The other morning my 3-year old asked if we could «украсить дом капустой» [decorate the house with cabbages]. Now, the suggestion comes from a wonderful book we are reading to him now. Particularly, from a story about five bunny rabbits who get bored on one of the cold winter days and decide to decorate their house with everything cabbage – drawings, clay cabbage, etc.

While it was very cute to hear my «малявка» [little one] call himself «крольчонок» [little bunny] and reenact the story, I couldn’t keep from laughing at the use of the word «капуста» [cabbage]. You see, in Russia, it is one of the slang words for «деньги» [money]. I immediately imagined covering the living room walls with money wallpaper and making coasters out of loose change.

While the official name of Russian currency is «рубль» [ruble, from the word «рубить» – to chop], the Russian language is full of euphemisms for money as well as for processes of making and paying money:

«Капуста» [cabbage] – refers to the green color of dollars.

 Example: «Хотите рубить капусту в сети?» [Would you like to make money on Internet?]

 «Бабки» – this one is tricky. It is not related to «бабы» [women], whether old or young. Instead, in Old Russia tall stacks of hay in the fields were called «бабки». Peasants had to «собирать» [gather] or «снимать» [lit: take off] «бабки» from the fields in order to sell them for money.

 Another version of this word’s origin is from a once-popular game called «бабки», somewhat similar to the game of marbles.

 Example: «Поехал в Москву на пару дней, бабок потратил – жуть!» [I went to Moscow for a couple of days and spent a ton of money!]

 «Бабло» – when «бабки» passed from the old Russian into criminal slang, it morphed into «бабло». There’s a joke now that the word was derived from the initials of the prominent Russian oligarch and now a political refugee «Борис Абрамович Березовский» [Boris Abramovich Berezovsky].

 Example: «Бабло побеждает зло!» [Bablo defeats evil!] – Title of the third album of the Russian group «Ундервуд» and also the title of the album’s opening song. The lyrics, if you are interested are (in my translation):

«Чей-то голос мне угрожает в трубку 

Там что-то про кэш и про мясорубку 

Bang-bang, свежий стейк, чья-то песенка спета 

Большие деньги любят тишину 

Большие деньги любят тишину 

Большие деньги любят тишину 

Кабинетов 

Бабло победит зло»

[Someone’s voice is threatening me on the phone

Something about cash and a meat grinder

Bang-bang, fresh steak, someone finished his song

Big money love quiet

Big money love quiet

Big money love quiet

Of office environment.

 Bablo will defeat evil…]

 «Грины» [greens] and «баксы» [bucks] – once again, references to American dollars. There is an entertaining theory that the colloquial name of the American dollar, buck, was borrowed by Americans from the «исконно-русского» [original Russian] word «бабки» (see above and yes, this theory doesn’t appear to hold much water).

 Example: «Потратил 46 баксов на два домена с PR=4.» [I spent 46 rubles on two domains with Google Page Rank of 4.]

 «Тугрики» [tugriks] – from the name of the Mongolian currency.

 Example: «Идемте в закрома… где Вы храните свои тугрики.» [Let’s go to the granary… where you keep your money.] from «Золотой Телёнок» [Golden Calf], a wonderful book by Ilya Ilf and Evgeniy Petrov.

 Other money words include «бобы» [beans], «фишки» [tokens], «фарш» [ground meat], «хрусты» [crunchies], «маники» [diminutive plural of “money”], «жатва» [harvest], «зелень» [greens].

 Depending on how you pay for your purchases, your бабки might be «нал» [cash; short for «наличные»] or «безналичка» [credit].

 And, if you find yourself amongst more or less Americanized Russians, say in New York, San Francisco, or Chicago, you can hear a wonderful Rusglish phrase

 «У меня нала нет за паркинг заплатить. Надо зайти в банк, окэшить чек.» [I don’t have cash to pay for parking. Must stop by the bank to cash a check.]

 If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. There’s folks wisdom aplenty to provide you some financial advice and guidance. Some of the really good «поговорки» [proverbs] for all tastes and situations include:

 «Деньги – не грибы – и зимой растут.» [Money aren’t like mushrooms; they grow even in winter.]

 «На деньги ума не купишь.» [Money won’t buy smarts.]

 «Здоровье дороже денег.» [Health is more valuable than money.]

 «Копейка рубль бережёт.» [A penny saves a dollar.]

 «Не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей.» [Having 100 friends is better than 100 rubles.]

 «Деньги не пахнут.» [Money don’t smell.]

 «Главное не в деньгах.» [It’s not the money that’s most important.]

 «Главное не в деньгах, а в их количестве.» [It’s not the money that’s important, but their quantity.]

 P.S. Let me clarify the proper stress in words «деньгам», «деньгами», «о деньгах»:

 The proper way of placing the stress is on the second syllable: «деньгам», «деньгами», «о деньгах».

 Placing stress on the first syllable, as in «деньгам», «деньгами», «о деньгах» is acceptable, but old-fashioned. Yet in the above-mentioned proverb the stress is preserved on the first syllable! File that one under “exceptions from the grammar rules that drive me crazy”.