Russian Word of the Day

It is interesting how some slang words in Russian are formed from something completely unrelated. The words колбасить and колбаситься would seem to come from the word колбаса “sausage” or “salami”; however, in reality, they have nothing to do with it.

If someone says, «меня колбасит», don’t just assume they want to have a salami sandwich... What they probably mean is that they feel weird for whatever reason. They may be under drug or alcohol influence, sick or just nervous.

However, sometimes this word can be used to express a positive feeling:

The word колбаситься means "to have fun", while dancing, relaxing, and acting silly and often irresponsible.

«Колбаса» in Russian slang is used to describe something enjoyable and of a good quality, while «колбасня» a fun time, a wild party or generally something worth experiencing.

I think I used these words the most while living in a dorm in Israel during my high school years. My friends and I колбасились “had fun” at so many different колбасня’s “great parties.” Even though sometimes нас колбасило “we were freaking out” before our exams, we tried to calm down because a well-written exam is another reason to поколбаситься “relax and have some silly fun”!

Ever since I started writing blog entries, my friends have been begging me to write about «супер-пупер». This expression is similar to “super-duper” in meaning but, because of the obvious references, it sounds much funnier in English. The first time they heard me saying it, they could not stop laughing.

Just like in English, «супер-пупер» is formed in consonance with «супер» "super". I wonder why it is «пупер», though. Maybe it has something to do with «пуп» or «пупок», "belly button." In Russian «Пуп Земли» means "The Navel of the Earth", a cosmological notion of the center of the world in various religious and mythological traditions. It is a very important and holy place, a place where God sits. (source) It might be a little too far fetched but it seems that «супер-пупер», which essentially means "the greatest", is associated with the holy place.

As it often happens with slang, expressions come and go; words that seemed so popular just recently are being replaced by the even newer ones. Likewise, «супер-пупер» is no longer a commonly used expression; however, people will not look at you funny if you use it. It will just make them smile.

Качок is gym slang for a guy who is trying to put on a ton of muscle:

For a neat reference of body-building terminology and gym slang, see this forum.

Every once in a while Russian throws you something so absurd that you just can't believe it, and today we'll see it in the slang phrase бум-бум which means "don't/doesn't understand":

Notice that in this phrase we write ни and not не. That's because ни бум-бум is really the equivalent of ничего, not the equivalent of a verb.

If you're in the mood for a pop song that contains the phrase бум-бум in this meaning, take a look at this video and translation of the song «Бум, бум, бум» by the group Любовные истории.

The Russian word for pepper is перец. It means table pepper, which is the ground fruit of piper negrum, a plant of the Indian subcontinent, and it also means peppers like the bell pepper, the jalapeño, and the poblano, which are cultivars of capsicum annum, a plant native to the Americas. The latter are sometimes called chiles (or chilis or chilies or chillies).

The second е in перец is a fleeting vowel. The declension of the noun turns out like this:

In English we might say "Do you like hot peppers?", but like most food items in Russian, you use перец in the singular when speaking abstractly: «Мама не любит острый перец, а я острое люблю» “Mom doesn't like hot peppers, but I love hot stuff."

The phrase “two peppers” nearly got me into trouble last week. I wanted to verify that one could use перец after numbers to count individual peppers, so I googled the phrase «два перца» “two peppers” and, lo and behold, «у меня на экране появилась всякая порнушка» “all sorts of porno appeared on my screen.” What the devil? It turns out that перец also has slang meanings of “hot guy” or “male reproductive organ.” Oh, dear. That means I accidentally used university resources to… “А вдруг меня уволят?» “What if they fire me?” If you think that's paranoid, you obviously haven't read Kafka's “The Trial.”

Sometimes the slang meaning of the word is simply “guy,” and the phrases "клёвый перец" and "классный перец" simply mean “cool guy.” Here's a non-pornographic joke that uses the word, along with a loose translation. [source]

So why is this funny? It's funny because the first was so drunk he rowed the boat on land, plus he couldn't remember doing so the next morning, plus the second was so drunk he threw fishing nets on land without objection.