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borscht
DCHP-2 (Nov 2012)
in expression — cheap like borscht, Urban culture
something that is extremely cheap.
Type: 5. Frequency — The expression is used almost exclusively in Canada (see Chart 1). Borscht is a beet soup that was brought to Canada by immigrants from Russia, the Ukraine, and other countries in eastern Europe, who started to arrive at the turn of the nineteenth century. The expression likely circulated in speech long before it appeared in writing.
See also COD-2, s.v. "borscht", which is marked "Cdn".
See also COD-2, s.v. "borscht", which is marked "Cdn".
In Canada, the spelling in generally borscht, while OED-3, s.v. "borsch", list forms without the final consonant, e.g. borsch.
Quotations
1963
SITZMARKS -- Big Lakehead weekend coming up March 2 and 3. All-inclusive tab is cheap like borscht. Contact Tim Burns at WSC or at GR 5-7836 [...] Local members of the CSPS are howling at the Winnipeg club tonight with broomball and dancing [...]
1988
The first six albums to be released in the series come from Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, Arthur Conley, T-Bone Walker and Mickey Baker, and are all cheap like borscht (a $5.49 list).
2007
He buys a new "cheap like borscht" cowboy hat every year because cowgirls always steal them, he said.
2014
As a kid growing up in smalltown Saskatchewan, I was confused the first time I heard "cheap like borscht". Not being born here - my Irish dad and Australian mum had arrived with me in tow - I didn't have a clue what borscht was or why it would be cheap.
Only as a teen did I discover the beet and cabbage soup and have maintained a lifelong love affair with it.
Like the unofficial Saskatchewan meal of perogies and cabbage rolls, food is just a small part of a Ukrainian heritage that is virtually encoded in the DNA of this province. Government records suggest over 130,000 Saskatchewanians have Ukrainian roots. Surprising it's that low.
References
- COD-2
- OED-3
Images
