too much wine and been on the beach all day in August. It was meant ( the passage ) to be light hearted and with the sound effects I got that part.

Thanks for the quick responses


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## sotos

Reminiscent of the ancient Greek custom of diluting wine with water (thus the new Gr. "κρασί"). Drinking plain wine was a barbarian habit.


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## LoukasX

My grandpa used to say:<<μηνας που δεν εχει ρω,το κρασι θελει νερο.>>  As uress said, it's because in summer you 
can easily get drunken.(summer months don't have a ρ)


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## uress

This costum with the pork is not logical for me. I could understand not to eat it in the summer, in hot weather but in the winter when there is no problem to have food at home?

However, it's very interesting that we have this r-"low". (An exemple from Hungary: in months with r you shouldn't sit down on stones (not to catch a cold).)


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## gerapol

Το λεξικό αποδίδει στα Ελληνικά την λέξη athwart ως ''κατα μήκος'' είναι σωστό???


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## Acestor

gerapol said:


> Το λεξικό αποδίδει στα Ελληνικά την λέξη athwart ως ''κατα μήκος'' είναι σωστό???



Όχι. Το σωστό είναι «εγκαρσίως, κατά το πλάτος του πλοίου».


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## gerapol

Acestor said:


> Όχι. Το σωστό είναι «εγκαρσίως, κατά το πλάτος του πλοίου».


Ποια είναι η διαδικασία να ενημερωθούν οι αρμόδιοι για τη διόρθωση? Ευχαριστώ


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## Acestor

Δεν γνωρίζω. Αλλά υποθέτω ότι κάποια στιγμή θα δει τη συζήτησή μας η διαχειρίστρια.


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