Well as I briefly mentioned here and illustrated with a photograph here, the Hungarians here in Unicorn City have been getting mighty upset about the way the Lord of Cluj has been operating lately. As sad as this is to say, stirring up the Hungarians is essentially a political move ahead of the 2012 elections, and here in Unicorn City a little dose of racism … Continue reading Word of the Day: Bozgor
Oh mercy! The other day while speaking with someone, I heard one of my all time favorite Romanian words and I realized I’d never put it on the blog. The word in question is bucluc (book-look), which DEX charmingly describes as “an unpleasant situation” or “discord” or “an argument”. Sometimes it’s difficult to find an exact English translation for Romanian words but in this case … Continue reading Word of the Day: Bucluc
If you speak any kind of Latin-based language, it’s pretty easy to recognize the Romanian word plaja to mean “beach”, as in the sandy strip of shoreline next to a body of water such as an ocean. But what is face plaja or “to do the beach”? In Romanian this is a very common expression and all it means is to “tan oneself” or “lay … Continue reading Expression of the Day: Face Plaja
The other day I was racking my brain trying to think of a few words that people learning Romanian might hear but might be difficult to find in the dictionary as they are a kind of slang or euphemistic speech. And then this came across my Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/#!/DeWeekendRo/status/68277315414671360 Yes! What does razna mean, and what does it mean to “take” it? Plainly put, “o … Continue reading Word of the Day: Razna
Lately I’ve been seeing this expression contra cost pop up a lot and I really didn’t understand it. After all, contra means “against”, so did it mean free (no charge)? Or did it mean something akin to “at a minimum cost”? No. Turns out it’s related to a euphemism for prostitution and “contra cost” means to do something for money. It doesn’t necessarily have to … Continue reading Word of the Day: Contra Cost
All Things Romania 