# Kopsnij szluga



## isabel.eim

Hey, guys! I have a great doubt about this expression. A friend of mine said this to me for my birhtday. He said "happy birthday" and then "i Kopsnij szluga". I've seen is a slang in Polish, but I have no idea. I'd appreciate your help! Thanks in advance


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## NotNow

It means _give me a cigarette_.


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## LilianaB

Do you know the etymology. It looks more like have a drink, but I don't know. It is the most slangish, slang can get, I think.


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## BezierCurve

I also heard: "kobznij szluga".

Both "kopsnąć" and "szlug" can be found as colloquial expressions in PWN literature. Not sure about the etymology now.

PS. And indeed, it means "give me a cigarette".


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## BezierCurve

Just a thought: as "kopsnąć" means also "kick" (and I think that's the original meaning) I just have a theory... You'd need to "kick a cigarette" when there would be no other way to pass it, just like when you have bars between you and your interloqutor.


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## LilianaB

What is _szlug_ ?  _Szluchnac_ is pic in Silesian, I think.


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## BezierCurve

_Szlugi _means cigarettes and is quite popular now among 20 - 30 years old.


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## LilianaB

What the etymology would be?  It is definitely from German, but in which sense. I think this word in German means something closer to hit.


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## majlo

The only meaning of "kopsnij" (never "kobznij") that I know of is "to give".


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## BezierCurve

There's also "wykopsać" (np. kogoś ze stanowiska). For "kopsnąć" PWN lists both "kopnąć" and "dać". I believe "dać" came after that, as a result of that slangish use.


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## LilianaB

Kopsnac jest na pewno orginalnie od kopac. Kopnij pilke, podaj pilke i potem stalo sie podac.


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## LilianaB

Are you sure it is Polish? It sounds like a weird version of Silesian.


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## isabel.eim

Thanks for yor help!

I'm almost sure that's polish, but I have to say I'm not 100% sure.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions. Though I still wonder why he would say that for my birthday hehe.


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## inter1908

It is used in (almost) whole Poland, but yeah mainly from teenagers to ~30 year old people. http://www.miejski.pl/slowo-kopsnij+szluga


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## dreamlike

isabel.eim said:


> He said "happy birthday" and then "i Kopsnij szluga"



It made me laugh for some reason  Shouldn't it be the other way round? You should've been given a spare cigarette, at the very least, because of your birthday. It was very rude of  your friend 

As regards the phrase in question, it's very common in Lubelskie voideship and I heard it all over the country. I think it has humorous overtone.


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## isabel.eim

So, does it mean "give me a cigarrette"?


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## LilianaB

Is there a new fashion in Poland to make slang Silesian-like? I have noticed a lot of phrases that sound like that.


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## BezierCurve

> So, does it mean "give me a cigarrette"?​



Yes, it does.


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## dreamlike

isabel.eim said:


> So, does it mean "give me a cigarrette"?



Yes. But it is a very discourteous way to ask for a cigarette unless you're asking your friend. It sounds like an order rathen than a request. "Mógłbyś kopsnąć szluga?" is a way better but it's still a slang. Normally, on the street, you would ask "Mógłbyś mnie poczęstować papierosem"? meaning "Can you spare me a cigarette"?


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## isabel.eim

So maybe I shouldn't call him "friend" hahaha.

Thanks, guys! You rock!


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## majlo

Not really, isabel.eim. We don't know the whole context; we can only tell you what it means but you should make out how it fits in the context.


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## perevoditel

It's surely Polish and surely means - give me a cigarette. And it's not a new slang, it was already used in People's Republic of Poland.

About etymology: it comes from German past tense of "schlagen", which means "to beat". It was originally used in relation to self-made cigarettes, and there is also another word for "szlug" - "fajek", coming from "pipe". Maybe that's a reason of all this "beating"...


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## LilianaB

I think it is absurd, but his is my personal opinion based solely on taste.  Do they use it in German in relation to cigarettes. What has hitting to do with cigarettes?


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## perevoditel

When you put tobacco to smoking pipe, packing of tobacco is in Polish "ubijanie". Verb, "ubijać" is imprefective form of "ubić", which comes from "bić" - literally translated as "beat". But it's only my guessing, I'm not really sure about it.


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## majlo

perevoditel said:


> and there is also another word for "szlug" - "fajek", coming from "pipe".


To me it's always the feminine form, "fajka".


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## perevoditel

"Fajka" is of course feminine form, but it means "smoking pipe". My friends always used "fajek" in relation to cigarette. But we must remember it can have another meaning in every place of Poland


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## Thomas1

'Szlug' could possibly come from German "Schluck" (sip, mouthful, swig). There would have been a change of meaning of course as the German word is generally used for liquids, although one could perhaps say 'Rauch schlucken' in certain contexts. In Polish, we would say 'mach', 'buch' or 'sztach' (or more likely 'sztachnąć się') with a similar meaning. [The last one also looks like a borrowing from German, 'stechen'?]

I make a difference between 'fajek' and 'fajka':
fajek - a cigarette 
fajka - a pipe
However, I heard many a time people using 'fajka' to mean 'a cigarette'.
To me, 'szlug' is a coarse slang word for 'papieros', 'fajek' is neutral and informal, almost folsky, whereas 'pet' is slang and derogatory (perhaps beacuse its basic meaning is 'a cigarette butt'). So is 'papieroch' except that it's not slang.


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## jazyk

> 'Szlug' could possibly come from German "Schluck" (sip, mouthful, swig).  There would have been a change of meaning of course as the German word  is generally used for liquids, although one could perhaps say 'Rauch  schlucken' in certain contexts.


In some languages you actually drink a cigarette.


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## LilianaB

What about, sztachnij sie cigareta? Would you consider that Polish, informal, slang, or something else?


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## Thomas1

Thanks Jazyk for information.  I've just also found out that you can drink a cigarette in Portuguese too. :0 EDIT: German 'schlucken' is more like English 'swallow' I think.

I would use 'sztachnij się papierosem' or 'sztachnij się', the latter being more likely. To me the word 'sztachnąć się' verges on being between slang and informal. The normal word is 'zaciągnąć się (papierosem)'.
There is a word 'cygaretka' in Polish, but it's a kind of thin cigar.

PS: having said all that, I feel compelled to add that I am not a smoker, I don't even like the whole idea of smoking.


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## LilianaB

The idea is not so bad, it is the smoking that that is the monster. I do not smoke, just the expressions are interesting.


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## jazyk

> I've just also found out that you can drink a cigarette in Portuguese too.


Really? I have never heard that.


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## Thomas1

Well, I read it in the thread you linked to:


olivinha said:


> 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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## jazyk

But tragar does not mean to drink. To drink is beber or tomar.

Here are a few definitions of tragar, if you read Portuguese. And this is how this Portuguese-English dictionary translates tragar.


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## Thomas1

The first definition from the entry suggests to me that it's like drinking in a swallow:





> 1. Beber de um só gole, engolir de uma vez só. [td. : Resistiu, mas tragou a poção valentemente.]


Perhaps: gulp down, down? So it isn't far from the concept, right? Please don't hesitate to correct me if I got it wrong.


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## jazyk

Why did you consider only the first definition. What about the rest? Tragar has many meanings depending on context. Both you and I know that context is everything in languages. This is all off-topic, anyway.


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## majlo

So why did a Portuguese native speaker write what he/she wrote?


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## dreamlike

LilianaB said:


> The idea is not so bad, it is the smoking that that is the monster. I do not smoke, just the expressions are interesting.



Can you tell the difference between the idea of smoking and smoking itself? Because to my mind there is none and they are both equally "monstrous"


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## LilianaB

That would be a philosophy question, not a linguistic one.


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## dreamlike

Regardless of what kind of question it is I think you just wanted your post count to rise, as your sentence doesn't make the faintest sense to me.


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## majlo

Not only to you, dreamlike.


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