Bulgarian Phrases: Kurva

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>KURVA--A slang word for prostitute that seems to be widely used in
>>all the Eastern European countries.
>whence the Yiddish KURVEH with the same meaning, evidently.  Anyone
>know the etymology?

I don't. Neither did Carl Darling Buck. But it may not be entirely 'slang'.

Buck's "Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European
Languages" (1949) gives for 'whore, prostitute':

Romanian 'curva' [with a-breve]
Lithuanian 'kurva'
Latvian 'kurva'
Serbocroatian 'kurva'
Czech 'kurva'
Polish 'kurwa'

These are apparently originally Slavic; Buck says 'origin uncertain;
borrowing from the Germanic group (Old Norse hora [with o-macron --DW],
etc. ...) ... is difficult phonetically."

On the Web, I find also Slovak 'kurva', Hungarian 'kurva'.

Also Hebrew 'kalba'.

-- Doug Wilson