What does ftou ftou mean?
“Ftou” is the sound of spitting. When Greeks say “ftou ftou” to someone, they pretend to spit, so that the compliment they just paid doesn’t give that person the evil eye. In Greek tradition the evil eye (vaskania) comes from admiration and envy, and the spitting drives it away before it takes hold.
It usually comes with a phrase: “ftou ftou, I don’t want to jinx you”, or “ftou ftou, I shouldn’t have said it”.
When do Greeks say ftou ftou?
- After a compliment: “You look lovely today, ftou ftou.”
- To babies and small children, who are said to catch the evil eye more easily: “What a little doll, ftou ftou.”
- When saying something good about yourself that you don’t want to jinx, like “knock on wood”: “I haven’t caught anything this year, ftou ftou.”
- When someone admires something new: a house, a car, a job.
Why three times?
Three keeps coming back in the xematiasma: three drops of oil and three “ftou” at the end. In everyday talk it may be two or three, whatever comes out. But the three already appears in ancient texts.
Where does ftou ftou come from?
Spitting against the evil eye is very old. In Theocritus’ sixth Idyll, from the 3rd century BC, a herdsman praises his own looks and then says: “ὡς μὴ βασκανθῶ δέ, τρὶς εἰς ἐμὸν ἔπτυσα κόλπον”, meaning “so as not to be jinxed, I spat three times into my chest”. The verb baskaino is the root of the word vaskania.
Ancient Greeks and Romans also spat into the folds of their clothes to protect themselves from the evil eye. Today the spitting has become only a sound: Greeks say “ftou” instead of actually spitting, which the other person probably appreciates.
Ftou ftou in the xematiasma
The oil-and-water xematiasma ends with a cross over the plate and three “ftou”. The water is then thrown somewhere nobody walks. The whole ritual is in our guide What is xematiasma.
That is where Ftou Ftou got its name: the site where Kyra Ourania lifts your evil eye online with your name, free and for fun.
Lift my evil eye, on the house