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[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

Longtime lurker here, and like the last poster, I have one of those mysterious-word posts. The word in question appears in Latin transcription (in a Finnish text) and it is "tsuhonka" with a thing over the s that means it's pronounced like "sh." It is being used to refer to Finnish women working as maids in St. Petersburg households in the 19th century. The closest I could get with a dictionary is чужой 'foreign' - so does it just mean 'foreign woman'?

Comments

[alamar.livejournal.com]

I believe that you should look up чухонец on dict.mova.org:
ЧУХОНЕЦ, чухонца, м. (дореволюц.). Пренебрежительное обозначение финна (в разг. речи, напр. в старом Петербурге, могло употр. и без пренебрежительного оттенка). По мшистым, топким берегам чернели избы здесь и там, приют убогого чухонца. Пушкин. А яйца славные: чухонец только сегодня принес.
Гончаров.

I would say this world is still sometimes used, but lost all it finnish context, and I can't fugure out very well what does it mean now.

[shalapanova.livejournal.com]

It seems to be "чухонка".

"Чухонцы" - an old name of Estonian and Finns.
Now it uses in disrespectful meaning.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

No, the right word is "чухонка"("chuhonka" or "chukhonka" in English spelling) -- essentially a "Finnish woman", and "Finnish man" would be "чухонец". These words are still in use now, but they have a noticeable derogatory subtext, as Finland was long considered a rural and backward province of Russian Empire, so Finns were often seen as country simpletons. Some useless rubbish or senseless words can be called "чухня" in Russian, and "Чухляндия" is a derogatory word for Finland.

[temcat.livejournal.com]

For Finland, there's also Чушка, which is even more derogatory... (BTW why is it still used like this now that Finland isn't "a rural and backward province of Russian Empire" anymore?)

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Well, because the word stuck. ;) Humans like to call other names, you see.

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

Thank you all! I believe this solves it, at least enough for me to read further - and I didn't know about the mova.org dictionary!

Чухонка

[natha1ie.livejournal.com]

I suppose the word you've asked is "чухонка". It means Finnish woman. This word is old-styled, you can see it in Poushkin's poems. For example: приют убогого чухонца - a miserable Finn's shelter.