kalach

plural kalaches · plural kalachs · plural kalachi · alternative kalatch · alternative kolach

1. Traditional East Slavic bread shaped like a padlock or various kinds of wheels. Other Slavic nations have similar but not identical types of pastry, e.g. Czech or Slovak koláč/koláč, Polish kołacz, Bulgarian колач (kolač), Serbo-Croatian колач/kolač, etc.

   We asked the canteen to lend us a knife for a minute, I cut up all the kalachs and the babkas into thirty-three parts.

   2018, Grunia Slutzky-Kohn, translated by the David Azrieli Foundation, “The Festival”, in Memories of War, Montreal, Que., →OCLC, page 89

   3 more examples

   [H]e used to roam about the town with his hands in his pockets, doing nothing, and casting looks at the stalls of the old women who sold kalachs which made them tremble.

   1892, Vladimir Korolenko, anonymous translator, “Bad Company”, in Antony Lambton, compiler, Bad Company and Other Stories, London; Melbourne, Vic.; New York, N.Y.: Quartet Books, published 1986, →ISBN, chapter II (Queer People), page 20

   Her ladyship was reduced to the pitiable choice of yesterday’s croissants or one of the nine different kinds of rolls, milk breads, sweet breads, scones, pancakes, vatrushki, kalachi, ponchiki, rogaliki and bulochki whose delicious, new-baked smell was wafting all over the house.

   1967, Ira J. Morris, chapter III, in The Troika Belle, London: William Heinemann Ltd, page 16

   He came back several times with small loaves of various shapes, kalachs, bubliks, pots of jam, honey and molasses, and cold sausage; […]

   1984, Vladimir Volkoff, translated by Alan Sheridan, “A Day in the Life of Aleksandr Dmitrich”, in The Set-Up, London: Methuen London Ltd, published 1985, →ISBN, page 137