I had to laugh because although I just formally learned the word imbulzeala (em-boolzy-ala) the other day, visitors and foreign residents in Romania have been asking me about the phenomenon for years. This is a classic Romanian word, constructed from a root word bulz, which means something like “clot” or “clump” or “clod”. As DEX helpfully informs us, when your mamaliga gels into a little … Continue reading WOTD: Imbulzeala
Well yesterday was Easter for Hungarians, Germans and pretty much all the foreigners here in Romania but for the Orthodox church that won’t happen until next Sunday. A useful word to know here in Romania at this time of year is denie (denny-eh) which refers specifically and only to the Orthodox masses held each day during the week before Easter (aka this week right now). … Continue reading Word of the Day: Denie
One of the more fun things you can do in the Romanian language is spontaneously create adjectives from acronyms. One of my favorite is “otevist”, which you won’t find in any dictionary but means “of or relating to OTV” based on the way those letters are pronounced in Romanian (o te vi + st). OTV is short for Oglinda TV or “Mirror” television. It is … Continue reading Word of the Day: Otevist
In case you’re wondering, that’s not my beautiful hand in the picture. A reader and a fan sent that in after buying and enjoying my book. If you live in Romania I’ve got some very good news. Someone put in a large order of books and then changed their mind so now I’ve got a lot of them! If you’ve ever wanted to read my … Continue reading Book Sale!
Whew, enough posts about me! Let’s talk about a word you’ve likely been hearing a lot in all of those clips and debates, and that is dezvoltare. The word is fairly easy for English speakers to master because it looks a lot like its translation – development. In most cases, it has a very identical meaning and if you look it up in a dictionary … Continue reading Word of the Day: Dezvoltare
All Things Romania 