bublik
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: bubliks
form: bubliki
form: boublik
Etymology: From Russian бу́блик (búblik).
Senses: examples: text: A samovar was always in the office, always on the boil, and they could offer tea and buttered bubliks to the customers. […] He would get up and dress and say his prayers, and then sit down to drink tea—he would drink up three glasses of tea and eat two large bubliks and half a French roll and butter.
ref: 1959, Anton Chekhov, translated by Rosa Graham, “Dushechka”, in Stephen Graham, editor, Great Russian Short Stories, New York, N.Y.: Liveright Publishing Corporation, pages 577 and 584:
text: Marfa called the junior waitress, handed her the order-pad and said: “A glass of tea and a bublik bun for me, Katyusha.” […] Marfa accepted the proffered watchword with a grave inclination of her head, took another sip of tea and another nibble of bublik.
ref: 1960 April, V[iktor] Bezorudko, translated by Archie Johnstone, “Soviet Humor: The Teahouse of Nether Borsch”, in New World Review, volume 28, number 4, New York, N.Y.: N.W.R. Publications, Inc., pages 35–36:
text: Semyon Akopovich would take glossy, crinkly bubliks, sprinkled with poppy seed, out of the pocket of his old coat.
ref: 1969, Konstantin Paustovsky, translated by Kyril FitzLyon, “Wrestler Dovgello”, in Southern Adventure (Story of a Life; V), London: Harvill Press, page 154:
text: A WOMAN WENT DOWN TO THE MARKET, CARRYING BUBLIKS WITH HER. […] ONE OF THE SOLDIERS FELT LIKE EATING, SO HE SAYS TO HER: “MA, GIVE A HUNGRY MAN A BUBLIK! […] THE POLES WILL DEVOUR THE REPUBLIC, IF WE’RE UNDERFED.” THE WOMAN SAID, “NOT ON YOUR LIFE! I’M NOT GIVING UP MY BUBLIKS![…]” […] THE POLE SEES THE FAT, WHITE WOMAN IN THE CROWD. IN A FLASH SHE’S EATEN UP, SHE AND HER BUBLIKS.
ref: 1979, Mikhail Cheremnykh, Vladimir Mayakovsky, translated by W. Freeman, D. Saunders, and C. Binns, “A Story of Bubliks for Sale to the Public and of a Woman Who Denied the Republic”, in Mikhail Guerman, compiler, Art of the October Revolution, London: Collet’s, →ISBN:
text: He came back several times with small loaves of various shapes, kalachs, bubliks, pots of jam, honey and molasses, and cold sausage; […]
ref: 1984, Vladimir Volkoff, translated by Alan Sheridan, “A Day in the Life of Aleksandr Dmitrich”, in The Set-Up, London: Methuen London Ltd, published 1985, →ISBN, page 137:
text: Irina is sitting at her kitchen table with ink on her face, two pencils behind her ear and another in her hand, and with the pages of her life of Galia Molokhovina spread out in front of her between the cherry povidlo and the bubliki.
ref: 1993, Ann Oakley, “Looking Back”, in Scenes Originating in the Garden of Eden, London: Flamingo, HarperCollinsPublishers, published 1994, →ISBN, pages 262–263:
text: Somebody asks the man selling bubliki (a bagel-like roll): “Why are your bubliki underdone? – That’s speeding up! Why does every single bublik have a piece bitten off? – That’s because the state accepted them! Why are your bubliki square instead of round? – Why, that’s perestroika! ”
ref: 2005 July, Alexandra Grigorieva, “Russian Federation: Rediscovering classics, enjoying diversity”, in Darra Goldstein, Kathrin Merkle, editors, Culinary Cultures of Europe: Identity, Diversity and Dialogue, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, →ISBN, page 376, column 1:
text: A traditional Russian tea urn, a samovar, with bubliks, which are similar to bagels.
ref: 2010, M. A. Arshinova, Olga Bogdanova, Sergey I. Bolysov, Michelle Felton, Rinas V. Kashbrasiev, Alex Kharytanovich, Igor Kotin, Svetlana Kyullenen, Pavel Ovseiko, Alexey P. Seregin, Anna Sokolova, Ksenia Vozdigan, “[Russian Federation] Food and Drink”, in Belarus, Russian Federation, and Ukraine (World and Its Peoples: Europe; 10), Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish Reference, →ISBN, page 1384, column 2:
text: Breads — A630 / No. 932: a, 2h, Loaf of white bread. b, 2h, Kolache with hole in middle. c, 2.50h, Loaf of black bread. d, 2.50h, Three bubliks. e, 4.80h, Decorated korovai.
ref: 2016 September, Donna Houseman, editor, Scott 2017 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, 173rd edition, volume 6 (Countries of the World: San-Z), Sidney, Oh.: Amos Media, →ISBN, page 1284, column 2:
text: After that the man went to the bazaar, where he bought himself a string of bubliki, and that night he hung them on the fence in front of the windows on the pickets. And in the morning he said to his wife, “Wife, didn’t you sense what happened last night?” “No, I didn’t,” the wife said. “What was it?” “A cloud of bubliki flew by.[…]”
ref: 2021, A[lexander] N[ikolayevich] Afanas’ev, “The Sly Man”, in Jack V. Haney, Sibelan Forrester, editors, The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev, volume III, Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 414:
text: 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”.
ref: 2023, Nanda Milbreta, “How We Killed the Worms”, in Kommunalka Child, London: Austin Macauley Publishers, →ISBN, part I:
text: Do you often eat bubliki, baranki and sushki?
ref: 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:
glosses: A traditional Eastern European bread roll, consisting of a ring of yeast-leavened wheat dough that has been boiled in water for a short time before baking.