Word of the Day

zakuska \zuh-KOOS-kuh\,
noun:
an hors d'oeuvre.

"Do you have anything for zakuska, Tractvanna?" Oleg took stock of the table: boiled potatoes, bread, canned peas and sardines, a clove of garlic.
-- Marina Sonkina, "Tractorina's Travels," Lucia's Eyes and Other Stories

I drink a shot, take a bite of marinated mushrooms in sour cream. Humankind has yet to invent any better zakuska. Even Nanny's half-sour pickles can't hold a candle to this.
-- Vladimir Sorokin, "Day of the Oprichnik"

This Russian word for a snack, zakuska, entered the lexicon in the mid 1880s as a derivative of kusát meaning "to bite."

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