# csicska



## ragazzo323

Hi what does "csicska" mean please? Is it "bitch"? Thank you for your responses.


----------



## Olivier0

Rather something like "toady" (~ Hungarian talpnyaló, Italian leccapiedi).
But now it may have become a more general negative word for an irritating person.
-- Olivier


----------



## ragazzo323

Thank you Olivier. So it doesn't mean a servant / bitch / slave? I was mistaken again.


----------



## P&B

ragazzo323 said:


> Thank you Olivier. So it doesn't mean a servant / bitch / slave? I was mistaken again.




No, you were not mistaken. "Csicska" does not mean "toady" or "talpnyaló". "Csicska" means "servant". In everyday soken language we often use it for someone who is younger (or of the same age but surely not older) and who you can make do anything you want (because s/he is weaker and younger than you). The verb form is: "csicskáztat valakit": to make sb do st for you - and probably not because you deadly need his or her help just because you want to show who is boss there. Another common form is "csicskás" in a possessive form: s/he is my "servant / slave" - ő a csicskásom.
So you were right!


----------



## Zsanna

I am surprised. Do any of you use or have heard about "csicska" appearing like that? I didn't even know its meaning. 
I looked up the word in my two volume Hungarian dictionary (that's the biggest I have) and the only way it appears is under *csicskás* (which I understand and use), indicating that it comes from that. As for the meaning of _csicska_, it gives: V alakú paszomány = (military) piping in a V shape (coming from the word "csúcs" = peak/summit) .

I wonder where ragazzo323 found the word (a bit of context, please!) and why he thought it could mean "bitch". 
I don't understand the other suggestions either. Especially as even "csicskás" doesn't mean toady. It refers to a way of treating somebody as if s/he were your servant, and it is usually the one who is treated like this/or an objective outsider who uses the word to qualify such a treatment negatively. ("Do this, do that, etc.")
By the way, _csicskás_ means_ tisztiszolga_ (or _küldönc_), i.e. an officer's batman - who fetches and carries for him.


----------



## NagyKiss

Google translate gives a meaning of "bitch" or "fag" which is kinda confusing.

But I see this word being used heavily among online gamers community and in rap songs that I listened on youtube. 
I got an impression that it was a pretty common curse word or something.


----------



## Zsanna

OK. in that case, please, understand that a normal, everyday person does not understand or use it like that. (As s/he is not a typical member of an online gamer community or a listener of rap.) (Cf. the importance of giving a context!)

_Csicska_ is not used and _csicskás_ is not a curse or swear word at all.


----------



## NagyKiss

I don't want to sound rude Zsanna, please don't be offended or anything. But have you considered your social circle? 
I know people who go in and out of jail like its a walk in the park and they use words, I know my mom never even heard of. And those words are very popular among young people.
Because I am pretty sure that RAP being the music of the young and troubled, is pretty much a mirror into that part of society, I think "csicska" might be more popular than you think. 
And online gamer community is not exclusive in any way, it consists of the same young people that live around you, and if they use a word that is not a description of some computer phenomena, that word is probably widespread among other non-gamer social groups.

If it is indeed a "slave", then in Russian we have a similar word "шестёрка" (six). It originates form the lowest denomination of a playing card (in a 36 card deck). So people who do everything you tell them, even the dirtiest things, and don't have respect for themselves are called like that.


----------



## P&B

I completely agree with NagyKiss here. I do not want to offend anyone, but Zsanna's statement that "a normal, everyday person does not understand or use it like that" seems a bit far-fetched to me. Young people do use it, and they use it very often ("heavily" as NagyKiss put it) in the meaning I mentioned above. As I teach in a secondary school and have three sons I pretty often hear it. Dictionaries always lag behind spoken (slang) language, this is why this forum so great and useful!


----------



## Zsanna

No offence taken, on the contrary: I'm glad to read your views and that I was compelled to look further.

I agree also about the importance of considering the social circle where a particular word is used. If you say that it is the circle of people who were in jail and young people (even if we considered them _all_ and not just the gamers' community), I would still think that in the group of Hungarian speakers these groups could be considered as minority. 
When I said "a normal, everyday person" (like myself) I surely didn't include them and just by judging the percentage of the middle aged and the old in our society, I wouldn't even think that the above mentioned groups come to 1/3 of all native Hungarian speakers. (In the case of jailbirds luckily, in the case of young people unfortunately.) 

More important is, however, that the Hungarian National Corpus (MNSZ) gives an occurence of 25 (0,13/million words) to _csicska_ which I really didn't expect. (The figure for _csicskás_ is given 39 (0,21/million words).)

I have also found out what I suspected from the beginning: this word (csicska) is used exactly in the same meaning as csicskás(a valakinek) can be (= a person who is subordinated to one or several other people, often by force -> this is what servant didn't express "enough" to my taste). 
But this new form gives the impression as if it meant something else/new (normal for slang terms), at the same time shorter than the original (justification for the "irregular" use?).


----------



## ragazzo323

Thank you very much P&B, Zsanna, NagyKiss. Now I`m happy that I was not wrong.


----------

