devochka
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: devochkas
Senses: examples: text: The few Russian devochkas who were bold or curious enough to venture forth publicly accompanied by Americans were usually warned by Soviet officials.
ref: 1947, Richard E[dward] Lauterbach, “Americans in Siberia: Vladivostok”, in Through Russia’s Back Door, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, page 32:
text: She is one of the growing number of trim blonde devochkas (young girls) who turn heads as they walk down Gorky St., the main thoroughfare from the south to the Kremlin, which combines the functions of State St. and Madison Ave. […] The Moscow devochka is changed—she turns heads.
ref: 1966 June 4, James Sullivan, “Moscow Makes Moonlighting Easy—And Necessary”, in Buffalo Evening News, volume CLXXII, number 47, Buffalo, N.Y.: Buffalo Evening News, Inc., pages B—5, column 5:
text: This devochka must lie. “Diaries take up space,” she thought.
ref: 2003, Fran Carlen, I Know Where I’m Going (Adventures in Poetry), New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.: Zephyr Press, →ISBN, page 93:
text: There are women all around me now, babkas and devochkas too.
ref: 2011, Nerys Parry, chapter 21, in Man & Other Natural Disasters: A Novel, Winnipeg, Man.: Enfield & Wizenty, →ISBN, page 142:
text: That goddamn bastard Fyodor Pavlovich from [Fyodor] Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov knocked up an idiot girl named Stinking Lizaveta and named the illegitimate child Smerdyakov, which means “son of the reeking one.” The piteous devochka died giving birth, but many moons later back in the real world a Philadelphia band named themselves after her.
ref: 2011 September 7–13, Elliott Sharp, “Stinking Lizaveta + Electric Simcha”, in Adamma Ince, editor, Philadelphia Weekly, Philadelphia, Pa.: Review Publishing, page 21, column 2:
text: And yet, from simple Siberian crescents, to triangular Kostroman ‘kika’, to the towering cylinders typical of Novgorod; the heirloom kokoshniki that once gathered dust at the back of family cupboards are now worn with pride everywhere from the Moscow metropolis to the villages around Vladivostok… True proof, as if it was needed, that this humble headdress is equally at home on the heads of the devochkas of the districts as those of the world’s stateliest supermodels; […]
ref: 2014 winter, Jenny Skipper, “Focus on the Kokoshnik”, in Jenny Skipper, editor, Шум Magazine, number 1, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: The University of Nottingham, The Department of Russian Slavonic Studies:
text: “Perhaps you should tell us a little of your story devochka?” said Yuri, “if we are to protect you, for I think that will be necessary, then we should know who you are and why we are doing so.” / Natalie lifted her chin slightly, “I am not a young girl, a devochka, indeed, I am engaged to be married to a wonderful man, who even as we speak must be frantic as to my whereabouts.”
ref: 2015, Robert A. Chalmers, chapter 10, in Marriage in a Cold Climate: Natalie’s Romantic Adventure: A Novella, Felixstowe, Suffolk, →ISBN:
text: “Watch your tongue, devochka. You are already fat enough as it is.” […] “Now, devochka, do it again and everyone can go eat,” demanded Maestra Katya in an accent thicker than tar.
ref: 2024, Carter Enslein, “Цикл (Cycle)”, in Joey Knizner, editor, Expressions: St. Xavier High School Literary and Fine Arts Journal, number 59, Cincinnati, Oh.: St. Xavier High School, pages 42 and 46:
glosses: Alternative form of devotchka.