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kubasa
< Ukrainian ковбаса (kovbasa) 'sausage'
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
Spelling variants:kielbasa, kolbasa, kolbassa, kobasa,
n. — Food, predominantly Western Canada
a smoked sausage with pork and garlic.
Type: 5. Frequency — This term is an anglicization of either ковбаса (kovbasa), the Ukrainian word for 'sausage' or of Polish kiełbasa, as suggested in the 1957 quotation. Other Slavic cognates are Czech klobása or Russian колбаса (kolbasa). There are multiple varieties of sausage in Slavic countries (see the 1991 quotation), and multiple anglicizations of these forms besides kubasa (e.g. kielbasa, kovbasa, kolbasa, see the 2012 quotation). It appears that the meaning of kubasa has been narrowed to a specific type of Ukrainian garlic sausage (see Image 1, see the 1984 and 1990 quotations).
Kubasa is more frequently used in Canada than elsewhere (see Chart 1). Within Canada, the term is most frequently used in Manitoba, followed by Alberta, and then British Columbia (see Chart 2).
See also COD-2, s.v. "kubasa", which is marked "Cdn" and considered a "corruption of Ukrainian kovbasa."
Kubasa is more frequently used in Canada than elsewhere (see Chart 1). Within Canada, the term is most frequently used in Manitoba, followed by Alberta, and then British Columbia (see Chart 2).
See also COD-2, s.v. "kubasa", which is marked "Cdn" and considered a "corruption of Ukrainian kovbasa."
See: butterfly
The Polish borrowing appears to be the older one, yet the re-spelling of the Ukrainian-inspired kubasa is for the Anglophone closer to the English pronunciation than the Polish-inspired kielbasa (in the latter, what is rendered as an "l" in English is actually semi-vowel [w]).
Quotations
1970
Many households that still hold to the Lenten abstinence from meats, make up for that sacrifice on Easter Morning with baked ham, Polish sausage (kielbasa), spareribs, and jellied pigs' feet.
1979
6. Polish sausage or Kolbasi
1984
If nothing else - and it's sure to raise eyebrows among tourists - the Ukrainian name on the bridge will bring to mind some of the more endearing images of the North End: the baba in her babushka scuffing along Selkirk Avenue with her doubled-up Eaton's shopping bags, searching for the perfectly seasoned kubasa (garlic sausage); the sturdy, grizzled men at the McGregor Street steambaths, wrapped only in towels, breaking a loaf of rye bread to eat with their pickled herring; the legendary street toughs who only needed to say "North End" to get what they wanted, when they wanted it; the red light district across from the gas company (cheerily christened the "assworks across [from] the gasworks"); the Sunday afternoon concerts by ethnic dancers in elaborately embroidered costumes and by deep-voiced, spine-tingling choirs.
1989
Slovenian: Flancati (cake-fried crispies), 5 for $1.00; Krofi (cookies), $0.25; Jabolcni Zavitek (cake prepared with crushed walnuts and oli and flour), $1.00; Klobasa In Zelje (ham and garlic sausage combined with sauerkraut and sauce), $2.50; Golaz (cubed meat with wine sauce served with bun), $2.50; Palacinke (crepes with jam), $0.25.
1990
He and my mom arrived last week after a five-hour flight from Edmonton, bearing 25 pounds of kubasa - garlic sausage. (Every Albertan of Ukrainian descent knows you can't get proper kubasa in Montreal.)
1991
From the lightly seasoned weisswurst, to schublig, a Swiss speciality, to burenwurst, a country smoked sausage, to garlicky kielbasa, a Polish favorite, there are dozens of varieties of sausages to sample.
1999
All of the favorites are on the menu: varenyky (perogies), holubtsi (cabbage rolls), kovbasa (sausage), borsch (beet soup), homemade bread and cinnamon buns baked in a clay oven.
2003
The next morning, everyone eats Slovak sausage ( klobasa ) with fresh bread rolls and mustard for breakfast before getting back on the trail.
2006
Like all immigrants, Ukrainians and Italians
were not considered prestige groups when they
first arrived (the former starting in the 1880s
and the latter in the years before the First World
War). No doubt a Ukrainian-Canadian of that
era would be astounded to come back to life in
2006 and discover that such Ukrainian words
as "baba" (grandmother), "paska" (an Easter
bread),"holubtsi" (cabbage rolls), "bandura" (a
musical instrument), and not just one, but
three words for garlic sausage
"kubie," and "kubie burger" - "kubasa," - are now
included in a dictionary of Canadian English as
fully integrated English words.
2012
Unfortunately, that's not the way the world works. Take the simple European garlic sausage, for example.
To you, the reader, it's likely just a sausage. But to the newspaper editor, it's kubasa. Or is it kielbassa? Or kobvasa? What about kobasa? Possibly kolbassa? Not to mention klobassa, kobassa and a host of other variations.
References
- COD-2
Images
Image 1: Various kielbasas, the thick brown ones being the typical kielbasas or kubasas. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Photo: Hohum
Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 29 Oct. 2013
