What's in a Name?

Kibitka

Etymology

From Russian кибитка (kibítka).

Noun

kibitka (plural kibitkas)

1. A type of covered horse-drawn carriage from Russia, often used to transport prisoners
2. nomad's dwelling of some ethnic groups such as the Kalmyks and Kyrgyz

Kibitka definition one

Kibitka definition two

Kibitka. The word itself is simply charming. It sounds like a fondness that Grandmother whispered in your ear when you were sorely disappointed by life, as in, "Now, now, don't cry, my little Kibitka."


I came across "kibitka" for the first time in the thesaurus. I was searching under "vehicle," looking for some fun idea to name the new camper we had ordered from British Columbia. Naming a camper is not something that would normally occur to me, had it not been for the colorful folks on escapeforum.org., where I had become an avid fan of every detail about Escape campers. Our own Escape was due for completion in January 2012. Could it remain nameless?


So there it was, that charming word kibitka, and it took not much imagination to blend together the two definitions to predict how it would be for Great Husband and me with our new Escape, a small carriage of sorts, but not horse-drawn. And we would be nothing like prisoners! We would be living the ultimate freedom, practically the nomadic life of definition number two. Our new trailer would even have the gentle curves of the genuine kibitka hut.


But the name just didn't stick, even though I started this blog using the Kibitka title. And even though we have already found plenty of romance in our travels with our new camper, we simply call it, quite non-romantically, The Escape.