Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A song, especially a Slavic folk song, that has alternating happy and sad passages.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Polish lament or threnody, or a piece of music in a melancholy style.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A genre of instrumental folk music from Ukraine

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Slovak, Ukrainian folk song, from Ukrainian, diminutive of duma, thought, memory, narrative poem, of Germanic origin; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ukrainian думка (dúmka), diminutive of дума (dúma, "sung epic poem").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word dumka.

Examples

  • You can do all the dumka stuff in private, the way Anna

    Cheerful—By Request Edna Ferber 1926

  • For a more detailed discussion, see Yuri Shapoval, Ukraina 20-50-kh rokiv: storinky nenapysanoi istorii (Kyiv: Naukova dumka, 1993); Robert Kusnierz, Ukraina v latach kolektywizacji i Wielkiego Glodu (1929-1933) (Torun: GRADO, 2005); and Rozsekrechena pamiat.

    ACTION UKRAINE REPORT (Archive) 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.