- YIDDISH WORD
- פּיאַסקעס
Word Entry
DEFINITION(S)
Collective name for a group of three streets in Białystok, named for the sand (Polish: piasek, pl. piaski) that was there.
EXAMPLE(S)
מײַנע קינדער־יאָרן אױף די פּיאַסקעס The memoir of L. Hindes is titled
NOTES
I 've come across several times with the word '' piaskes'' without finding a proper explanation. It seems to be a central place in a shtetl but I am not sure .It couldhave a link with the word piasek : sand in Polish. There is a book by Hindes called: מיינע קינדער-יארן אויף די פיאסקעס what is the meaning ?
BY TAG
COMMENTS
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Stempenyu
I looked up מיינע קינדער-יארן אויף די פיאסקעס on the Yiddish Book Center's archive, and read the first page of the preface. You're right, it is connected to piasek. "Piaski" (sands) was the Polish name for a group of three streets in Białystok because of the sand that was there, and this name became "Piaskes" in Yiddish.
6 March 2014, 9:23 am
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Mundart Press
Well, I'm certainly glad Saul was able clear this up.
The only stuff that I am able to add now that you have clarified its connection to sand, is that when I look up 'sand' in Peter M. Bergman's "The Concise Dictionary of 26 Languages"(1000 word vocabulary) all of the listed Slavic languages have the cognate (I looked up the Russian 'pesók' in my Russian dictionary and also found 'peska' in reference to 'sand(s)').
Slavic cognates:
Polish = piasek
Czech = písek
Serbo-Croat = pjesak
Russian = pesókPossible cognate outside of Slavic:
Indonesian = pasir
6 March 2014, 2:12 pm
The only thing that I can imagine is that 'pioskes' from 'pios' from 'der pies' meaning 'dog' is what is meant here.
Does that sound right to you? It would mean 'dogs' plural with the diminutive Slavic ending -ke cf. 'water' 'voda'>'vodka', 'duck' 'katshke' etc.
5 March 2014, 1:53 pm