Well yesterday I used a word that some of you had probably never heard before. I do indeed hope you never hear it during your time in Romania or while speaking to Romanians. Sadly, however, it is a word that’s all too regularly employed. I am referring to țeapă (tZOPP-uh). Sometimes you’ll see it spelled online as “tzeapa” or even “tzapa” due to the inability … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Ţeapă
Until you speak Romanian more or less fluently, I do not recommend you use the word tanti (tawn-tee) but you may hear it and wonder what it means. As you can see at the link, it’s a word that’s used to address a woman, particularly an “older” woman. It would never, ever be used for a young woman in any situation. It comes straight from … Continue reading Word of the Day: Tanti
Oh my goodness, I must say that I really like the word cățel (cut-sell) in Romanian for a number of reasons. The most common definition of this word is a puppy, as in a baby dog. A lot of people use it to refer to adult dogs too, although in that sense it’s kind of “cutesy” or baby talk, because in Romanian it sounds like … Continue reading Word of the Day: Cățel
One word you’ll definitely never find in any dictionary is this word “nush“, occasionally written as “nuş”. Although when I say “written” I mean that only in online, “slangy” conversations will you ever see it in written form as it won’t appear in newspapers, magazines or books. It is however used in every day (verbal) conversations a lot more often. What is it? A contraction … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Nush
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
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