Etymology of "Trafika"
I learned yesterday what "trafika" means in Czech (a sort of corner-store kiosk), but I still wondered about its etymology, and I managed to find those roots in time for today's blog entry!
Helmut Satzinger and Danijela Stefanović trace "trafika" from Serbian back to the Bavarian feminine noun "Trafik." Since Trafik is a word used in Bavarian German, it probably entered the Czech language directly from Austro-German (and its meaning is consistently a sort of corner-store kiosk).
But the Germans themselves got the term from the Italian word "traffico," which is a masculine word meaning "traffic," "trade," or "activity" and "rush."
As things turn out, my guess that the word was related to the English word "traffic" -- as in "trafficking" (i.e., "trade") -- was not so far off, after all.
And since the Italian word also means "rush," Kevin Kim's guess of "a 'drive-by' convenience store" was also not so far off the mark!
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 5:00 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Interesting. Thanks for following up and posting
I've never met a word I didn't like to know better!
Jeffery Hodges
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Hmmm Jeff.
You recall perhaps my "e-pal" over on the D&N?
He's commented some very rarely but the mainest thing is is, he's a son supposedly sporting as I understand, "a bouncy Czech" --- which as it happend I read the previous post t'other day and now, we're both lost.
We two I'm sure. T'other two I'm less sure.
JK
JK, much of your code eludes my 'ken,' but I understand a 'bouncy Czech.'
Jeffery Hodges
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