Slang that big Babushka used to use

[kart.livejournal.com]

I've just started reading the learn_russian community yesteraday and have been digging through some of the good older posts.

My great-grandmother was born and raised in a Russian speaking family near Grodno/Hrodna, before the revolution. She emigrated and brought unknown quantities of precious slang with her. Lots of her slang was based on Yiddish, and there was probably plenty of Polish influnce as well.

There is one word, though, that my relatives remember yet we never could figure out: "hotzula". As in "oy, look at fat hotzula there walking down street with her rear end hanging out of pants."

I have no idea how to spell it... maybe гуцульа with a soft г. Any ideas on what the actual word might have been or its origins?

Comments

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Гуцул is a Western Ukrainian word for certain goups of Ukrainian people who live in Carpatian Mountains. I'm not sure it applies in this case, though.
BTW Grodno is not in Russia, it's in Belarus. It's a separate country.

[gvadelupa.livejournal.com]

About Hutsuls (http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Hutsuls.html).

There are many anecdotes about hutsuls in Ukraine, may be they were known in Belarus (where Grodno is placed) too.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, I can only guess, so I better don't :)

[kart.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. I hope the word wasn't too offensive to any Carpathian Mountain people =P Baba was not known for swearing.

As for Belarus, Baba considered herself Russian. I know Hrodna is part of Belarus now, but she emigrated before the end of WWI. Here's a 1916 map that shows the old Guberniya divisions: 1916 Map (427K) (http://www2.jewishgen.org/Belarus/images/russia.jpg)