# Cypriot Turkish/Greek: re gombare



## Chazzwozzer

I've seen this word on a list of some common words. There's no explanation and they don't suggest anything in Greek script either.

It doesn't mean anything in Anatolian Turkish.

Any suggestions?


----------



## ireney

I bet it's from "Ρε κουμπάρε" Ρε is what you call "bre" I think so you (and the Romanians) are the only ones who don't need a loooong explanation falling sort of the actual meaning.

Κουμπάρος (kumbaros) is literally the "best man" the person that marries two people, and/or the godfather of someone ("κουμπάρα" koumbara for women ). 

It's also used from the other side of the relation so to speak. The guy who has married you or is the godfather of your child is your koumbaros.

However, quite often it is used with the meaning of "relative" or "friend".

Does this help?


----------



## Flaminius

But Εἰρήνη, I want to know what is "Ρε".  Could you kindly attempt a mildly loooong explanation?


----------



## ireney

Sure Flaminius  

Mind you I will leave the etymology out of it as much as possible.

Ρε, or Βρε come from ancient Greek (μωρέ) . They started their "carreer" as insults, meaning stupid, brainless.

Nowadays they are seldomly used as insult although "PE" in particular can vary from a mild-to-serious to light offense. However, it has lost the meaning of "brainless" and it is more or less an insult on its own right when used that way. 

Example (in English with Re added)

A: Right! Are you going to listen to _him_?
B: _What _did you say *re*?

Its most common use is as a sort of an interjection  showing that two people are in very friendly terms. Most of the times, both "re" and "vre" are used when someone
a) wants to ask the other one for a favour
b) is frustrated with the other one
c) wants to show surprise

Re Tom will you close the light on your way out? I'm too tired to get up

Re Tom do lower the volume will you? I can't hear myself thinking

Wow! You did it all by yourself re Tom?


----------



## jazyk

> Its most common use is as a sort of an interjection (if we can call it that) showing that two people are in very friendly terms. Most of the times, both "re" and "vre" are used when someone
> a) wants to ask the other one for a favour
> b) is frustrated with the other one
> c) wants to show surprise


Then it's like Mexican wey, wey!


----------



## ireney

It is? That's interesting! Can you provide me with an example? (Bear in mind that I can only understand very few words in Spanish! I am told that when reading Spanish my accent is good; the only problem is that I have no idea _what_ I'm reading!)


----------



## MissPrudish

ireney said:


> I bet it's from "Ρε κουμπάρε" Ρε is what you call "bre" I think so you (and the Romanians) are the only ones who don't need a loooong explanation falling sort of the actual meaning.
> 
> Κουμπάρος (kumbaros) is literally the "best man" the person that marries two people, and/or the godfather of someone ("κουμπάρα" koumbara for women ).
> 
> It's also used from the other side of the relation so to speak. The guy who has married you or is the godfather of your child is your koumbaros.
> 
> However, quite often it is used with the meaning of "relative" or "friend".
> 
> Does this help?


 

Exactly. 
Turkish Cypriots use "be" instead of "re" and I've heard "gom"/"gomma" instead of kumbaros. In Cyprus it is extremely usual way to call someone-perhaps one of the most popular ones.


----------



## Chazzwozzer

ireney said:


> I bet it's from "Ρε κουμπάρε" Ρε is what you call "bre" I think so you (and the Romanians) are the only ones who don't need a loooong explanation falling sort of the actual meaning.


Yep, I heard Greeks say "ela re" which is equal to Turkish "hadi be", the difference between bre and be is that be is just accepted in Istanbulian accent, which is considered as the only correct accent of Turkish language.



ireney said:


> Κουμπάρος (kumbaros) is literally the "best man" the person that marries two people, and/or the godfather of someone ("κουμπάρα" koumbara for women ).
> 
> It's also used from the other side of the relation so to speak. The guy who has married you or is the godfather of your child is your koumbaros.
> 
> However, quite often it is used with the meaning of "relative" or "friend".
> 
> Does this help?


Kumbaros! As you can see here, thanks to media, we, Turks, learned what it means when Kostas Karamanlis joined at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's daugter's wedding. Such a cute word!  Newspaper article associates this word with Orthodox traditions, so I think Turks on the island use it in the mean of "friend."


----------

