Ekstra Fanci

The number of English words that have crept into Serbian is quite astounding and I am very thankful for all of them.

My favorites, though, are the words that don’t mean the same thing in Serbian. None of these words have yet become proper Serbian, but I enjoy them.

In Tutin, I met a girl who said the word ‘extra,’ or as it is spelled here, ‘ekstra’ all the time. But for her, it is a synonym of good. ‘That’s really extra.’ So amusing.

M and her friends use the word ‘fancy’ as a pejorative for the Pink/Grand/kitsch culture that is dominant here and that they strongly dislike. Most people don’t use the word with any negative connotation. Even though I know that, I was a bit taken aback when M’s mom told me that I looked ‘fanci’ on the day I left Zaječar.