войнушка

17:28 Oct 29, 2009

This question was closed without grading. Reason: Errant question

Russian to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / Children's games

Russian term or phrase: войнушка

Two little boys, ages 5 and 2, liked to play this game. The action takes place in Tashkent in the 1960s. The only dictionary reference I saw so far is somebody's suggestion in Multitran, that it would mean "fray." But, "fray" cannot be the name of a game, as in "играть в войнушку".

Is it roughhousing, or something more specific?

Rachel Douglas KudoZ activity Questions: 73 (none open) (8 closed without grading) Answers: 1630 United States
Local time: 23:15

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

play war games

Alexandra Liashchenko

play soldiers/play war

Libero_Lang_Lab

Summary of reference entries provided

Mark Hemming

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2897163596212825946#

gutbuster

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

6 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

play war games

Explanation:
it's what we all had in the past... boys, mainly)

Alexandra Liashchenko
United States
Local time: 23:15
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Russian,

Ukrainian
PRO pts in category: 18

3 days 19 hrs confidence:

play soldiers/play war

Explanation:
I prefer the former option - play soldiers.

This suggests something played by little kids, using wooden swords and their imaginations.

playing war games suggests something that geeky adults might do :-)

Reference: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/09/24/boy-bran...
Reference: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/jokes/read/794832/

Libero_Lang_Lab
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:15
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thanks, Dan. For some reason, I only just now noticed Mark Hemming's post, pointing out that I failed to look it up in the KudoZ glossary. And the earlier solution coincides with what I thought, in the first place. I agree that "war games" is out of place; that's done in the Pentagon, etc. "Play soldiers" is good for a third-party description, but (at least in AE) it isn't what kids would say. For what one little kid would say to another, I think it's definitely "play war." But nobody wrote that where I could vote for it, and Mark pointed out that the question is a duplicate, so I guess I should close it without choosing anything new.

Reference comments

2 mins peer agreement (net): +5

Reference

Reference information:
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/russian_to_english/slang/2444752-в...

Mark Hemming
United Kingdom
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English

Note to reference poster

Asker: Mark, thanks very much. I would choose this ("play war") if it were offered as an answer, but I think the point is that I didn't look it up in the KudoZ history. The correct thing to do must be to close the question without choosing.

1 hr

Reference: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2897163596212825946#

Reference information:
/

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2009-10-29 19:13:38 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=289716359621282594...

gutbuster
Native speaker of:

Russian,

Ukrainian
PRO pts in category: 16

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