Meanings
plural hopaks · alternative gopak
- A Ukrainian national dance in 2/4 time.
Somewhere an accordion was playing a jazz-inflected hopak.
2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 12131 more example
Another explicitly 'joyful' item in my collection is the 1963 Services and Fares brochure, featuring train and ferry timetables to London (and back) from Czechoslovakia, Poland and the USSR, with a happy hopak-dancing Ukrainian cossack in a traditional Ukrainian vishivanka shirt and wide sharovari pants on the cover.
2026 May 27, Vitali Vitaliev, “Times of hope and joy”, in RAIL, number 1062, page 68
Origin
- Ukrainianгопа́к
- Englishhopak
1925–30, from Ukrainian гопа́к (hopák), from the interjection гоп (hop). Compare Ukrainian го́пати (hópaty), го́пкати (hópkaty), гопцюва́ти (hopcjuváty), го́пки (hópky), and dated Ukrainian го́пи (hópy, “dance steps”), го́пка (hópka, “child (jocular)”).
More words from Ukrainian
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian гопак
- гопак (gopak)a Ukrainian national dance
Catalan hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Chinese Mandarin 霍巴克
- 霍巴克a Ukrainian national dance
Czech hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Danish hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Dutch hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Estonian hopakk
- hopakka Ukrainian national dance
Finnish hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
French gopak, hopak
- gopaka Ukrainian national dance
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
German Hopak
- Hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Italian hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Japanese ホパーク
- ホパークa Ukrainian national dance
Korean 고팩
- 고팩 (gopaek)a Ukrainian national dance
Persian هوپاک
- هوپاکa Ukrainian national dance
Polish hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Russian гопа́к
- гопа́к (gopák)a Ukrainian national dance
Spanish hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Swedish hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Turkish hopak
- hopaka Ukrainian national dance
Ukrainian гопа́к
- гопа́к (hopák)a Ukrainian national dance
Cite this entry
hopak. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hopak
“hopak.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hopak. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hopak,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hopak.
Source: hopak on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.