baranka

English

Barankas

Etymology

From Russian бара́нка (baránka).

Noun

baranka (plural barankas or baranki)

1. A traditional Russian dough ring, somewhat smaller than a bublik, but also thinner and drier.
   • 1859, [Mary Ann Pellew Smith], “Monastery of Verlama—Derjaëvin’s Grave—Bronitzee—[…]”, in Six Years’ Travels in Russia. […], volume II, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], page 15:

     How comical we should have looked on a country road in old England, as we jogged along, almost buried in our cushions, with our eggs in our fingers and the salt in a paper receptacle; and ever and anon stretching out our arms at full length for the baranki, which depended in graceful festoons over our heads!

   • 1911 February, [Stephen Graham], “The Conversion of Vania: A Sidelight on the Russian National Liquor Monopoly”, in Scientific Temperance Journal, volume XX, number 6, Boston, Mass.: The Scientific Temperance Federation, pages 86–87:

     I had bought some barankas—dry Russian biscuits—en route.

   • 1911 September 30, Stephen Graham, “The Compensations of Illiteracy”, in The Living Age, seventh series, volume LII (CCLXX overall), number 3508, Boston, Mass.: The Arakelyan Press, page 881, column 1:

     Outside the baker’s shop, beside his printed name—printed name, by the way, often quite unintelligible to himself—is a very lively picture of white loaves and rolls, biscuits, krendels, baranki, cakes.

   • 1971, Foreign Trade, U.S.S.R. Ministry of Foreign Trade, page 42, columns 1–2:

     Soviet machines used in making Russian national food, such as delicious patties stuffed with meat, fruit or cottage cheese, pelmeni, dumplings, boubliks and barankas, are popular in many countries. Soviet sorts of baranka-type articles, such as sushkas, can be kept for many months without going stale.

   • 1973, Aleksandr I[sayevich] Solzhenitsyn, translated by Thomas P[orter] Whitney, “Tyurzak”, in The Gulag Archipelago, 1918–1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Perennial Library), parts I–II, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, →ISBN, part I (The Prison Industry), page 471:

     He had received a food parcel earlier, and so he ate only butter and ring-shaped rolls, baranki, and he quit eating black bread a week before his strike.

   • 1981, Cynthia Carlile, transl., Suzdal, Progress Publishers, page 115:

     Huge samovars are kept on the boil and there are boubliks and barankas (thick, ring-shaped rolls).

   • 1984, Jackson J[erald] Benson, “The Last Battle”, in The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →ISBN, chapter XLVII, section I, page 942:

     We drop our eyes, mumble something inarticulate, add more tea to each other’s glasses, and nibble barankas.

   • 1984 October, F. M. Agranovich, “First Results of Experiment Reported”, in A. G. Aganbegyan, editor, EKO: Economics and Organization of Industrial Production (USSR Report, Economic Affairs), number 10, Springfield, Va.: Foreign Broadcast Information Service, reproduced by National Technical Information Service, published 1985 February 13, JPRS-UEA-85-006, page 66:

     We have a monopoly in Kiev on barankas and diabetic bread roll items.

   • 1990, “Breads”, in Culture and Life, U.S.S.R. Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS), page 47, column 2:

     It is quite a job baking boubliks and barankas because the dough has to be well-mixed and thick and totally free of air bubbles.

   • 2007, Anna Pavlovskaya, “The Russian Feast”, in CultureShock! A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette: Russia, Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish Editions, published 2008, →ISBN, page 194:

     Tea is drunk with various different accompaniments such as rolls, barankas (a dry, ring-shaped roll) or pryaniks (spice cakes), which are specially produced to be taken with tea.

   • 2023, Nanda Milbreta, “How We Killed the Worms”, in Kommunalka Child, London: Austin Macauley Publishers, →ISBN, part I:

     As a child I was often hungry and hunger made me impatient. If my mother was very late with cooking, she gave us a common flour-based snack, bubliki, baranki, sushki, suhariki or pryaniki. It was only in retrospect that I realised that all these traditional Eastern-European snacks were a variation of dried bread. When she handed out one of the treats, she said that they were meant to “kill the worm” (“zamarit chervichka” in Russian). At that time, I interpreted this literally, as I didn’t know that this was an expression that meant “to have a small bite before a proper meal”.

   • 2023, Ольга Наговицына, “Module 3. Tasty treats!”, in Поурочные разработки по английскому языку. 4 класс (к УМК Н. И. Быковой и др. («Spotlight»)), Moscow: Bako, →ISBN, page 85:

     People like sushki and baranki because they are cheap and taste good.

Further reading

• Bublik § Common names and types on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Papiamentu

Etymology

From Spanish barranca and Portuguese barranco, both in the meaning of ravine.

Noun

baranka

1. rock
2. cliff