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…
Tag: slang
Slang Word of the Day: Aoleu!
I was listening to manele (as I am wont to do hehe) this morning while cleaning the house and heard this “word” aoleu and it made me laugh as I’ve heard my neighbors use it a million times. It’s an interjection, which means it’s something people suddenly exclaim and is never “conjugated” or modified in…
Word of the Day: Pusy
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…
Expression of the Day: De Mama Focului
Living here in Romania and speaking English, it’s natural that I’m going to run into a few religious foreigners. Outside of Bucharest, I think half the foreigners or more are here primarily for religious purposes. Anyway, the other day one of them used a Romanian expression (correctly) and I had to cover my mouth not…
Slang Word of the Day: Nush
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)…
Slang Word of the Day: Mess
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…
Slang Word of the Day: Profi
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…
PCR
Sooner or later in Romania, someone is going to mention the concept of PCR (pay-chay-ray). But what is it? And what do those initials stand for? Actually they can stand for a lot of things, including Partidul Communist Roman or the Communist Party of Romania (of which I am the sole remaining official member). In…
Slang Word of the Day: Gabor
A few days ago, I wrote a post with a link to the old BUG Mafia song “Cine E Cu Noi” which I believe was released in 1999. That song holds a particularly special place in my heart because it was still quite popular in early 2000 when I first came to Romania and I…
Slang Word of the Day: Măr
Hopefully by now you know that măr (mur) means “apple”, from the Latin. However there’s an interesting expression using this word, a bate măr pe cineva, literally “to beat someone apple” means to issue a severe beat down on someone. You can hear Guta issue this phrase around minute 2:00 where he says (of Stefan…
Hungarian Word of the Day: Gáz
Today I went down to visit my (cats’) veterinarian, who is Hungarian, and asked her for another local slang word to pass on. Serendipitously, I ended up meeting an extremely nice Hungarian lady later on in a separate circumstance, so today I’ve been using more Hungarian than the last month combined. Today’s word is: gáz…
