When it comes to phrases and idioms based on body parts, one such body part is especially prolific, the key word in many expressions: the eye. The essential organ of sight, which has accumulated impressive symbolic meanings especially in religion and spirituality, is called ochi in Romanian, it comes from Latin oc(u)lus and has generated around thirty phrases and idioms. Interestingly, it is also the base word in noun compounds with names of animals, referring to different ki

Continuing the series of articles about phrases based on body parts, which are as numerous in Romanian as they are in English, let’s have a look in this post at expressions with “mână”. Coming from Latin manus, Romanian “mână” means “hand”, it can refer to either the palm, the forearm or the whole arm, and its plural is “mâini”. “Mână” per se doesn’t have many secondary meanings, and all of the phrases reviewed below are based on its first, literal meaning, i.e. “hand”. Here

Just like in English, names of body parts generate in Romanian numerous phrases, idioms and even proverbs which are quite common in everyday speech. “Cap” is just such a prolific word. Originating from the Latin noun caput, the word’s main meaning is “head”, while some of its secondary meanings include “mind” and “leader”. Consequently, most of the phrases based on cap can be grouped around one of those meanings. Let’s review the most frequent of them, with some minimal conte

To a nation where people wish each other things on a wildly wide range of occasions, from having a haircut to getting down to work or wearing new shoes, the Christmas and New Year wishes are highly important. Whether made over the phone, in a text message, by email or handwritten in a classical Christmas card, the winter holidays wishes go in different tones and styles. Let’s review some of them. 1) Classical & common Standard wishes necessarily include a reference to good he

If grammatical items could make a career just like humans do, this little word would become a superexecutive: sine. Based on the Latin 3rd person singular pronoun se and fashioned after mine and tine (the 1st and 2nd person singular pronouns), sine found a way to climb from the modest position of a pronoun to that of a noun. Not just any noun, but the one at the core of our very ontology and theory of being: the one which names the self – sinele. Philosophers and (Jungian) ps

100 years of Romania. What Romanians have done for their country this past century in areas ranging from the humanities to science and sports has drawn a great deal of attention, commentary and analysis. But what non-Romanians have done for the country in this century of “Greater Romania” may tend to be overlooked or regarded as occasional foreign input. This post, while unable to comprise all of the non-Romanian contribution to the country’s development over the last 100 yea

1. Can you sum up in a paragraph how you’ve come to be a teacher? I think our childhood experiences influence a lot our future choice of profession. I first experienced being a teacher when I was about 8, and my father and his friend were my first students. With a jacket on my shoulders and my mother’s high heels, I was playing the “school game”, testing the two. Twelve years later, I was on my summer holiday after finishing my first year at the University of Bucharest, and I

Today, whether you are an expat professional, a local office worker or a migrant un/skilled worker, you are expected to know (a bit of) a foreign language. Especially in the European Union, where linguistic competence and multilingualism are Union policy (in, for instance, the Europe 2020 Programme), lifelong learners had better be actively engaged in a language learning process. But should that learning be formal (e.g. post/graduate courses), non-formal (e.g. language centre

How many senses are there? Realists would say that five, of course: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Believers in the paranormal maintain that there’s a sixth and even a seventh sense. And how about, practical people might ask, common sense or the sense of humour? Natural and supernatural considerations aside, at the core of such debates lies a word which is as versatile in English as it is in Romanian: sense – in Romanian, simţ. Depending on the noun or adjective it c

Recent language textbooks go beyond grammar and vocabulary, the regulars of standardised language learning, to encompass areas of language which pertain to pragmatics. Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics which has to do with language in context, in other words it looks at words from the point of view of their situational or contextual functions. For example, “I do” in the context of a wedding ceremony means something specific, different from “I do” in a short dialogue about

Words can be fascinating little gems. Some, because of how they sound - for example, lalelele, “the tulips”. Some others, because of their meaning or etymology, or the way in which their meaning departs from (or relates back to) their origin. For example, Romanian anapoda, meaning “wrongly”, “in a disorganised way”, comes from Greek ana-, “back” or “again”, plus pous, “foot”. Therefore, it might literally mean “(stepping) with the same foot again” or perhaps “stepping backwar

If you’re an expat who has lived in Romania for a few good months, you are very likely to have been told, when you got a haircut or a new hairdo, something along the lines of “May it settle well with you!” – which didn’t make much sense but sounded wholeheartedly positive. Similarly, if you’re a Romanian using English as a foreign language, you’re quite likely to have asked an English native, “What do you wish someone who’s got a new pair of shoes?” (You don’t wish them anyth

Among the trending topics recently popularised in glossy magazines and in the world of publishing there are two emotions: hygge, marketed as “the secret of Danish happiness”, a sensation of wellbeing combining a sense of comfort, relaxation and freedom [1]; and sisu, a concept which “identifies the Finnish people”, approximated as boldness, grit and perseverance in the face of adversity [2]. While the two feelings are interesting and worthwhile in themselves, what catches the

Those of you who are naturally inclined to read a restaurant menu not only for nutritional purposes but also to pick on typos, misspellings and funny mistranslations [1] are probably used to seeing entries like “ciorbă de văcuţă” and “mămăliguţă cu brânză”, as in Meniu 2 in the picture. Nothing really wrong with those, but they do make you wonder a bit: both “văcuţă” and “mămăliguţă” are based on vacă (cow) and mămăligă (polenta), to which the diminutive suffix -uţă was added

Any piece of writing dealing with the humanities must necessarily start out by reminding its readers that the status quo of the humanities today is pretty much at a record low – at least in the common perception. When the present is all focused on digital technology, (computer) science and artificial intelligence (AI), mentioning the humanities draws at the very best a condescending “Oh, interesting...” – with the underlying message that the humanities spell out “losers”, in

Personally, I love visiting cathedrals. Integrated into the urban landscape and yet cutting out a section of it which is emotionally special, a bridge to the everlasting past, historic cathedrals, with their high vaults, allow your spirit to straighten up and rise like the sound of a flute towards the high ceiling - liberated for a while from the inconveniences of here and now. And should pipe organ music accompany the spiritual mini-tour, access to some sort of “higher level

It probably takes comedian Hugh Laurie’s straight face to be able to announce serenely, “This lovely summer we warmly recommend that you go to the cemetery.” The Merry Cemetery. “Downtown” the village of Săpânţa, a little settlement perched up north in Maramureş County, close to Romania’s border with Ukraine, the Merry Cemetery is final home to around 800 deceased villagers, and a UNESCO heritage site which has made it repeatedly in the top 10 of world’s best funerary destina

Popcorn and movies – such a match made in heaven. Don’t ask when Romanians took to popcorn just to find out when cinema appeared in this country, though - in case that precise question was on the tip of your tongue (not). It doesn’t work like that, you see. Cinematography happened in Romania long before (and, for almost a century, most likely without) popcorn. Let’s see how it fared when it emerged at the turn of the century, through communist times, up to the brave and famou