The Second Life of Foreign Words in the Russian Language
Many words from other languages have made incredible journeys to Russia, and live here with completely different meanings.
2. Saray (a shed), Persion
In Persian, saray means “palace”. The capital of the Golden Horde during the Tatar-Mongol yoke of Russia was also called Saray. Ironically, in Russian, it was severely downgraded (снижать значение) to simply mean “shed” or “warehouse” – which, in our culture of summer houses (‘dachas’) could easily stand for wooden building you keep your garden tools in. It arrived in Russia via the Turkish route.
