[lbo-talk] [resend] [Fwd: The revolution is calling.]

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri May 4 09:41:53 PDT 2007


Chris:

Every time I see that tagline I think of the Kraftwerk song The Robots, which starts off with "ya tvoi sluga, ya tvoi rabotnik."

[WS:] I think the etymology of the word 'rabotnik;' is interesting. 'Rab' means 'slave' in Russian and 'Rabota' means literally 'slaving' (as the suffix -ota denotes the state or activities of the 'rab') or "work" in general. 'Rabotnik' is 'one who engages in 'rabota' (as the suffix "nik" denotes one who engages in an activity i.e. 'rabota') - but he is not a slave anymore.

Wojtek



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