baniak

plural baniaks · alternative banyak · alternative buniak · alternative bunyak

1. derogatoryhumorousslangchiefly italicizedA fool.

   “What did I keep telling you, Oleh—you baniak, you elephant's arsehole?

   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

   5 more examples

   ‘baniak baniak you ole fucker! | you’re tighter than hogan’s goat!’ | baniak only smiles | a perfect smile [footnote] baniak: Ukrainian for cooking pot.

   1981, Andrew Suknaski, Dennis Cooley, “In the name of Narid: new poems”, in Porcupine, Quill, page 114

   What woman could ever consent to be his wife, to lose all her dignity and position with a bunyak like that?”

   1986, Janice Kulyk Keefer, The Paris-Napoli express, Oberon Press, page 78

   No . . . no. She doesn't give damn for you. Thinks Ziggy good boy but stupid. A baniak a real woman would leave first chance.

   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

   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?”

   1988: Levi Dronyk, “The puck artist”, in Doug Beardsley ed., The rocket, the flower, the hammer, and me, Vancouver: Polestar Books, pp 161

   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, Michael Ewanchuk, Reflections and reminiscences: Ukrainians in Canada, 1892-1992, M. Ewanchuk, page 36