Subject:
chaishko s molochishkom
From:
Alexey Sklyarenko <skylark1970@mail.ru>
Date:
Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:48:31 +0300
To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>

"Here," said Mrs.Blagovo "is your chaishko s molochishkom [teeny tea with weeny milk]." (LATH, Part Two, 8)
 
Molochishko is a quaint diminutive of moloko (milk). Mrs. Blagovo (who "spoke in simpering accents, reducing nouns and adjectives to over-affectionate forms which even the Russian language, a recognized giant of diminutives, would only condone on the wet lips of an infant or tender nurse") was from the Volgan town of Kineshma.
 
According to Gippius (The Live Faces, p. 320), detishkam na molochishko ("my kids for milk") was a phrase favored by Rozanov (who was from the Volgan city of Kostroma):
 
Мы все держались в стороне от «Нового времени»; но Розанову его «суворинство» инстинктивно прощалось: очень уж было ясно, что он не «ихний» (ничей): просто «детишкам на молочишко», чего он сам, с удовольствием, не скрывал.
 
Alexey Sklyarenko
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