From Booksmart Studios, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.
I'm John McWhorter, and this is a very special episode because my sweetie is sick.
She has a bad cold, and I want her to выздоровливать, that is, to heal in the Russian language.
That is a word where in the middle of it,
is something that's probably more familiar to a lot of us as the word in nazdorovia for,
you know, to your health.
If people are, you know, clinking glasses or something.
Nazdorovia.
That's zdorovia.
That is health.
So, luzdorovia is to health out.
Kind of like to peace out or to pass out or to spread it out, to do it completely.
That's the v. You want to health out.
And so... I want to do an episode about that word,
because like many words, it's interesting just in itself.
Or also, that greeting,
the famous Russian greeting where you have to deal with four consonants in a row.
That's also здоровье.
It's a different vowel.
It's здрав instead of здоров.