Help with three Slovak songs

R. M. Cleminson rmcleminson at POST.SK
Sun Nov 13 10:25:31 UTC 2011


This etymology is further confirmed by the fact that it explains the l in obranclovať, which had been worrying me and no doubt others: it comes not directly from the noun ránc, but from the verb ráncol.

----- Pôvodná správa -----
--obrancovat': This verb, meaning "to pleat" does come from Hungarian, as Jan Zielinski says, but "ranc" in connection with clothes and especially a skirt refers to a "pleat." Pleating the skirt was a way to keep it in proper and accepted shape. Both Hungarian and Slovak women engaged in this activity. Pleats were made by running one's fingernails down small sections of material after the skirt was washed. This was a difficult and time-consuming task requiring precision, and it could be supposed that the girl in the song was, as David Cooper suspects, lazy, and would not make these pleats properly or at all. 

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