Russian Word of the Day

My language partner, Alan, and I went to an exhibition of exotic fish at one of the museums on ул. Кремлёвская. That set me thinking about aquariums. The word is fairly straight forward in Russian.

Of course the first thing I wanted to do was discuss the difference between fresh-water aquariums and salt-water aquariums, and I translated those phrases word for word into Russian. Wrong. You can't literally say ‘fresh-water aquarium’ in Russian; instead you have to say ‘an aquarium with fresh-water fish’ or ‘an aquarium with salt-water fish.’

This article would not be complete without mentioning the legendary rock band «Аквариум». Of their music I especially love the song “Rock and roll's dead, but I'm not... yet.” You can listen to it and read the words and translation here.

The word for cow in Russian is корова. It declines like this:

Here are a few sentences...

* Okay, I admit to some plagiarism here. I was having a flashback to Herodotus, who wrote, “How crocodiles are worshipped by some, killed and eaten by by others.”

The word for animal in Russian is животное. You will notice that it resembles the word живу ‘I live,’ and indeed the root жив- means ‘live.’ In fact in Old Russian the word живот meant life, although nowadays it means stomach. You'll note that животное has a neuter adjectival ending. I suspect that it originally was part of the phrase «животное существо» ‘living being,’ although that's just a guess. In any case, the word is now used as a noun, even though its endings are adjectival, and for that reason we can call it a deadjectival noun. It declines like this:

Notice particularly that since the word is neuter, the accusative singular does NOT copy the genitive singular.

My favorite letter of the Russian alphabet has always been Ж. When I was younger I called it "the bug letter" because it kind of looks like a bug. Conveniently, it is also the first letter of the Russian word for bug, жук. The plural of our word is, жуки. To be precise, the word means beetle, a type of insect that has hardened wing-coverings:

Жук полетел прямо на меня!
The beetle flew right at me!

If the context does not demand scientific precision, then one might use the word ‘bugs’ in English translation:

Ещё три жука влетели в комнату.
Three bugs flew into the room.

Since I am terrified of bugs, if the above examples were in real life, I would be running out of that room. Especially if the жук were a cockroach. Blech!

The diminutive form of the word is жучок in the singular and жучки in plural. You can use this form if the bug is tiny or if the context is informal. Diminutives of animal words are also often used when talking to children or when children are talking about animals.

Дима смеялся над Машей, потому что она убежала от жучков.
Dima laughed at Masha because she ran away from the bugs.

Это всего лишь маленький  жучок!
It's just a little bug!

In American slang we often refer to a minor sickness as a bug; Russians don't do this. So if you say “У меня жук в желудке” to mean “I have a stomach bug,” then Russian people will think that you literally you swallowed a beetle.

I don’t like most horror movies. There is always a naïve dummy being led into the hands of an evil master, who is driven by his utter insanity or various psychological issues. All this blood spill doesn’t do anything for me except for giving me an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Personally, I prefer suspense. I like that little chill and goose bumps you get when thinking “Can this really be possible?”

In Russian the goose bumps are called «гусиная кожа» “goose skin.” However, a more folksy word is мурашки.

The reason мурашки is used to describe this feeling is because this is also a word for ants or other little insects. Therefore, «мурашки по коже побежали», “ants ran on the skin” is probably one of the most used expressions to describe goose bumps along with the feeling causing them. (Insects running on your skin… mmmagical feeling… Gross!)

I am not sure what the context should be but I suppose you one could talk about a singular goose bump, мурашка, even though it is usually seen in its plural form. However, мурашка can definitely be used when talking about an ant.

Just like in English, you can get мурашки from being cold or overcome by feelings, either positive or negative.