Comparle

Russian23 Oct 2026

poshlost

пошлостьPOSH-lust[ˈpoʂləsʲtʲ]

Pronunciation: 1640max · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

self-satisfied bad taste, thoroughly pleased with how fine it is

Closest in English: vulgarity, banality, tackiness. None of them covers it.

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The story

Nabokov respelled it poshlust so English speakers could hear the smugness, and aimed it at the falsely important and the falsely clever. What makes something poshlost is bad taste that is pleased with itself. English had to borrow kitsch from German for the same job.

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How it went in the game

Contains the answers. If you want to play the word yourself first, leave this closed.

  1. Which language is it from?Russian
  2. When did it become a literary weapon?The 1840s, in Gogol's Russia
  3. Where would you hear it?A gift shop full of gold-framed sunsets
  4. What does it mean?Smug bad taste that thinks it is fine

How it went

Harder than most words so far.

Round three, situation, was where most points went.

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