My wife is 2nd generation czech here in the states. She remembers her father calling her a particular name all the time and he used the same name for our child. He is no longer alive and my mom-in-law now has a memory problem. So, unfortunately, we cannot spell it. We are wondering if there is a translation for this word or if it were made up. He was famous for doing that. The following is how it sounds to me (a non-czech): sheeshka BTW, my wife had gone to school in Wilbur, NE which they like to claim as being the Czech capital of USA. :wink: Thanks in advance even if no one knows for sure.
:lol: - it sounds really familiar to me, I think the right spelling is šiška, means 1. a cone, 2. a little head, and it is used (or at least has been used when I was a kid) a lot as an endearment for children in the Moravian part of the CR. BTW, its meaning can be a little bit ironical too, in that case derived from nešika, i.e. a gawk, e.g. "ty jsi ale šiška" = addlehead.
Thank you so much Jana. I knew it was not spelled correctly -- it was spelled only so that someone could possibly find it familiar -- and I am so glad that you did. That is probably the word and my wife even could read it and pronounced it the same way. Her grandfather and grandmother came here from Ruda. Again, spelling may not be right. I believe it is near Prague. I'm going to have to get her and our daughter (who has taken, so far, one year of Czech) to participate on this message board. My wife has already found this exciting to be able to make contact with her roots.
Well, there is a village Ruda nad Moravou quite close to my native city Olomouc (some 40-50 miles), located in the mountains and pure Moravian language is spoken there. I will check the list of Czech geographical names to see if there are any other places named Ruda (it means ore or mineral, i.e. a place where ore was found and exploited).
Actually, there are six towns or villages named Ruda in CR, one of them is located in the district of Rakovník, so quite close to Prague. I see that the nickname "šiška" is being used in the Czech part of the country, too. Besides "šiška", other forms of the same words are used, as "šíša" or "šišinka", with the same meaning.
Her grandfather and grandmother came here from Ruda. Again, spelling may not be right. I believe it is near Prague. ***** There is a town of Rudna near Prague (cca 10 miles south-west of Prague). Maybe that's the town your folks came from. Marion
hugh- My mother is from Milligan, NE. It's not far from there. And yes, Wilber does claim to be the Czech Capital of the US. I was told that in the 80s Reagan made it official.
