troika
See also: troïka and Troika
English
WOTD – 13 February 2013
![](Images/wiktionary/PalekhTroikaWolves.jpg.webp)
Troika with wolves. A Palekh miniature on a cigarette case
Etymology
From Russian тро́йка (trójka, “a group of three”).
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈtɹɔɪ.kə/
Audio (UK) (file)
Noun
troika (plural troikas or troiki)
- A Russian carriage drawn by a team of three horses abreast.
- 1880, Garnett, Constance, chapter VI, in The Brothers Karamazov, book XII, translation of original by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, page 787:
- A great writer of the last epoch, comparing Russia to a swift troika galloping to an unknown goal, exclaims 'Oh, troika, birdlike troika, who invented thee!' and adds, in proud ecstasy, that all the peoples of the world stand aside respectfully to make way for the recklessly galloping troika to pass.
- 1960, Blanch, Lesley, The Sabres of Paradise: Conquest and Vengeance in the Caucasus, Tauris Parke Paperbacks, published 2006, →ISBN, page 145:
- When Gogol wrote his great passage on the troika speeding across the steppes, he likened it to Russia itself, advancing across the earth.
- 1990, Hopkirk, Peter, The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia, Oxford University Press, published 2001, →ISBN, page 367:
- Travelling part of the way by rail and the remainder by troika, he reached Orenburg shortly before Christmas.
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- A party or group of three, especially a ruling council of three people in Russian contexts.
- 1981, Smith, Martin Cruz, Gorky Park, Ballantine Books, published 2007, →ISBN, page 3:
- The investigator suspected the poor dead bastards were just a vodka troika that had cheerily frozen to death.
- 1995, Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2, New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, →ISBN, page 71:
- The bare troika of Boolean operators brought them into metaphorical being.
- 2006, Hoskyns, Barney, Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends, John Wiley & Sons, published 2006, →ISBN, page 265:
- “He said, 'Let me get the best people.' And that's what he did. He got John Kalodner and Gary Gersh and Tom Zutaut, and they became stars in their own right.” Over the ensuing decade, that troika of talent-finders would bring a host of multiplatinum artists—from Cher and Aerosmith to Guns N' Roses and Nirvana—to Geffen.
- 2013 January 11, Shone, Tom, “Oscar nominations pull a surprise by showing some taste — but will it last?”, in The Guardian:
- No longer is the best picture going to be a toss-up between that troika of national-historical heavies: Argo, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty.
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Synonyms
- (group of three): threesome, triad; see also Thesaurus:trio
- (council of three): See Thesaurus:government
Coordinate terms
- (council of three): See Thesaurus:government
Translations
carriage
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group of three — see triumvirate
Indonesian
Etymology
From Russian тро́йка (trójka, “a group of three”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈt̪roi̯ka]
- Hyphenation: troi‧ka
Noun
troika (plural troika-troika, first-person possessive troikaku, second-person possessive troikamu, third-person possessive troikanya)
- (transport) troika: a Russian carriage drawn by a team of three horses abreast.
- Synonyms: andong, bendi, bogi, cikar, delman, dokar, pedati, sado
Further reading
- “troika” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.
Portuguese
Noun
troika f (plural troikas)
- troika (Russian carriage)
Spanish
Noun
troika f (plural troikas)
- troika
Further reading
- “troika”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014