Lokhotron = Scam?

[Alina Israeli]

>FWIW, Steve Marder's /Supplementary R-E Dictionary/ (1992) defines -ª-æ-Ö
>as a "customer of a prostitute" -- what I would call a "john."

I presume it was "lox". Hm. Hardly the main meaning.

"Bol'shoj slovar' russkogo zhargona" (Norint 2001) [=BSZh] has 8 meanings
of "lokh", some of them rather similar, I would say, none remeniscent of
"john". The most common thread is the same as the first meaning listed in
"Tolkovyj slovar' nenormativnoj leksiki russkogo jazyka" (by Kveselevich,
Moscow 2003): 1. prostak, derevenshchina, prostofilja, razinja. The second
meaning in Kveselevich is 2. Klient prostitutki (="john").

[BSZh] also lists Dahl as the first source and the first meaning
'muzhchina, muzhik, muzh' and it is marked "ofenja".

And indeed in Dahl under lox" ["=tverdyj znak] we find the first meaning
'ryba semga', and later on: 'razinja, shalopaj' (na ofenskom muzhik,
krest'janin voobshche).

Interestingly, Dahl also has "loxa" ('soloxa, dura, glupaja baba,
durishcha, durynda') which is not listed in other dicitionaries.

The dictionary of "Russkaja fenja" (by Bykov, 1994) has "lox" - 'glupyj,
naivnyj chelovek'.

Kveselevich has "loxotron" - 'zhul'nicheskaja lotereja'.

[BSZh] has several more formations. In addition to loxotron ('ulichnaja
besproishnaja lotereja, ustraivaivaemaja moshennikami') and loxotronshchik,
it has loxovoz (avtobus and tramvaj, both from Xabarovsk) and Loxodrom -
'stadion "Lokomotiv"'.

Also (I am about to finish), there is an interesting formation: "loxmèn"
(with "e oborotnoe", i.e. from English "man") - 'ochen' glupyj chelovek',
and a few more words of the same root. The absence of "loxa" is compensated
by "loxnezija" - 'nekrasivaja, neprijatnaja devushka'.

AI

__________________________
 Alina Israeli
 LFS, American University
 4400 Mass. Ave., NW
 Washington, DC 20016

 phone:    (202) 885-2387
 fax:      (202) 885-1076 

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