Meanings
plural barankas · plural baranki
- A traditional Russian dough ring, somewhat smaller than a bublik, but also thinner and drier.
I had bought some barankas—dry Russian biscuits—en route.
1911 February, [Stephen Graham], “The Conversion of Vania: A Sidelight on the Russian National Liquor Monopoly”, in Scientific Temperance Journal, volume XX, number 6, Boston, Mass.: The Scientific Temperance Federation, pages 86–875 more examples
How comical we should have looked on a country road in old England, as we jogged along, almost buried in our cushions, with our eggs in our fingers and the salt in a paper receptacle; and ever and anon stretching out our arms at full length for the baranki, which depended in graceful festoons over our heads!
1859, [Mary Ann Pellew Smith], “Monastery of Verlama—Derjaëvin’s Grave—Bronitzee—[…]”, in Six Years’ Travels in Russia. […], volume II, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], page 15Outside the baker’s shop, beside his printed name—printed name, by the way, often quite unintelligible to himself—is a very lively picture of white loaves and rolls, biscuits, krendels, baranki, cakes.
1911 September 30, Stephen Graham, “The Compensations of Illiteracy”, in The Living Age, seventh series, volume LII (CCLXX overall), number 3508, Boston, Mass.: The Arakelyan Press, page 881, column 1Soviet machines used in making Russian national food, such as delicious patties stuffed with meat, fruit or cottage cheese, pelmeni, dumplings, boubliks and barankas, are popular in many countries. Soviet sorts of baranka-type articles, such as sushkas, can be kept for many months without going stale.
1971, Foreign Trade, U.S.S.R. Ministry of Foreign Trade, page 42, columns 1–2He had received a food parcel earlier, and so he ate only butter and ring-shaped rolls, baranki, and he quit eating black bread a week before his strike.
1973, Aleksandr I[sayevich] Solzhenitsyn, translated by Thomas P[orter] Whitney, “Tyurzak”, in The Gulag Archipelago, 1918–1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Perennial Library), parts I–II, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, →ISBN, part I (The Prison Industry), page 471Huge samovars are kept on the boil and there are boubliks and barankas (thick, ring-shaped rolls).
1981, Cynthia Carlile, transl., Suzdal, Progress Publishers, page 115
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*h₃ebʰi
- Proto-Balto-Slavic*ab
- Proto-Slavic*o(b)
- Russianоб- (ob-)
- Proto-Indo-European*wōr-
- Proto-Balto-Slavic*wārīˀtei
- Proto-Slavic*varìti
- Russianвари́ть (varítʹ)
- Russianобвари́ть (obvarítʹ)
- Russianбара́нка (baránka)
- Englishbaranka
Borrowed from Russian бара́нка (baránka).
More words from Russian
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
baranka. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/baranka
“baranka.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/baranka. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “baranka,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/baranka.
Source: baranka on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.