List of English words of Russian origin
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Many languages, including English, contain words possibly borrowed from Russian. Not all of them are of truly Russian or Slavic origin. Some of them co-exist in other Slavic languages and it is difficult to decide whether they entered English from Russian or, say, from Polish, most notable of these being vodka. Some others are borrowed or constructed from classical ancient languages, such as Latin or Greek, still others are borrowed from indigenous peoples of the Russian Empire.
Most of them are used to denote things and notions specific to Russia, Russian culture, politics, history, especially well-known outside Russia: vodka, intelligentsia, taiga, tundra, pogrom. Possibly some others are in "mainstream" usage, independent of any Russian context.
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Common
- babushka
- Gulag
- knout
- (borrowing from Swedish)
- kopek
- (kopeck, copeck)
- kremlin
- mammoth
- matryoshka
- pogrom
- ruble (rouble)
- sable
- samovar
- sputnik
- Troika (triumvirate)
- Troika (dance)
- troika (sled)
- tundra
- ushanka
- vodka
Cuisine
- blintz
- blin, pancake
- borsch
- kasha
- Buckwheat groats, Russian for "porridge" or "gruel"
- pelmeni
- pirogi
- also Polish pierogi, (plural) dumplings or pies.
- pirozhki (piroshki) small pirogi
- shchi
- sirniki, syrniki
- smetana
- vareniki
Political, Administrative
- agitprop
- apparatchik
- bolshevik
- boyar
- Cheka
- commissar
- DOSAAF
- Duma
- dvoryanstvo, dvoryanin
- FSB
- glasnost
- guberniya
- Kadet
- KGB
- kniaz
- kolkhoz
- kulak
- krai
- Leninism
- MGB
- Menshevik
- mir
- MVD
- Narkompros
- Nyet ("No")
- as in Mr. Нет (Andrei Gromyko was known as Mr. Нет)
- NEP
- NKVD
- nomenklatura
- obshchina
- oblast
- okhranka
- okrug
- oprichina
- oprichnik
- perestroika
- pyatiletka
- Politburo
- propiska
- raion (from French)
- silovik
- SMERSH
- soviet
- sovkhoz
- Sovmin
- Sovnarkhoz
- Sovnarkom
- Spetsnaz
- stakhanovite
- Stalinism
- Stavka
- tsar, tsardom, tsaritsa, tsarevna, tsarevich, tsesarevich
- ukase
- veche
- Yevsektsiya
- zampolit
- zemshchina
- Zemsky Sobor
- zemstvo
Religious
Technical, special
- Baidarka
- a type of sea kayak
- jarovization
- later turned into vernalization
- Tokamak
- a plasma confinement device
- Mir
- a Russian space station
- polynya
- area of clear water in arctic ices
- rasputitsa
- a season of muddy roads
Obsolete Russian weights and measures
Various
These are some other untranslatable Russian terms that have articles in English language Wikipedia.
- BAM
- bayan
- Belomorkanal (canal) and Belomorkanal (cigarettes)
- banya
- bylina
- Cantonist
- chainik
- chastushka
- dacha
- dedovshchina
- Junker (Russia)
- katorga
- kurgan
- Lysenkoism
- Lunokhod
- mat
- muzhik
- palochka
- Pravda
- sambo
- samizdat
- samogon
- sharashka
- Soyuz
- titlo
- Voskhod
- Vostok
- Yabloko
- zaum
See also
- Cyrillic alphabet
- Runglish
- Category:Russian terminology and its subcategories
External links
- Glossary -- Soviet Union (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/soviet_union/su_glos.html)sl:seznam slovenskih besed ruskega izvora