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Tag Archives: old Russian words

Familiar unknowns Posted by on Jan 17, 2022

a boyar

In my blog about idioms with the word ‘white’ (белый), I got a great comment about two Russian words чернила и белила (black ink and white paint). (Thank you @samonen! Have I mentioned we love to read your comments?) Белила reminded me of the phrase “белены объелся”. And before you ask, белила и белена are…

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Do You Know The Old Meaning of These 5 Russian Words? Posted by on May 11, 2017

flipflops on a beach

Because modern Russian (современный русский язык) only emerged as recently as the 19th century, a lot of what’s considered Russian literary canon is easily understood by Russian speakers today. However, there are a few words that have changed their meaning over the last centuries. Do you know the old meaning of the following words? Живот Живот…

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12 Months in Russian – Part 2 Posted by on Feb 9, 2012

In case you missed it, this is Part 2 of the story about old Russian names for the 12 months of the year. January through June are covered in Part 1. As for the video, it has a connection albeit tenuous to this post, specifically to one of the names for September.  Июль (July) – the old…

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Old Russian Names for the 12 Months Posted by on Feb 7, 2012

Ну и зима выдалась! (This is some kind of winter!) Over where I am right now, daffodils and cherry trees are already blooming and folks are strolling around in t-shirts and flip-flops (and no, I am not in the Southern Hemisphere or in the tropics). All the while, my friends in Volgograd, Russia, mention чрезвычайно…

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