ethnic expressions

[James West]

There's a need for a little care in the collection of ethnic expressions.
"Prusak" in Russian, too, means a 'roach (Blatta orientalis, the "ryzhii
tarakan," or for Dal' the "malyi ili buryi izbnoi tarakan"), and it's a
derivative surely from "prus," which is an item of specialized horse
vocabulary - the same Slavic word as the Polish? "Prussak" with a
double-ss is the Russian for a Prussian.

                                                     James West

On Fri, 13 Oct 1995, Rafal S. Konopka wrote:

> Oscar E Swan wrote:
> >
> > and, in the same spirit, in Polish Prusak (Prussian) means bedbug, and (a
> > favorite of mine) czeski film (a Czech movie) means something totally
> > incomprehensible.
>
> It is quite possible that "Prusak" means a bedbug in some dialects of
> Polish, but it is not in general use, where it means a roach-like bug.
>
> Bravo for the "czeski film"!  Let me add a few, while I'm at it:
>
> Kanada  (Canada)--mostly of lifestyle or one's job--easy, relaxing,
> lavish (affluent), comfortable.
> cygan (gypsy)--a cheat, liar
> cyganic (v ~= to gypsy)--to cheat, lie
> milosc francuska (French love)--oral sex [Sorry, couldn't resist]
> angielska flegma (English composure)--stiff-upper-lip, self-control,
> slowness
> holender (Dutchman)--mild expletive, in fact a euphemism for "cholera"
> [functionally equivalent to "shoot".  I have never seen it
 written.]
> wloska kapusta (Italian cabbage)--a variety of cabbage.
> franca [orig. French desease==syphilis]--something very difficult;
> nasty, mean person.
> chinszczyzna (Chinese)--something incomprehensible (particularly of
> someone's writing--bureaucratic/legal language)
> wegierka (Hungarian <fem.>)--common kind of plum.
> czech (a Czech)--in soccer, a type of a kick where the ball gets a lot
> of lateral spin.
>
> If I remember something else, I'll add.
>
> Rafal
> --
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> + Rafal S. Konopka                   Info-Spatialist Extraordinaire +
> + Linguistic Atlas Office                             316 Park Hall +
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> + email: rafalk at atlas.uga.edu              http://hyde.park.uga.edu +
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>