one more question on kukharka

[Robert A. Rothstein]

Edward M Dumanis wrote:

>Kukharka is a kitchen maid. Since they did not generally have kitchen
>maids in the USSR, the word went out of usage in standard contemporary
>context.
>
>  
>
       Perhaps Lenin, Bukharin et al. used "kukharka" in the meaning 
suggested by Professor Dumanis, but the 4-volume Academy Dictionary (I 
don't have the 17-volume one at hand) defines "kukharka" as "rabotnitsa, 
gotoviashchaia kushan'ia; povarikha" with examples from Chekhov of a 
kukharka peeling potatoes and from the Soviet writer Babaevskii of a 
kukharka preparing dinner. Dal' defines "kukharka" as "povarikha, 
striapukha, prispeshnitsa," and both dictionaries list "kukhar'" as a 
dialect form meaning "povar."
    A more recent quotation comes from Egor Gaidar (from an interview in 
_Izvestiia_, 27 June 2003): "Samyi ser'eznyi risk segodnia [...] - 
prikhod v ekonomicheskuiu politiku kukharki s pistoletom."
    And another _krylatoe vyrazhenie_: _kukharkiny deti_, which derives 
from (but is not found in) a document promulgated in 1887 by I. D. 
Delianov, the minister of education, which prohibited _gimnazii_ and 
_progimnazii_ from admitting "detei kucherov, lakeev, povarov, prachek, 
melkikh lavochnikov i tomu podobnykh liudei, koikh, za iskliucheniem 
razve odarennykh neobyknovennymi sposobnostiami, ne sleduet vyvodit' iz 
sredy, k koei oni prinadlezhat."

Bob Rothstein

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