mujik

Alternative forms

• muzhik
• moujik

Etymology

From Russian мужи́к (mužík, “peasant”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmuː(d)ʒɪk/, /muːˈʒiːk/

Noun

mujik (plural mujiks or mujiki)

1. A peasant, especially in pre-revolutionary (imperial) Russia. [from 16th c.]
   • 1954, Doris Lessing, A Proper Marriage, HarperPerennial 1995, p. 361:

     Since she had last looked at a newspaper, it appeared that the Russians had become heroes and magnificent fighters. They were no longer a rabble of ill-equipped moujiks fleeing before the Nazi hordes.

   • 1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire:

     [A] few days later [I] had rented for the month of August what looked in the snapshots they sent me like a cross between a mujik's izba and Refuge Z, but it had a tiled bathroom and cost dearer than my Appalachian castle.

Alternative forms

• mujique

Noun

mujik m, f (plural mujiks)

1. mujik (peasant in imperial Russia)