кортик

Russian

Кортик

Etymology

Attested early 18th century in correspondence regarding Russia's purchase of weapons from Western Europe. The etymology is uncertain; there are several hypotheses.

• Borrowed from Dutch korte sabel (“short saber”) + -ик (-ik, diminutive suffix).
• From the obsolete term ко́рда (kórda, “short sword”) +‎ -ик (-ik), from Old East Slavic кордъ (kordŭ), ultimately from Middle Persian; Vasmer considered this unlikely due to the change from д to т; but compare Polish kordzik and Polish kord (“cutlass”).
• Per Vasmer and Trubachyov, a partial calque of Italian cortello, a dialectal form of coltello (“knife”), with the Italian diminutive suffix -ello mapping to -ик (-ik).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkortʲɪk]

Noun

ко́ртик • (kórtik) m inan (genitive ко́ртика, nominative plural ко́ртики, genitive plural ко́ртиков)

1. (nautical) dirk

Declension

Declension of ко́ртик (inan masc-form velar-stem accent-a) 

	singular	plural
nominative	ко́ртик kórtik	ко́ртики kórtiki
genitive	ко́ртика kórtika	ко́ртиков kórtikov
dative	ко́ртику kórtiku	ко́ртикам kórtikam
accusative	ко́ртик kórtik	ко́ртики kórtiki
instrumental	ко́ртиком kórtikom	ко́ртиками kórtikami
prepositional	ко́ртике kórtike	ко́ртиках kórtikax

Further reading

• Šanskij, N. M. (2004) “кортик”, in Školʹnyj etimologičeskij slovarʹ russkovo jazyka [School Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Drofa
• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “кортик”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress