ethnic expressions

[Ralph Cleminson]

On 13.10.95 James West wrote:
> 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.
>
On the other hand, "svab" in Hungarian is also a cockroach, which
suggests a similar attitude to the Germans.

Re Pol. "cygan, cyganic" (liar, to lie), Slovak "Cigan, ciganit" have
the same meaning.

And Slovak "Mad'ar" is a spot or boil ( a pun on "uhor").

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Ralph Cleminson, Reader in Slavonic Studies, University of Portsmouth
ralph at hum.port.ac.uk
http://www.hum.port.ac.uk/Users/ralph.cleminson/home.htm
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