New Russian loan words: What do these means?
English is the language of globalisation, and it would be hard to find a language that is not affected by English in some way. Russian is no exception. While in the past, European languages like German, Italian and French have had a great deal of influence, it is clear that English now dominates the new “import” of words, and the trend with new Russian loan words from English have accelerated since the 1990s’. The benefits are clear to Europeans who learn Russian, whose burden of new vocabulary lightens ever so slightly over the years.
It was most noticeable with business and capitalist terms as Russians could not find equivalents in their own language. These terms, and what they described, simply did not exist before. For example:
Outsourcing – аутсорсинг
Businessman – бизнесмен
Marketing – маркетинг
Speculation – спекуляция
Investment – инвестиция
Know-How – ноу-хау
PR (Public Relations) person – пиарщик
Offshoring – оффшоринг
Hedge fund – хедж-фонд
Voucher – ваучер
That was easy? Here is the real challenge!
Today, Russian society as a whole and especially young people drives the change. As with young people in any country, their use of slangs may confuse their own elders. Even more so when it is imported from abroad. Here is a list of 10 new Russian loan words, this time much tricker. How many can you guess correctly?
1. чекать
2. ливнуть
3. крипово
4. кринж
5. рили
6. фиксить
7. рофл
8. юзать
9. чиллить
10. солдаут
See below. So how many did you guess correctly?
1. Check 2. Leave 3. Creepy 4. Cringe 5. Really 6. Fix 7. ROFL 8. Use 9. Chill 10. Sold-out
