# to smoke a cigarette



## linguist786

Which verb is used in your language for "to smoke a cigarette"?

In Gujarati/Urdu/Hindi, we actually say "to drink a cigarette"! 
[sigrayt piivu (GUJ), sigrayt piinaa (HIN/URD)]

I was wondering if there were other funny verbs used in other languages.

French = fumer (to smoke)
Spanish = fumar (to smoke)
Italian = fumare (to smoke)
German = rauchen (to smoke)
In Arabic, would it be دخن (dakhkhana) from ممنوع التدخين?


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## Jeedade

Dutch: roken (to smoke)


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## elroy

linguist786 said:


> In Arabic, would it be دخن (dakhkhana) from ممنوع التدخين?


 Yes, but in colloquial Arabic we also use شرب ("to drink").  I was not aware that other languages did this!


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## ameana7

In Turkish it is "sigara içmek" which literally means, like in Hindi, "drink a cigarette"!


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## Lemminkäinen

In Norwegian: *å røyke* (to smoke)


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## jazyk

In Portuguese: fumar.


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## parakseno

Romanian:
to smoke a cigarette - a fuma o ţigară
smoke (the) - fum


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## jazyk

Bem lembrado!

smoke (the): fumo, fumaça


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## Ilmo

*Finnish:*
In Finnish there are two verbs, that have a bit different use:

*tupakoida* = to smoke (cigarettes, pipe) en general
*polttaa *= (literally) to burn (a cigarette, a pipeful)

I smoke = *tupakoin, poltan *(for instance as an answer to the question "Do you smoke")
I smoke a cigarette = *poltan savukkeen* (you cannot use the other verb)
No smoking = *tupakointi kielletty *(literally: smoking forbidden)


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## avalon2004

Greek:*
καπνίζω (ένα τσιγάρο) *[kapnízo éna tsigháro]
You don't need to refer to a "cigarette/τσιγάρο" because this is usually implied.

The verb *καπνίζω *is literally "to smoke", c.f. _smoke_ (noun) =* καπνός *[kapnós]


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## Flaminius

*Japanese:*
タバコを吸う
tabako-o suu
to suck/inhale tobacco


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## Nino pirosmani

In Georgian this is "to smoke".


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## betulina

In Catalan: "fumar".


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## Namakemono

Danish: "at ryge"


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## olivinha

linguist786 said:


> Which verb is used in your language for "to smoke a cigarette"?
> 
> In Gujarati/Urdu/Hindi, we actually say "to drink a cigarette"!
> [sigrayt piivu (GUJ), sigrayt piinaa (HIN/URD)]
> 
> I was wondering if there were other funny verbs used in other languages.


 
Well, nothing funny about fumar in Portuguese; however, the verb we use in Portuguese for the action of inhaling the smoke (when smoking a cigarette) is_ tragar_, which also means to drink or swallow avidly. 
O


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## Hakro

Just to add a curiosity to what Ilmo said about the Finnish expressions, some three hundred years ago there was a Finnish expression "drinking tobacco", as smoking was considered as bad a habit as drinking alcohol.


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## Marga H

In Polish:
*palić *papierosy literally means to burn cigarettes.


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## jun

In Korean: " 담배피다 "


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## samanthalee

In Mandarin, there are 2 verbs that can be used.
In speech, it is more common to use 抽 (chou1)[to draw, as in pulling out. eg. "lucky draw" or "drawers" (compartments in a cupboard, not underwears)]

In writing, it is usual to use 吸 (xi1) [to suck or to inhale]

Another interesting point is, in Mandarin, cigarette is called 烟 （yan1)[smoke] or 香烟 （xiang1 yan1）[fragrant smoke].

Hence, smoking cigarette is 抽烟 （chou1 yan1）[to draw smoke] or 吸烟（xi1 yan1）[to suck smoke]


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## Etcetera

In Russian: курить сигарету (to smoke a cigarette); закурить сигарету (to start smoking a cigarette).


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## Hakro

samanthalee said:


> In Mandarin, there are 2 verbs that can be used.
> In speech, it is more common to use 抽 (chou1)[to draw, as in pulling out. eg. "lucky draw" or "drawers" (compartments in a cupboard, not underwears)]
> 
> In writing, it is usual to use 吸 (xi1) [to suck or to inhale]


In Finnish, too, in colloquial speech we can use the verb "vetää", literally "to draw" or "to pull".


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## MingRaymond

samanthalee said:


> Another interesting point is, in Mandarin, cigarette is called 烟 （yan1)[smoke] or 香烟 （xiang1 yan1）[fragrant smoke].
> 
> Hence, smoking cigarette is 抽烟 （chou1 yan1）[to draw smoke] or 吸烟（xi1 yan1）[to suck smoke]


 
And in Cantonese, it is 食煙 (to eat cigarette).


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## cherine

elroy said:


> Yes, but in colloquial Arabic we also use شرب ("to drink"). I was not aware that other languages did this!


Same thing in colloquial Arabic of Egypt. We use both "dakh'khan" = to smoke, and "yeshrab" = to drink.




samanthalee said:


> In Mandarin, [...] smoking cigarette is 抽烟 （chou1 yan1）[to draw smoke] or [...]





Hakro said:


> In Finnish, too, in colloquial speech we can use the verb "vetää", literally "to draw" or "to pull".


VERY interesting ! In Egypt too, there are people who use the verb "yes7ab" يسحب = to pull/to draw, to express the "inhaling" of smoke. They say : يسحب نفس yes7ab nafas = to draw an inhale.


Edit : I forgot another verb, more or less widely used, with the same meaning of "to pull" : yeshedd  يشد (نَفَس)ا . I think it's more used with "sheesha" (or narguileh), but I'm not very sure.


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## Miguelillo 87

In Náhuatl is.-Popoca tlachinolli.

Popoca literally it's what the volcano does, a fumarole.


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## Lykurg

In German it is also possible to pull: "an einer Zigarette ziehen"

"rauchen" usually implies a cigarette, although it can refer to some other fire, too.


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## jp_fr_linguaphile

In the US, we can say "take a drag off a cigarette," but that means inhale once and then exhale.  

There is also the expression "puff on a cigarette" which is slang for "smoke a cigarette."


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## spakh

In Turkish 
tüttürmek can be used, too


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## gigi1

avalon2004 said:


> Greek:
> *καπνίζω (ένα τσιγάρο) *[kapnízo éna tsigháro]
> You don't need to refer to a "cigarette/τσιγάρο" because this is usually implied.
> 
> The verb *καπνίζω *is literally "to smoke", c.f. _smoke_ (noun) =* καπνός *[kapnós]


 

Older people say also πίνω ένα τσιγάρο (pino ena tsigaro) = drink a cigarette (in this case the use of the word cigarette is obligatory). Younger people use it in order to refer to cigarettes with hashish(slang)


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## Maja

In Serbian "*pušiti *cigaretu / cigaru" means "to smoke". 
Example: the stove  is smoking - peć se puši.


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## papillon

Marga H said:


> In Polish:*palić *papierosy literally means to burn cigarettes.





Etcetera said:


> In Russian: курить сигарету (to smoke a cigarette) ...


...and in Ukrainian, located between Poland and Russia, both words can be used. In the East, it's курити (kuryty) - to smoke, but in the West, палити (palyty) - to burn, can be used.
Which reminds me of an old joke about a guy in a small village in Western Ukraine who wasn't particulatly fond of the Soviet regime.

As he sits smoking in front of his house, his grandson asks: 
Діду, діду, що ти палиш? -Grandpa, grandpa, what are you smoking? (uses the verb "to burn)
Біломор.  -Bilomor (a brand of cigarettes).
А якщо не буде більше Біломору?-And what if there is no more Bilomor?
Тоді...сільраду! -Then... the city hall!


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## roh3x2n

Lykurg said:


> In German it is also possible to pull: "an einer Zigarette ziehen"


Same as Persian/farsi
Kasheed'en. 
or nosheed'en


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## Nizo

*Esperanto* uses the verb *fumi* (to smoke), _fumi cigaredon_.


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## XiaoRoel

En galego é *fumar un pito*.


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## xavierxavier

In Indonesian: "merokok" (to smoke) or "menghisap rokok" (to suck/inhale cigarette).
I think the noun rokok is derived from Dutch.


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## Encolpius

jun said:


> In Korean: " 담배피다 "



What *verb *do you use?


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## Encolpius

Flaminius said:


> *Japanese:*
> タバコを吸う
> tabako-o suu
> to suck/inhale tobacco



Interesting, because in *Hungarian *we say: cigarettát szív [szív = to suck]


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## szivike

Encolpius said:


> Interesting, because in *Hungarian *we say: cigarettát szív [szív = to suck]



Just make it more complete, "szívni" sometimes means "to inhale" (friss levegőt szívni - to inhale fresh air) in Hungarian. 

I've also heard of "elfüstölni egy cigarettát" - , lit. "to smoke a cigarette away", but that's only used when you want to spend a lot of time doing it. Maybe the closest thing in English would be "to puff a cigarette", not sure whether anyone actually uses that though.


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## kloie

in persian it is
sigar keshidan
keshidan=to pull,drag


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## ThomasK

There's something funny about a Flemish (maybe a 'Coast Flemish') version of 'to smoke (a cigarette)': *'smoren'* (with /r/, not /k/). Ingeweonism or something.

By the way: it is also the word for 'fog', but not for 'smoky air'.

_(The drinking/ sucking smoke is at least funny... ;-))_


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## OneStroke

It's 食煙 - sik yin (eat smoke) in Cantonese. Many Cantonese speakers mistakenly say 吃煙 (chi yan, lit. eat smoke) when talking in Putonghua.


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## ilocas2

Czech:

*kouřit cigaretu* - to smoke cigarette


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## vianie

Slovak:

fajčiť cigaretu - to smoke a cigarette

fajka - pipe


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## Wynn Mathieson

The standard Irish-language wording for the "No smoking" sign is *Ná caith tobac*. 

At first sight, this means "do not throw tobacco" (!), but in fact the verb *caith* means "spend" and "consume" as well as, literally, "throw" -- so the phrase is not perhaps quite as outlandish as all that...


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## arielipi

Hebrew:
to smoke לעשן le'*a*shen


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## luitzen

In Frisian it's _smoke._

We can also say _roke_ or _rikje_.

In addition to _roken_, you could also say _smoken_ in Dutch, however this is really not standard.

@ThomasK: I don't think that's Ingvaeonic at all. I'm not aware of any processes in English or Frisian that consistently change a _k_ in an _r, _I'm not even sure there's such a process in either language.


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## ThomasK

I must admit that the change is not found anywhere indeed. I just checked on the etymology of 'smoren', and it does refer to the plausibility of a common origin of a lot of sm-words, but no direct link indeed. _(But I am very good at _wishful thinking_)_


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## Mackinder

In Spanish:* fumarse un cigarrillo.

*


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## mataripis

In Tagalog; to smoke- humithit/magpausok/manigarilyo.


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## HYCHIN

In Cantonese, the commonly spoken verb is 食 (_sik9_, to eat). 食烟 literally means to eat cigarette.
Cantonese does not say 抽 as Mandarin does.

In formal situation, we use 吸(_kap7_), like what Mandarin does.


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## Sempervirens

In Toscana usiamo per scherzo anche il verbo svampare. Vado a svampare una sigaretta.  Svampare è verbo più ''colorito'' di fumare.


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## ancalimon

In Turkish apart form "sigara içmek" (drink a cigarette), we may also say "sigara tüttürmek" (to make the cigarette give out smoke)

The root of içmek (to drink) is "iç" which means "inside".


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## apmoy70

avalon2004 said:


> Greek:*
> καπνίζω (ένα τσιγάρο) *[kapnízo éna tsigháro]
> You don't need to refer to a "cigarette/τσιγάρο" because this is usually implied.
> 
> The verb *καπνίζω *is literally "to smoke", c.f. _smoke_ (noun) =* καπνός *[kapnós]


&


gigi1 said:


> Older people say also πίνω ένα τσιγάρο (pino ena tsigaro) = drink a cigarette (in this case the use of the word cigarette is obligatory). Younger people use it in order to refer to cigarettes with hashish(slang)


Also, 
1/ *«Φουμάρω ένα τσιγάρο»* [fu'maro 'ena t͡si'ɣaro] < slang verb *«φουμάρω»* < It. _fumare_
2/ *«Κάνω ένα τσιγάρο»* ['kano 'ena t͡si'ɣaro] --> _to do a cigarette_ (neologism)


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