One of the interesting things about traveling is that around the globe, different people have different slang abbreviations for McDonald’s, the multinational fast food empire. I know a lot of people are familiar with calling the outlets “Mickey D’s” in the United but did you know that in Australia it’s called Macca’s? Or that in Japan they call it “Makku”? Well in Romania, it’s called … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Mec
Probably one of the most common slang words used in Romania today, smecherie (shmeck-air-ee-eh) is simply put, the art of being a smecher (shmeck-air). Yet if you plug the word into a dictionary, what you get is “sly boots” or a “cunning person”. Close but not exactly right. The noun smecherie comes from the German word “Schmecker”, which just means someone who is employed as … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Smecherie
Probably one of my all-time vegetables to eat in Romania is varza, known in English by its less mellifluous name of “cabbage”. That being said, the word “varza” has a variety of slang usages, to wit: A (se) face (sau a ajunge, a fi etc.) varză = a (se) distruge, a (se) degrada, a (se) zdrențui Parsing this out it means something like “worn out” … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Varza
A few days ago I was joking around with The Woman, saying that all international borders in this country should be marked, “Welcome to Romania – Nu E Voie” (new eh voh-yay). At least around here, it’s certainly an expression you will hear all the time. But what does it mean? It’s a little tricky because voie has a lot of different but similar definitions, … Continue reading Slang Expression of the Day: Nu E Voie
Many years ago, I was in Brasov with a mixed company of native English and Romanian speakers at a bar. An associate of mine, a man from Ireland, was telling the group about how he had set up an elaborate fancy dinner in town for his then wife (now divorced). He had pre-paid for the meal, arranged everything with the wait staff and done his … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Degeaba
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