Archives for: April 2009, 03

Псина

April 3rd, 2009 by Don

Y'know, you just never stop learning when you study a foreign language, and last month for the first time I encountered the word псина. The primary meaning of the word is dog meat:

В 1984-ом году в Корее запретили продажу псины. The sale of dog meat was prohibited in Korea in 1984.
В Вьетнаме суп варят из псины. In Vietnam they make soup out of dog meat.

The word is also commonly used to just mean dog as well. If you search for псина on youtube.com, you will find all sorts of videos of people and their dogs doing all sorts of odd tricks, like singing to Gwen Stefani tunes.

Псина also means the smell of a dog or of dog fur:

Почему здесь пахнет псиной? Why does it smell like dog fur in here?
Фу, здесь воняет псиной! Ugh, it reeks like a nasty ol' dog here.
Знаешь, я недавно нашёл прекрасные духи, которые пахнут мокрой псиной. Они меня спасли. Раньше девушки ко мне постоянно приставали, а теперь я могу появляться в общественных местах совершенно спокойно. You know, I recently found a marvelous cologne that smells like a wet dog. It has saved me. Women used to hound me constantly, but now I can appear in public in complete peace.

It seems like all words connected with dogs can be used as general terms of abuse, and псина is no exception, and it can be used of either men or women. If used of a man, it can have masculine gender, and if used of a woman, it has feminine gender:

Маша, псина ты некультурная, ты опять обидела клиента! Удивлюсь, если тебя не рассчитают. Mary, you rude idiot, you've offended a client again. I'll be surprised if they don't fire you.
Боря, псина ты идиотский, я сказала, чтобы ты купил два кило сахара и пачку соли, а не два кило соли и пачку сахара! Boris, you complete idiot, I told you to buy four pounds of sugar and a packet of salt, not four pounds of salt and a packet of sugar.

Note: see discussion of the last sample sentence in the comments section.

Posted in Dogs | 3 comments »