# BCS: Ćurak etc.



## ahvalj

In the Russian forum we have been recently discussing the origin of the derogatory term «чурка» used in Russian for the predominantly turkic-speaking nations. There is an apparent similarity with the homonymous Russian word denoting a chock, but I have hypothesized that it is actually a coincidence and the Russian «чурка» in the ethnic meaning may be an alternative ancient rendition of the word "türk" (see my arguments there). If it is indeed so, and this word was actually borrowed in the middle of the 1st millenium, its reflexes in various Slavic languages should look something like curek in Polish, Czech and Slovac, ćurak in BSC, щурък in Bulgarian etc. or, if the original "u" evolved in a standard way, they may be more advanced and look like crk, cerk, cerak, щърк or something like this. So far I have found the BSC ćurak as a surname but I cannot find its straight meaning (plus, of course, if ćurek is related, it may be a recent BSC rendition of the Turkish "türk"). I would be grateful for any help.


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## Duya

In BCS, _ćurak_ is an archaic term for short fur coat; it comes from Turkish _kürk_, 'fur' (source), so it's a newer loan than you're looking for. 

Word _ćurka_ means 'Turkey (bird)', but, to my big surprise, HJP says it's 'onomathopoeic', i.e. not related with apparent English cognate. Wikipedia, for the bird, says that the name is shortening from 'turkey fowl', and that the species originates from the New World, but entered Europe from Turkey indeed. However, that didn't hapen before 1500s, so it's probably a false trail too.


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## Eunos

<<чурка>> in Bulgarian means wiener(as a male organ)


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## ilocas2

Eunos said:


> <<чурка>> in Bulgarian means wiener(as a male organ)



 In Czech *čurák* means the same (it's vulgar word)


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## Azori

ilocas2 said:


> In Czech *čurák* means the same (it's vulgar word)


In Slovak, too. There's also the colloquial verb *čúrať* (albeit I don't know if it's related) that means "to pee", "to urinate".


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## ahvalj

Thanks everybody, but I am looking for a word with the initial consonant derived from the Common Slavic "tj", so it must be "c" in West Slavic, "č" in Slovenian, "ć" in Bosnian-Serbo-Croatian, "ќ" in Macedonian and "щ" in Bulgarian when followed by "u" or probably c in West Slavic and BSC when followed by any other vowel. Duya's suggestions fit well, thanks again, but these words are obviously newer, indeed. Well, if nothing else comes to mind, probably this word is an East Slavic peculiarity of an ambiguous origin ,-(


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## Eunos

In this case, there is no <<щурък>> in bulgarian but there is <<щурак>> which is a dialect word formed from the adjective <<щур>> which means <<crazy>>. So, <<щурак>> is used to call a crazy person, a person who acts unadvisedly and silly


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## Azori

As for Slovak, there are no such words as _curek, cerk, cerak _(as far as I know). I've found these:

*crk* (n.) = small amount of liquid

*crk / cŕk* (interj.) = sound of running water or of a cricket (insect)

*crkať / cŕkať* (v.) = 1. to run, to course, to trickle (about liquids / fluids) 2. to pour 3. to spit through teeth 4. to chirp, to chirk, to chirr
- these verbs also have more variants (with the meanings 1. and / or 2.) - crčať, crkotať, curčať, curkať, čurčať...etc.


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## ahvalj

Thanks again.


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