List of English words of Ukrainian origin

English words of Ukrainian origin are words in the English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

that have been borrowed

Loanword

A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...

or derived from the Ukrainian language

Ukrainian language

Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....

.

Some of them may have entered English via Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

, Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, or Yiddish, among others. They may have originated in another languages, but are used to describe notions related to Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. Some are regionalisms, used in English-speaking places with a significant Ukrainian diaspora

Ukrainian diaspora

The Ukrainian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Ukrainians, especially those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Ukrainian national identity within their own local community.-1608 To 1880:After the loss...

population, especially Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, but all of these have entered the general English vocabulary.

Baba, a grandmother or old woman
Babka, a sweet Easter bread (related to French baba au rhum)
Bandura
Bandura
Bandura refers to a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of a box zither and lute, as well as its lute-like predecessor, the kobza...

, a stringed instrument
Borscht
Borscht
Borscht is a soup of Ukrainian origin that is popular in many Eastern and Central European countries. In most of these countries, it is made with beetroot as the main ingredient, giving it a deep reddish-purple color...

(Ukrainian borshch), beet soup, also used in the expression "cheap like borscht"
Chumak
Chumak
Chumak are a class of merchants and traders from the area comprising modern Ukraine.The term's origin is from the word chum , a special storage container for salt or fish. Some claim it to be a derivative from the Ukrainian word chymchykuvaty, meaning to walk about, touring...

, a class of merchants and traders from the area comprising modern Ukraine.
Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...

(Ukrainian Kozak), a freedom-loving horseman of the steppes
Gotch, gotchies, or gitch, underwear. Also gaunch, gaunchies in Alberta
Gley
Gley soil
Gley soil in soil science is a type of hydric soil which exhibits a greenish-blue-grey soil color due to wetland conditions. On exposure to the air, gley colors are transformed to a mottled pattern of reddish, yellow or orange patches. During gley soil formation , the oxygen supply in the soil...

(Ukrainian hley), a sticky blue-grey waterlogged soil type, poor in oxygen
Hetman
Hetman
Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....

, a Cossack military leader
Holubtsi (Western Canadian English, Ukrainian singular holubets), cabbage rolls
Hopak
Hopak
Hopak , also referred to as Gopak or Cossack dance, is a Ukrainian dance. It is performed most often as a solitary concert dance by amateur and professional Ukrainian dance ensembles, as well as other performers of folk dances...

, a lively traditional dance
Kasha
Kasha
Kasha is a cereal commonly eaten in Eastern Europe. In English, kasha generally refers to buckwheat groats, but in Slavic countries, kasha refers to porridge in general and can be made from any cereal, especially buckwheat, wheat, barley, oats, millet, and rye...

, a porridge
Kubasa, kolbassa (Canadian English, from Ukrainian kovbasa), a garlic sausage. Also kubie, kubie burger
Paska
Paska (bread)
Paska is an Easter bread eaten in Eastern European countries including Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia. It is also eaten in other countries with immigrant populations from Eastern Europe, including the US, Canada and the UK. Paska is made with butter, eggs, and sugar...

(Canadian English), a decorated Easter bread, also paskha or pashka, a rich dessert with curd cheese and dried fruit
Perogy, plural perogies (North American, Ukrainian singular pyrih, plural pyrohy), stuffed dumplings or pastry (from western Ukraine, where it is a synonym for varenyky)
Pysanka
Pysanka
A pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated using a wax-resist method. The word comes from the verb pysaty, "to write", as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax...

, a decorated Easter egg
Steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...

, a flat, treeless plain
Tachanka
Tachanka
The tachanka was a horse-drawn machine gun platform, usually a cart or an open wagon with a heavy machine gun installed in the back. A tachanka could be pulled by two to four horses and required a crew of two or three...

, a horse-drawn machine gun platform
Varenyky, boiled dumplings with potato or meat inside

Cuisine

Kvass
Kvass
Kvass, kvas, quass or gira, gėra is a fermented beverage made from black...

(borrowed in the 16th century from Ukrainian квас, sometimes translated into English as bread drink). A fermented mildly alcoholic beverage made from rye flour or bread with malt; rye beer.

Paskha (Ukrainian: па́сха, literally "Easter"). A rich Ukrainian dessert made with soft cheese, dried fruit, nuts, and spices, traditionally eaten at Easter

Easter

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

.

Pirogi
Pyrih
thumb|right|A fish pyrih .Pirog, or Pyrih is an Eastern European pie that can have either a sweet or savoury filling.- Pastry :...

(Ukrainian for "pie"). Full-sized sweet or savory pies, baked open-faced or closed with a crust on top. Not to be confused with pierogi

Pierogi

Pierogi are dumplings of unleavened dough - first boiled, then they are baked or fried usually in butter with onions - traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit...

and pirozhki, which are smaller.

Solyanka
Solyanka
Solyanka is a thick, spicy and sour soup in Russian and Ukrainian cuisine.There are three basic types of solyanka, with the main ingredient being either meat, fish, or mushrooms. All of them contain pickled cucumbers with brine, and often cabbage, salted mushrooms, smetana , and dill...

(Ukrainian: соля́нка). A type of Ukrainian thick and spicy soup.

Syrniki
Syrniki
In Russian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Ukrainian cuisines, syrniki are fried quark pancakes, garnished with sour cream, jam, honey, or apple sauce. The cheese mixture may contain raisins for extra flavor...

, sometimes also sirniki (Ukrainian: си́рники, from сир, originally soft white cheese in Slavic languages). Fried quark cheese pancakes, garnished with sour cream, jam, honey, or apple sauce.

Other

Boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....

(singular boyarin plural Бояри), a member of the highest rank of the feudal Bulgarian

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, Romanian

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, and Ukrainian

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

aristocracy, second only to the ruling princes, from the 10th century through the 17th century. Many headed the civil and military administrations in their country.

Guberniya
Guberniya
A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...

, also gubernia, guberniia or gubernya (Ukrainian губе́рня), a major administrative subdivision of post Cossack-Ukraine, usually translated as governorate

Governorate

A governorate is an administrative division of a country. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states, provinces, or colonies, the term governorate is often used in translation from non-English-speaking administrations.The...

or province.

Khorovod
Khorovod
Khorovod is a Slavic art form, a combination of a circle dance and chorus singing, similar to Chorea of ancient Greece.- External links :*...

(Ukrainian: танок/ хоровод, Belarusian: карагод, IPA: [kara'ɣod]; may have been borrowed from Polish word korowód instead), a Slavic art form consisting of a combination of a circle dance and chorus singing, similar to Chorea of ancient Greece.

Kniaz (Ukrainian: князь, etymologically related to the English word king from Old English cyning, meaning "tribe", related the German König, and the Scandinavian konung, probably borrowed early from the Proto-Germanic Kuningaz, a form also borrowed by Finnish and Estonian "Kuningas"; the title and functions however of a Kniaz corresponded, though not exact, to more of a Prince

Prince

Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...

or Duke

Duke

A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...

), a title given to members of Ukrainian nobility that arose during the Rurik dynasty

Rurik Dynasty

The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD...

.

Kurgan
Kurgan
Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....

(Ukrainian: курга́н "tumulus

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

"), a type of burial mound found in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Oblast
Oblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...

(Ukrainian: о́бласть, Russian loanword

Loanword

with no literal translation, although generally translated as "region" or "province"), an administrative division or region in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, and in some constituent republics of the former Soviet Union.

Raion
Raion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...

(Russian and Ukrainian: райо́н, [rɐˈjon]; Belarusian раён; Azeri: rayon, Latvian: rajons, Lithuanian: rajonas, Georgian: raioni), a region or district, one of the kinds of administrative subdivision.

Viche
Veche
Veche was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries.In Novgorod, where the veche acquired the greatest prominence, the veche was broadly similar to the Norse thing or the Swiss Landsgemeinde.-Etymology:...

(Ukrainian: вiче) (Proto-Slavic root vēt-, meaning "council" or "talk"), a popular assembly in Slavic countries during the medieval and later medieval periods, often compared to a parliament.

Cuisine

Other

See also