All Greek to me
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
Quite unintelligible; an unknown tongue or language. Casca says, "For mine own part, it was all Greek to me." (Julius Ctesar, 1, 2.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “All Greek to me” mean?
Quite unintelligible; an unknown tongue or language. Casca says, "For mine own part, it was all Greek to me." (Julius Ctesar, 1, 2.
Is “All Greek to me” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.