Kafka

🏷  Slavic pun · name   —   by Gerry · Mar 2022 · 203 words

If you’ve ever read the works of Franz Kafka, you’ve perhaps been a little bit disappointed: For all the promotion, they’re a bit short & simple, and often even unfinished. If Kafka was really a crapto-aristocrat from a wealthy family, it would explain this over-promotion. His name may be a hint: Slavic kavka means “jackdaw”, but kovak (from kovati + -ak) means “malleable”, but could also mean “mint-er” & “coin-er”, which could point to a family of bankers. The general meaning is “forgery”, which is a synonym for “fake” in English (though not in Slavic).

Slavic kavka = jackdaw; kovak, kovati = malleable, forge, mint, coin, plot

Kafka : a surname, from German​; Franz Kafka (1883–1924), a German-language writer from Prague; From German Kafka, from Czech German Kavka (“jackdaw”), from either Upper Sorbian or Lower Sorbian, which are ultimately from the imitative Proto-Slavic *kavъka (“jackdaw”). Compare Polish kawka (“jackdaw”), Czech kavka (“jackdaw”), Slovene kávka (“jackdaw”). — English (Wikt)

kȍvak : malleable; From kòvati. — Serbo-Croatian (Wikt)

kòvati; kovaće : to forge; to mint, coin; to plot, hatch — Serbo-Croatian (Wikt)

-ak : Suffix appended to words to create a masculine noun, usually denoting a performer, feature, human relation, result of an action, object, diminutive or a proper name. — Serbo-Croatian (Wikt)

🏷  Slavic pun · name