Russian Language Exported: DACHA
A country house that has become a symbol of the Russian soul and entered world languages without translation.
‘Dacha’ (English, Spanish ‘dacha’, German ‘Datsche’, French ‘datcha’) is a unique phenomenon of Russian life: a small plot of land with a cottage where city dwellers relax in the summer and tend to their gardens and vegetable patches. The name comes from the verb ‘dat’ (‘to give’) – originally, it referred to land given as a reward for service. In Soviet times, many ordinary families also received ‘dachas’.
The word ‘dacha’ entered European languages without translation, because there is simply no exact equivalent for this phenomenon.
