What with the cold rain and my nostalgic look at the past yesterday, I must admit I found myself listening to a lot of sentimental Romanian music. One of the songs on my playlist was Cu bani nu cumperi ani, the linked version sung by Nicolae Guta although it’s not a manele song but rather a kind of Romanian ballad, sad, sweet and about the … Continue reading Word of the Day: Povața
On Saturday I wrote a lengthy piece about the current state of government policy on the stray dog issue here in Romania and in that article I mentioned the word hingher. The problem with this word is that it doesn’t really translate properly into English. If you type it into an online dictionary it invariable comes out as “flayer”. But what does that even mean? … Continue reading Word of the Day: Hingher
If you wander long enough in Romanian cities, you will eventually see a sign that says cu exceptie riveranilor. What in the world does this mean? The word riveran certainly looks like the word river, and for a good reason. It comes from a French word that means “on the banks of a river”. Therefore in Romanian it refers to “people who live on the … Continue reading Word of the Day: Riveran
Ahh… sometimes when I listen in on (or in this case, read) Romanians, I hear them use some pretty amazing words and that always reminds me to include them in one of my Word of the Day posts. Today I tip my hat to this fine post by a blogger, talking about how much she enjoys my scribblings here on the site. But what caught … Continue reading Word of the Day: Bălmăjeala
A lot of time foreign publications mention corruption in Romanian as if it were a single entity, one kind of “breaking the rules” for private gain. It’s understandable why some people would be confused. After all, the word “bribe” in English has nothing but negative connotations, utterly repellant to most people. Pay someone in the government to get something done? Unthinkably wrong. Nonetheless, Romania spent … Continue reading Word of the Day: Șpaga
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