контора

Russian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kontor around 1720, from Middle Low German kontôr, komtôr, komptor (“commercial branch; writing room; counting desk/table”), from Middle Dutch contoor, contoir, comptoir, from Middle French contoir, comptoir, from conter, compter (“to count”) + -oir (“instrument sufffix”), from Latin computāre and -tōrium.

Sense 'KGB' originated from a pun playing on another rare meaning of the abbreviation, namely контора глубокого бурения (kontora glubokovo burenija, literally “deep-boring field office”), in the 1960s.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [kɐnˈtorə]
Audio: (file)

Noun

конто́ра • (kontóra) f inan (genitive конто́ры, nominative plural конто́ры, genitive plural конто́р, relational adjective конто́рский, diminutive конто́рка)

office, bureau
(colloquial) company
(dated, euphemistic) the KGB
(slang) KGB successors in the Post-Soviet countries: the FSB, SBU etc.

Declension

Declension of конто́ра (inan fem-form hard-stem accent-a)

	singular	plural
nominative	конто́ра kontóra	конто́ры kontóry
genitive	конто́ры kontóry	конто́р kontór
dative	конто́ре kontóre	конто́рам kontóram
accusative	конто́ру kontóru	конто́ры kontóry
instrumental	конто́рой, конто́рою kontóroj, kontóroju	конто́рами kontórami
prepositional	конто́ре kontóre	конто́рах kontórax

Descendants

Borrowings

→ Bulgarian: канто́ра (kantóra)
→ Belarusian: канто́ра (kantóra)
→ Chuvash: кантор (kant̬or), кантур (kant̬ur)
→ Crimean Tatar: kontora
→ Kyrgyz: контора (kontora)
→ Kazakh: кәнтор (käntor)
→ Latvian: kantoris
→ Lithuanian: kontora
→ Romanian: cantoră
→ Talysh: кантор (kantor)
→ Tajik: контора (kontora)
→ Tatar: контор (qontor)
→ Ukrainian: контора (kontora)