The other day I heard a friend of mine use this word and I had to smile. Clearly this word looks like the American vulgar term for a coward and it is almost pronounced the same – but not quite. In fact, you’re not really bilingual in Romanian and English until you can say these two words correctly. Sometimes spelled pusi, in Romanian it is … Continue reading Word of the Day: Pusy
The other day I was talking to my mother and a phrase rose unbidden in my mind – “spor la treaba“. I didn’t actually say it though because while I know what it means I didn’t have a way to translate it. Spor la treaba (sometimes spor la lucru) is just a generic phrase Romanians say to one another when beginning to work. I think … Continue reading Word of the Day: Spor
Certainly not a “slang” word but just one of those mysterious Romanian words with a shadowy and uncertain past, ajun simply means the day (or night) before an important event. In this case, Ajunul (“the day/night before”) Craciunului (“of the Christmas”) simply means the night/day before Christmas, or as it is said in English, Christmas Eve. If you speak Romanian, I found this religious tale … Continue reading Word of the Day: Ajunul Craciunului
The other night at the book party a couple of people I’ve written about many times on this website attended and it was great catching up with them. One of them used a word I knew quite well but had forgotten about: mess. It’s a local short form of the longer “Yahoo Messenger”, the instant messaging program, although sometimes Romanians just call any IM program … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Mess
The other day I was riding a bus in Cluj through a specific neighborhood when I saw something that brought a smile to my eyes. Right there on B-dul Titulescu is a large sign for a small hardware store that sells tools and drills and those kinds of things. And through a slightly odd series of events, it was I myself who hung up that … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Profi
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