Dylan Boadded a comment 8 years ago
Thank you! As far as i know pyatak/pyatachok means 5 copecks not rubles :)
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Brandon Crossadded a note 8 years ago
note (en-ru)
It’s Wednesday and you know what that means – It’s time to learn some Russian!
It’s no secret that the tradition of naming banknotes is quite strong among Russians and many of these familiar names have deep historical roots. Let’s take a look at some of the most common Russian banknotes in circulation at the moment.
• 1 ruble – tselkóvy (целковый), meaning “entire” or “whole” (целый)
• 5 rubles – pyatyórka (пятёрка), pyaták (пятак), pyatachyók (пятачок)
• 10 rubles – chírik (чирик), chervónets (червонец) or desyátka (десятка)
• 50 rubles – poltínnik (полтинник) also referred to as poltishók (полтишок), pyótr (Пётр) from a picture of a monument to Peter I shown on a bill
• 100 rubles – stólnik (стольник), sótka (сотка)
• 500 rubles – pyatikhátka (пятихатка), originally pyatikátka (пятикатка)
• 1,000 rubles – kosár (косарь), shtúka (штука) or a hybrid shtukár (штукарь), tónna (тонна) (mostly in St. Petersburg)
Some of these definitions (chírik, pyatikátka, kosár) comes from Russian jail slang, and are considered vulgar in daily speech – so use with caution!
It’s little things like this that make me fall even deeper in love with the Russian language)) In the US there are some people who refer to banknotes by the President/Founding Father on the particular bill, for example:
• $1 - George Washington
• $2 - Thomas Jefferson
• $5 - Abraham Lincoln
• $10 – Alexander Hamilton (he was not a President)
• $20 – currently Andrew Jackson (as of April 2016 the US Treasury announced its plan to put Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20 bill! She was an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and armed scout and spy for the US Army during the American Civil War, and one of the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad’s “conductors”.
• $50 – Ulysses S. Grant
• $100 – Benjamin Franklin (He was not a President)
…and the list goes on!
So, does your language have any interesting nicknames for its banknotes? Or perhaps an interesting story? Let me know below!
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Discussion (15)
Александра Веретенниковаadded a comment 8 years ago
• 1,000 rubles - rubas (рубас). "Я купил эти ботинки за 7 рубасов"
Alexander Machtakovadded a comment 8 years ago
'I had to shell out 5000' - пришлось отстегнуть 5 тонн. We use 'tónna' talking about 1000 rubles here in Siberia too :-)
Сергей Касаткинadded a comment 8 years ago
Dylan, technically yes, but the "5 kopeek" coin is no longer being manufactured. So those words might well applied to the "5 roubles" coin.
Сергей Касаткинadded a comment 8 years ago
*be apllied
Brandon Crossadded a comment 8 years ago
@Dylan Bo I am aware, however, Сергей Касаткин is absolutely right, it can be applied to the coin as well. I wanted to focus on the banknotes, but mentioned the 1 ruble coin anyway because why not?))
@Alexander Machtakov thank you for sharing! I wasn't aware that this term was used in Siberia as well. It sure does sound a lot more dramatic than just saying rubles))
@Aлександра Веретенникова I've never heard the term "рубас" before. If I may ask, is this used in a particular region of Russia? Could it be considered vulgar?
I have to admit I'm interested in the jail slang, but I definitely DO NOT want to ever be in a position to use it, if you know what I mean))) I'm just interested in all registers of Russian - for academic purposes)
Svetlana Tretyakovaadded a comment 8 years ago
i do not say such words
they are like street slang, mostly boys-teenagers like to use it, and some men who want to look cool
Alexander Machtakovadded a comment 8 years ago
Brandon,
Student A: Займи пятихатник?
Student B: Офигел? Ты и так мне рубас торчишь!
Could be heard in Tomsk.
Сергей Касаткинadded a comment 8 years ago
Brandon, it`s not really a jail-slang, though it might have come to us from there. You can hear the words like these on the street, in some non-official, informal conversation or in a talk between friends, but not in the shops or somewhere of that kind.
Brandon Crossadded a comment 8 years ago
@Сергей Касаткин if it might have come to us from there... wouldn't that make it jail slang?))
Сергей Касаткинadded a comment 8 years ago
@Brandon Cross well, technically yea!
Marissa Zebaduaadded a comment 8 years ago
Our so called life with bills nowadays. Short story! :-(
Igor Yurchenkoadded a comment 8 years ago
Вставлю и свои 5 копеек =)
There are (and have been for about 20 years) no 1 ruble and 5 ruble banknotes in Russia. 10 rubles is the smallest denomination banknote, and in big cities it is almost replaced by the coin of the came denomination.
tselkóvy (целковый) - is a very old word. It was used in pre-revolutionary Russia and, maybe during the early Soviet years. I've never heard the word used outside of classic literature of poetry.
I'm not sure about chírik (чирик) being a jail slang. It's just a short form of chervónets (червонец), which comes from the word chervóniy (червоный) - an old word for "red". It is called so because of two reasons - the Russian Empire had a 10 rubles coin made of reddish gold and copper alloy (Червонное золото). Also the soviet 10-ruble banknote was red. As far as I know money in the Soviet Union were often referred to by color, because each banknote was of a distinct color.
Igor Yurchenkoadded a comment 8 years ago
In the last 5 years or so there has been a tendency to refer to 1000 rubles (not exactly the banknote, but just the amount of money) as "рубль" - "ruble". As in "Я за эти туфли 10 рублей заплатил" ("I've paid 10 rubles for these shoes"). It's obvious that you can't by any kind of shoes for 10 rubles (it's about 1/7 of US dollar or Euro ot the moment), so you assume that the person means thousands. Personally I find it very frustrating.
Наташа Фроловаadded a comment 7 years ago
Interesting! I remembered suddenly the song by Russian band Пилот (the Pilot) Стошка баксов (100 bucks), they sang "вышли стошку баксов" (will you send me 100 bucks). Funny song )) So "стошка" (stoshka) can be obviously applied to 100 rubles Why not =)