контора
Russian edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from German Kontor around 1720, from Middle Low German kontôr, komtôr, komptor (“commercial branch; writing room; counting desk/table”), from Middle Dutch contoor, contoir, comptoir, from Middle French contoir, comptoir, from conter, compter (“to count”) + -oir (“instrument sufffix”), from Latin computāre and -tōrium.
Sense 'KGB' originated from a pun playing on another rare meaning of the abbreviation, namely контора глубокого бурения (kontora glubokovo burenija, literally “deep-boring field office”), in the 1960s.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
конто́ра • (kontóra) f inan (genitive конто́ры, nominative plural конто́ры, genitive plural конто́р, relational adjective конто́рский, diminutive конто́рка)
- office, bureau
- (colloquial) company
- (dated, euphemistic) the KGB
- (slang) KGB successors in the Post-Soviet countries: the FSB, SBU etc.
Declension edit
Declension of конто́ра (inan fem-form hard-stem accent-a)
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | конто́ра kontóra |
конто́ры kontóry |
| genitive | конто́ры kontóry |
конто́р kontór |
| dative | конто́ре kontóre |
конто́рам kontóram |
| accusative | конто́ру kontóru |
конто́ры kontóry |
| instrumental | конто́рой, конто́рою kontóroj, kontóroju |
конто́рами kontórami |
| prepositional | конто́ре kontóre |
конто́рах kontórax |
Descendants edit
- Borrowings
- → Bulgarian: канто́ра (kantóra)
- → Belarusian: канто́ра (kantóra)
- → Chuvash: кантор (kant̬or), кантур (kant̬ur)
- → Crimean Tatar: kontora
- → Kyrgyz: контора (kontora)
- → Kazakh: кәнтор (käntor)
- → Latvian: kantoris
- → Lithuanian: kontora
- → Romanian: cantoră
- → Talysh: кантор (kantor)
- → Tajik: контора (kontora)
- → Tatar: контор (qontor)
- → Ukrainian: контора (kontora)