What does it mean?
I keep at something that is extremely hard to find, or I fuss over trivial details.
Closest English saying: Looking for a needle in a haystack; also, nit-picking.
What does it literally say?
Ψάχνω ψύλλους στ’ άχυρα
Psáhno psílous st’ áhira
“I look for fleas in the straw.”
A tiny insect among a great deal of straw makes a picture of an almost impossible search.
How is it used?
“He’s trying to spot a trivial difference across thousands of lines. He’s looking for fleas in the straw.”
Other ways Greeks say it
- Ψάχνει ψύλλους στ' άχυρα
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 ↗