Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/492

ized this dance movement that the word has been given a place in American dictionaries, which, however, ignore its Czech connections and record its derivation from the Latin furians. Outside musical circles the noun furiant is unknown to Americans, so there is little use arguing about its etymology. It is certainly not native Bohemian in the meaning given by Mr. Urban.

A few Slavic words, which might as well be Bohemian, have some currency among English-speaking people and are not entirely unknown in America. There is, for instance, samovar (literally, self-boiler,) which, though Russian, is included in both Bohemian and English dictionaries. Some etymologists trace this word to a Tatar origin, but on the face of it it is purely Slavic. The samovar is a metal urn used largely in Russia for making tea, and genuine old samovars are sought with avidity by collectors of antiques. Samoyed, the name of a Mongolian people akin to the Lapps, is better known as designating a breed of dogs native to northeastern Russia and western Siberia. I have seen the word used in American newspapers in the latter sense, but do not think it very common. The noun, as well as an adjective derived therefrom, Samoyedic (pertaining to the Samoyeds and their language,) is given in our dictionaries. The plural “Samoyedes,” in the Americana Encyclopedia, is incorrect; likewise the pronunciation “sam-oi-dez.” Samojed is a compound noun meaning literally a self-eater, in Bohemian as well as in Russian, (the o being the end of one particle, and the j; the beginning of another;) and, though the etymology is disputed, it is not likely that any but a Slavic origin can be proved. Zemmi (or zemni,) and Zemski Sobor, listed in the latest Webster, are from the Russian; but both zemní and zemský are Bohemian adjectives also, meaning, as in Russian, pertaining to the land or ground. Zemmi, according to the dictionary, means the great mole rat; in this sense, it is a corruption of the Russian name of the animal, zemní ščenjuk (ground puppy). Zemski Sobor was the name of a representative Russian council first called in 1550. The words mean, literally, land synod; in Czech, they are written zemský sbor. Drosky and droshky are Anglicized spellings, appearing in our dictionaries, of the name of a Russian vehicle. In Czech the nearly obsolete, ordinary cab is sametimes called drožka; in fact, in various parts of Europe, other vehicles than the real Russian droshky are so named. The word is derived from droga (Russ., a pole, shaft of a carriage or wagon.) By coincidence, the plural drogy is the American-Bohemian plural of drog, a drug.