Bulgarian Phrases

[Steve K.]

On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, Laurence Horn wrote:

> At 2:56 PM -0400 10/9/00, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
> >
> >KURVA--A slang word for prostitute that seems to be widely used in
> >all the Eastern European countries.
> >
> whence the Yiddish KURVEH with the same meaning, evidently.  Anyone
> know the etymology?

In Polish, it's also slang for the vulva, falling on the continuum of
offensiveness somewhere between pussy and (the American sense
of) cunt. In my slacker days between ungrad and grad school in the early
90s, I was working in the marble business in Chicago, which is run mostly
by Polish immigrants, and in the office of my boss he had
5 big marble letters that spelled out kurva (actually, kurwa,
I think). Anyhow, one day a client came in, and she was Polish and she got
very irate, and I believe took her business elsewhere.

This reminds me of the Czech word skurveny' (I think, I've never seen it
written) which translates roughly as 'fucking' -- "To je mi skurveny kosa"
--that is "It's fucking cold" which I learned in December of '93. Anyhow,
the interesting thing as far as this list, is that 'kosa' means 'scythe'
-- as in the scythe that death as the grim reaper carries, and is used
colloquially to mean bitter cold.

--- Steve K.