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baniak - What does it mean?

Definition of 'baniak'

English

Alternative forms

* banyak * buniak * bunyak

Noun

(en-noun)
  • A fool.
  • * 1981 : Andrew Suknaski and Dennis Cooley, In the name of Narid: new poems , Porcupine's Quill, p  114:
    • ‘baniak baniak''''' you ole fucker! | you’re tighter than hogan’s goat!’ | '''''baniak only smiles | a perfect smile
    [footnote] baniak : Ukrainian for cooking pot.
  • * 1986 : Janice Kulyk Keefer, The Paris-Napoli express , Oberon Press, p 78:
    • What woman could ever consent to be his wife, to lose all her dignity and position with a bunyak like that?”
  • * 1987 : Janice Kulyk Keefer, “Unseen, the cuckoo sings at dawn”, in Jars Balan ed., Yarmarok: Ukrainian writing in Canada since the Second World War , Edmonton: CIUS Press, p 103:
    • “What did I keep telling you, Oleh—you baniak , you elephant's arsehole?
  • * 1987 : Michael John Nimchuk, “The day my grandad died”, in Jars Balan ed., Yarmarok: Ukrainian writing in Canada since the Second World War , Edmonton: CIUS Press, p 172:
    • No . . . no. She doesn't give damn for you. Thinks Ziggy good boy but stupid. A baniak a real woman would leave first chance.
  • * 1988 : Levi Dronyk, “The puck artist”, in Doug Beardsley ed., The rocket, the flower, the hammer, and me , Vancouver: Polestar Books, pp 161:
    • Baniak''''', eh? ¶Literally, a '''''baniak is a pot; in the vernacular, it becomes a “dummy.” Among Ukrainians it's used in a self-deprecating context, or, as with Sammy, an endearment. If “the English” used the word, or the malicious “bohunk,” which amounted to calling a Ukrainian a “nigger,” to address us, a fistfight usually resulted.
    “Baniak , quiet, sshh,” Sammy frowned. “Why you have to be so noisy? How come?”
  • * 1995 : Michael Ewanchuk, Reflections and reminiscences: Ukrainians in Canada, 1892–1992 , M. Ewanchuk, p 36:
    • As someone said, that even one with a university degree, BA, could be called “Baniak ”, or an empty pot, if that individual isolated himself from the community to which he naturally belonged.
  • * 1995 : Nika Rylski, “Just a kommedia”, in Aviva Ravel ed., Canadian mosaic: 6 plays , Dundurn Press, p 130:
    • God. What a Banyak  . . .

    Usage notes

    Usually italicized as a foreign term not fully naturalized in English.

    Similar to 'baniak'

    bannock, boink, banyak, bohunk, bemask, bemock, buniak, bunyak, banck