balalajka

balalajka (plural balalajkas)

1. Alternative form of balalaika.
   • 1917, Harry de Windt, Russia as I Know It, J. B. Lippincott Company, page 57:

     Every Cossack is a born dancer, and the merry tinkle of a “balalajka” band eventually proved too much for the colonel (a grey-haired veteran of over six feet), who suddenly rose from his seat, hurriedly left the messroom, and the next moment was wildly “pirouetting” amongst his men with, notwithstanding a flowing robe and spurs, the grace and agility of a ballet-girl.

   • 1956, Friendship: Travel, Trade, Cultural Exchange, volume 1, number 4, page 28:

     The Bayans and Balalajkas of the BERYOZKA FOLK DANCERS

   • 1963, Vsevolod Setchkarev, Studies in the Life and Work of Innokentij Annenskij, Mouton & Co., page 238:

     Praising the “play of thought” in Dostoevskij’s work since Crime and Punishment he exclaims: “Well, what sort of playing was there in Poor Folk? One string, and even that on a balalajka.”

   • 1975, The Polish Review, volume 20, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, page 84:

     My deceased aunts and uncles, / Playing “Balalajkas”, / Sipping glasses of wine?

   • 1977, Elizabeth A. Warner, The Russian Folk Theatre (Slavistic Printings and Reprintings), Mouton, →ISBN, page 17:

     In the Novgorod uezd (Gruzinskaja volost’), for example, whole groups of ‘gypsy’ girls dressed in brightly coloured frocks and shawls would appear in the village streets going from house to house, dancing and singing gypsy songs to a balalajka and accordion accompaniment.

   • 1992, Report from the […] International Meeting of the International Council for Traditional Music’s Study Group on Folk Musical Instruments, Musikmuseet, page 94:

     […] kruglolitsa” with an accompaniment by balalajkas, domras and a bajan.

   • 2005, Mark R[oderick] V[endrell] Southern, Contagious Couplings: Transmission of Expressives in Yiddish Echo Phrases, Praeger, →ISBN, page 118:

     Russ. trynka-brynka ‘worthless little coin’ or ‘plink-plunk’ (of a balalajka), associatively helped by purely onomatopoeic tryndi-bryndi ‘plink-plunk’ (verbal rendition of balalajka’s sound ~ trynka ‘small silver coin,’ or a card-game; blended with tren’kat’ / bren’kat’ ‘play badly’ as a further associative echo.

   • 2013, Lene Kaaberbøl, Agnete Friis, translated by Elisabeth Dyssegaard, Death of a Nightingale, Soho Press, →ISBN:

     Other times she was just Oxana, like now, when he lifted little Kolja up from the rough planks on the veranda and danced around with him in her arms, as if there were a balalajka orchestra in her head.

• IPA^(key): [ˈbalalajka]

balalajka f

1. balalaika

• balalajka in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• balalajka in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

From Russian балала́йка (balalájka, “balalaika”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɒlɒlɒjkɒ]
• Hyphenation: ba‧la‧laj‧ka
• Rhymes: -kɒ

balalajka (plural balalajkák)

1. balalaika

• balalajka in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• balalajka in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (‘A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2024)

balalajka c

1. balalaika (Russian instrument)