# кайф



## janek

Hello everyone, 

While reading a good Russian detective story, I stumbled upon the following phrase:

- А *кайф* где? А сыщицкий азарт? А сладкость победы?

I tried to find the meaning of кайф, but to no avail. I sort of understand what it could possibly mean, but would be anyone so kind as to explain it to me?

Much obliged.


----------



## übermönch

I currently can't recall an exact English translation, slang term for _fun_ maybe. You, for example, get kayf when taking drugs or doing something you like very much.


----------



## Thomas F. O'Gara

This odd little word actually comes from Arabic, and it does mean something like "fun", although a "pleasant feeling", like you might get from drugs, is quite likely.

I can't figure out how the word got in to Russian, although it was probably via Central Asia; a surprisingly large number of words came in from Arabic or Persian that way, including "bazar", "nyeft", "slon", etc.


----------



## übermönch

Thomas F. O'Gara said:
			
		

> This odd little word actually comes from Arabic, and it does mean something like "fun", although a "pleasant feeling", like you might get from drugs, is quite likely.
> 
> I can't figure out how the word got in to Russian, although it was probably via Central Asia; a surprisingly large number of words came in from Arabic or Persian that way, including "bazar", "nyeft", "slon", etc.


Slon is the same in all Slavic languages from Bulgarian to Sorbic, so it was probably borrowed from the Greeks, like the words for ship and camel... or maybe the homeland of Slavs is also the patria of elephants? Nafta is also used in several other slavic countries. That's so complicated. I wonder if the turkic/mongol words like bashmak, dengi and karaoul _should _however be exclusive to Russian.


----------



## janek

Thanks a lot, Thomas! This is what I needed!


----------



## Etcetera

Thomas F. O'Gara said:
			
		

> This odd little word actually comes from Arabic, and it does mean something like "fun", although a "pleasant feeling", like you might get from drugs, is quite likely.
> 
> I can't figure out how the word got in to Russian, although it was probably via Central Asia; a surprisingly large number of words came in from Arabic or Persian that way, including "bazar", "nyeft", "slon", etc.


This word seems to be a fairly recent 'acquirement'. It was only in the 1990s that it came into daily speech.


----------



## Victoriya

You would use this word when you get pleasure or satisfaction. Something joful adn enjoyable is KAYF. You can catch it when you're high. you can also say it when you mean COOL...WOW...etc. In this particular case it's satisfaction? satisfaction from achievement of something.


----------



## jazyk

And let us not forget the verb кайфовать/кайфонуть:

Мы получили премию и хорошо кайфонули.
When we got our bonus, we went out and had a night on the town.


----------



## Nurzik

the word "kaif" is a slang and it literally means to be "on high", as some of you've said, as a result of drugs, alcohol...virtually anything that brings pleasure.


----------



## Nurzik

Thomas F. O'Gara said:
			
		

> This odd little word actually comes from Arabic, and it does mean something like "fun", although a "pleasant feeling", like you might get from drugs, is quite likely.
> 
> I can't figure out how the word got in to Russian, although it was probably via Central Asia; a surprisingly large number of words came in from Arabic or Persian that way, including "bazar", "nyeft", "slon", etc.


 
Interesting that you say "kaif" comes from Arabic. Can you write it for me in Arabic please? 

thanks, 
Nurzik


----------



## elroy

Nurzik said:
			
		

> Interesting that you say "kaif" comes from Arabic. Can you write it for me in Arabic please?


كيف - it's spelled exactly like the word for "how."
I should point out, however, that as far as I know this word is used only in colloquial Arabic.  In Palestinian Arabic we pronounce it "keef."  I'm not sure whether it can be used with the "fun" meaning in standard Arabic.

By the way, in Arabic the word doesn't necessarily connote "high."  It basically means "a good time" - regardless of what it was that caused it.


----------



## cherine

I Egyptian Arabic it doesn't mean fun, it has mainly the connotation of being "high". And it's pronounced as k*ei*f "d*a*y" (this is as closely as I could compare)

By the way, this is a very interesting question, I've never known that Russian can have words in common with Arabic


----------



## Anatoli

cherine said:


> I Egyptian Arabic it doesn't mean fun, it has mainly the connotation of being "high". And it's pronounced as k*ei*f "d*a*y" (this is as closely as I could compare)
> 
> By the way, this is a very interesting question, I've never known that Russian can have words in common with Arabic



This word was borrowed from semitic languages, some say from Arabic, some from Yiddish or Hebrew.

I posted in "Loanwords from Yiddish", which could also read "from Hebrew or Arabic":
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=304361

I just don't want it to be lost in the Russian language resources, I learned something new about Russian today  Moderators, feel free to split or something.

*My post:*


> Abusive words like pots (*поц*) and zhlob (*жлоб*) have been borrowed into Russian. These words also exist in English - putz, schlub.
> 
> I was very surprised by the number of criminal Russian slang, which was borrowed from Yiddish and Hebrew. I was certain they were 100% Russian (that's how absorbed they were):
> *блат *blat - connections*
> фраер *fr*a*yer - free person*
> феня *f*e*nya - slang*
> ботать *b*o*tat' - express oneself; swear*
> ксива *ks*i*va - legal document*
> малина *mal*i*na (малон) - joint where thieves get together ("malina" has an innocent meaning of "raspberry")
> *параша *par*a*sha - toilet*
> хана *khan*a* - end, finish*
> хипеш *kh*i*pesh - raid*
> халява*  kahal*ya*va (Yiddish: "дмей халяв" - деньги на молоко) - freebies
> *мусор* m*u*sor (мосер ->) - cop, pig (sounds like "rubbish" in Russian)
> *шалава* shal*a*va - whore
> *шахер-махер* sh*a*kher-m*a*kher - machinations*
> кайф* kayf - enjoyment, being high, etc
> 
> http://www.berkovich-zametki.com/Nomer24/Belenky1.htm
> 
> Some other words in the link are not so common but it's better to ask the criminals


----------



## beclija

The same little word has been borrowed into Bosnian, as _ćeif_, presumably via Turkish, which would help explain why it is _ć_- rather then _k-_. It does not usually have a connotation of drugs being involved, so closer to Palestinian Arabic than Russian or Egyptian Arabic.


----------



## maxl

Kajf may be recent in spoken Russian, but kejf (ultimately an Arabic word) is an old borrowing from Turkish, designing laze, being tipsy after smoking the nargilleh, with whatever grass or tobacco in it.
I have a lot to say about the (mostly) presumed borrowings from Yiddish and Hebrew quoted by Anatoli from the Berkovich site, but I wonder if this is the place. In any case, shalava is NOT a borrowing from either Y. or H., as it appears already in Dal's 1880 dictionary of spoken Russian as a variant of shalabolka, shalabol'nica, with the gloss "rasputnica".


----------



## maxl

zhlob is not a borrowed word in Slavic. It is known in all (I think) slavic languages, in varying forms, zholob, zhleb, zhlieb, zhlob etc.


----------



## beclija

Forgot that connection in my last post: The German verb "kiffen" is claimed to relate to the same Arabic source. It means to smoke grass.


----------



## Anatoli

maxl said:


> zhlob is not a borrowed word in Slavic. It is known in all (I think) slavic languages, in varying forms, zholob, zhleb, zhlieb, zhlob etc.


English has shlub/schlub and other variations of the same. It is well adapted but it is a borrowing, IMHO. What's its origin, in your opinion, Maxl?


----------



## kaifiyyat

This almost definitely comes to Russian through Uzbek, from Tajik Persian, as "kaifiyyat" which means "state of being," a modification of the Arabic "kaifiyya(t)".

 A lot of slang came from Central Asian languages into Russian, especially in Soviet jails.


----------



## dima_david

The word "keif" was used in Russian as far back as the early 19th century. In particular, Dostoyevsky utilized it quite extensively. I cannot put links here yet, but try searching "история слова кайф" in Google, and you will find very helpful references, including one from the "gramota dot ru" site.​


----------



## Vladislav

I think you could use it as "it's cool" sometimes.

кайф!! - cool!! awesome!! 
вот кайф!! - that's cool!! that's completely awesome!

 But be careful with this usage.


----------

