I was at a year 9 camp in high school (2003) – and I was chatting with some friends near the mess-hall, there was a tree to my right, and we were in a circle-ish/ walking around aimlessly. We were talking about games or something – and one friend described this game, where there’s a can, and people hide and one person tries to spot the others, and call their names and then they are “out” and if someone kicks the can, they are all free – and I was like: “yeah, Pushka!~” – and in return I received blank stares, and I went on that it was a game we played with friends at my parent’s Polish home church and that’s what we called it. They laughed and were most amused by my crazy Polish re-naming of things – and they started calling me Pushka after that (which at first was strange because it’s like being nick-named “hide-and-seek” or something… but I rolled with it.) After a while it stuck as my identifier, and having a super common 3-letter-name with multiple classmates, I responded more instantaneously to Pushka, feeling all warm and fuzzy inside when people would refer to me as it. and of course, growing up with the dawn of the internet I was always taught to never reveal my dox online, so it became my online alias completely and utterly.
Pushka in other languages:
- Polish – Container/ Tin can (Puszka)
- Czech – Shotgun (puška)
- Croatian – Shotgun
- Serbian – Shotgun
- Romanian – Gun
- Macedonian – Gun
- Russian – Cannon
- English – Me
- Finnish – Bush (puska)
- Yiddish – Charity container
- Aramaic – Palm/ handsbreadth (פושקא)
- Hindu – “Best among Men”
- Bulgarian – Gun
Know of any more?