kulak

• koulak, kulack, Kulak

1877. From Russian кула́к (kulák, “wealthy peasant; fist; tight-fisted person”), plural кулаки́ (kulakí). Compare also Russian раскула́чивание (raskuláčivanije, “dekulakization”), подкула́чник (podkuláčnik, “subkulak”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkuːlak/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkulæk/

kulak (plural kulaks or kulaki)

1. (historical) A prosperous peasant in the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union, who owned land and could hire workers.
   • 2002 Sep, Christopher Hitchens, “Martin Amis: Lightness at Midnight”, in The Atlantic:

     The “internal organs,” as the CHEKA and the GPU and the KGB used to style themselves, were asked to police the mind for heresy as much as to torture kulaks to relinquish the food they withheld from the cities.

   • 2015 February 6, Nick Gillespie, “To the Barricades, Brooklyn Yuppies!”, in The Dailey Beast‎^[1], retrieved 20150206:

     We are the “upper middle class”, the new kulaks whose antisocial self-interest and lack of submission to the aims of the revolutionary vanguard must be extinguished.

During Soviet state collectivization of farming in the 1920s and 1930s the label kulak, implying “tight-fisted”, was applied pejoratively to land-owning peasants in general.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:kulak.

• kurkul

• employer    [⇒ thesaurus]
• landlord
• petit bourgeois

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: Tenth Edition 1997

• Kukla, Kulka

Borrowed from Russian кула́к (kulák, “wealthy peasant; fist; tight-fisted person”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈkulak]
• Rhymes: -ulak
• Hyphenation: ku‧lak

kulak m anim

1. (historical, derogatory) kulak, a prosperous peasant marked as an enemy of the people by the communist regime, especially in the time of forced collectivization (e. g. in Czechoslovakia 1948–cca 1960)
   • 2003, Jaroslav Čejka, Lidé, čas a zvířata‎^[2], Praha: Baronet, →ISBN, page 144:

     Pan Kubrycht byl prý původně bohatý sedlák, čili – jak se v padesátých letech říkalo – kulak, kterého vyhnali z jeho statku.

     People say that Mr. Kubrycht was originally a rich farmer, or – as it was said in 1950s – a kulak, who was forced to leave his farm.

• “kulak”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “kulak”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “kulak”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

• kalku
• klaku
• kluka
• kukal
• kukla
• kulka

• culaco (uncommon)

Unadapted borrowing from Russian кула́к (kulák, “wealthy peasant; fist; tight-fisted person”).

• IPA^(key): /kuˈlak/
• Rhymes: -ak
• Hyphenation: ku‧làk

kulak m (plural kulaki)

1. (historical) kulak (prosperous peasant in Russia)

• kulak in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

kulak m (definite singular kulaken, indefinite plural kulaker, definite plural kulakene)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2005; superseded by kulakk

kulak m (definite singular kulaken, indefinite plural kulakar, definite plural kulakane)

1. (pre-2005) alternative form of kulakk

kulak m (plural kulaks)

1. (historical) kulak (prosperous peasant in Russia)

• IPA^(key): /ku.ˈɫɑk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ku‧lak

From Ottoman Turkish قولاق (qulaq, “ear”), Old Anatolian Turkish قلاق (qulaq, “ear”), from Proto-Turkic *kulkak (“ear”). Cognate with Old Turkic 𐰸𐰆𐰞𐰴𐰴 (q̊¹ul¹qq /⁠qulqaq⁠/). A possible cognate with Finnish kuulla ^[1][2][3]

kulak (definite accusative kulağı, plural kulaklar)

1. (anatomy) ear

From Russian кула́к (kulák).

kulak (definite accusative kulağı, plural kulaklar)

1. kulak