What does it mean?
I pretend not to understand or not to know something, to avoid responsibility.
Closest English saying: To play dumb.
What does it literally say?
Κάνω την πάπια
Káno tin pápia
“I play the duck.”
The link with the duck is a fixed pattern of everyday speech; popular stories about its history are not treated as documented.
How is it used?
«Τον ρώτησαν ποιος ξέχασε τα κλειδιά κι εκείνος έκανε την πάπια.»
“They asked who forgot the keys and he played the duck.”
Where does it come from?
Established colloquial modern Greek. The first historical record of the expression has not been confirmed on eipane.
This is an English edition of the Greek entry, which remains the reference version. The English text was written from the Greek entry with the help of AI tools and checked against it. Suggest a correction ↗