ABOUT
HOW IT STARTED
IT STARTED WITH A BALL
This ledger started on a living room floor in Australia, with a ball.
Kuzey is the son of my best friend. She is Turkish, I am Greek, and we both come from the Black Sea. When Kuzey and I first played together he did not speak any English yet, and I speak Greek. On paper we had no language in common.
He rolled the ball to me and said top. I rolled it back and said τόπι. He looked at me as if I had finally said something sensible.
It kept happening. His shoe came off: pabuç to him, παπούτσι to me. Someone cut a watermelon, karpuz and καρπούζι, and we both wanted some. When a piece hit the floor we said the same word at the same moment: aman. When he wanted his father he called out baba, which is almost exactly how a Greek child calls for μπαμπά.
Our two countries have a long history of wars, population exchanges and arguments. Kuzey knew none of it. He only knew that I understood him.
I started writing the words down, then checking them. This is that list, grown up: the words Greek and Turkish lent each other, kept in one book, the way the corner shop kept the tefteri. Nobody is keeping score. Kuzey certainly is not.
Kyriakos Gold, editor
THE LEDGER IN NUMBERS
430
words in the ledger
281
went from Turkish into Greek
102
went from Greek into Turkish
15
made the round trip and came back
32
came into both from a third language
238
are settled, checked on both sides
192
are on credit, waiting for the second check
WHAT THIS IS
Greek and Turkish have been lending each other words for centuries, in the kitchen, the market, the harbour and the coffee house. Defter ή Tefteri records those words in one ledger, in Greek, Turkish and English.
The name is the idea. Ancient Greek διφθέρα, a prepared hide used for writing, passed through Aramaic, Persian and Arabic into Turkish as defter, and came back into Greek as τεφτέρι. The Greek μπακάλης and the Turkish bakkal both kept one, to write down what each family owed.
Each entry shows who lent the word and who borrowed it, where it started, how its meaning drifted, and the sources it was checked against. Blue ink is Greek, red ink is Turkish.
METHOD
Etymologies are checked against the dictionaries and studies listed. An entry is stamped settled only when both the Greek and the Turkish side have been checked. Research for this ledger was compiled with AI assistance and reviewed by the editors.
HOW TO CITE THE LEDGER
Gold, K. (ed.) (2026) Defter ή Tefteri: a ledger of shared Greek and Turkish words. https://defteritefteri.com/en/. Accessed [day month year].