Russian Word of the Day

It is interesting how similar sounding words mean different things in different languages. I wonder how it came about. Maybe a long time ago a group of friends visiting a foreign land dropped a word in a conversation, while speaking their native tongue. The natives heard it, liked the sound of it and decided to adopt it in their language. However, because they did not know what that word meant, they came up with a whole different meaning for it.

Take for example батон. In Russian it means an oblong loaf of white bread. However in English button, which sounds similar, has a completely different meaning.

The word батон comes to Russian language from French bâton, which means stick, hence the elongated form of this particular bread loaf.

There can also be «батон колбасы» “sausage loaf/stick” or «батончик» a candy bar.

I remember when I first started learning English in primary school; I had this girl, Nastya, in my class. She was an “A” student and really good at languages. One time we were working on an exercise together and she decided to play a joke on me. She kept asking me different questions about батон, interchanging the meanings between English and Russian. Even though I knew what button meant in English, I kept falling for it. She would say:

When I, being gullible, would say “sure,” she would laugh and exclaim:

I wonder whatever happened to that girl...