Definitions
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Etymologies
- From Russian матрёшка (matrjóška), from personal name Матрёна, formerly Матрона, ultimately from Latin mātrōna ("matron"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Look, the big box actually contained lots of smaller boxes, Russian matryoshka style … and the last one contained a Swiss army knife the kid had bought for himself, thanks to mum's handy one-click Amazon account.”
“On the dresser was a painted Russian doll, a matryoshka.”
“Any other matryoshka Tara had seen had been the same: six or eight successively smaller nested dolls, all depicting idyllic country girls in cheerful colors.”
“Tara arranged the shapeshifting matryoshka in order.”
“Grape leaves are a narrative dish: each ingredient speaks as the package unfolds, containing multitudes, little edible matryoshka dolls.”
“Their family portraits make them seem like a lengthy series of matryoshka, all dressed and groomed alike.”
“Original Caption: A souvenir seller displays matryoshka dolls, or Russian nesting dolls, painted with portraits of U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev near Red Square on July 5, 2009 in Moscow, Russia.”
The Huffington Post: Obama Dolls & Bingo Protests: HuffPost's Caption Contest!
“Inception is like a matryoshka, a Russian nested doll, in its layers of perceptions and dreams.”
The Huffington Post: William Bradley: Does Inception Salvage the Summer Movie Season?
“As the tale progresses, it sheds layers like a matryoshka doll – revealing that the two detectives investigating the case both harbour good reasons to murder their own wives (one of them may even have done so).”
“In a perfect model of planetary matryoshka dolls, the exoplanet Corot 7-b – which is currently one of the exoplanets that is closest in size and mass to the Earth – used to be nestled inside a much larger version of itself.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘matryoshka’.
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phrontistery - m
from phrontistery.info
mabble, mabsoot, macadamize, macarism, macarize, macaronic, macerate, macerator, machair, machairodont, machicolation, machinule and 898 more...
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Realia from Everywhere
Culturally defined terms and expressions from the four corners of the world
fjord, mistral steppe, tornado, tsunami, polder, kiwi, koala, sequoia, Abominable Snowman, paprika, spaghetti, empanada and 299 more...
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Gesundheit
Words that sound like sneezes
zucchini, zoology, wysiwyg, woodchuck, withhold, wichita, vacuum, twelfth, syzygy, synchronous, swatch, supersede and 120 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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the most beautiful
velvet, wainwright, susurrous, nutmeg, pegasus, tintinnabular, gossamer, lyricism, rococo, townlet, prince, nymph and 139 more...
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snarkout's Words
agenbite, scandent, vulpine, ratel, corvid, magpie, meline, musteline, ecdysiast, waxwing, abecedarian, guillotine and 111 more...
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Man likes these words
danube, schadenfreude, macabre, wanderlust, epiphany, azure, zeitgeist, cerulean, ennui, rhine, abyss, mulch and 130 more...
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je les adore!
fusillade, foal, celestial, abattoir, byzantium, berlin, casablanca, babylon, balkans, albion, avalon, between the devil... and 471 more...
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It Has a Name??
Yes. Yes it does.
aglet, armsaye, scroop, rowel, ferrule, rasceta, chanking, philtrum, frenulum, keeper, agelast, punt and 285 more...
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beautiful words
quench, metropolitan, dollop, cucumber, aesthetic, superfluous, gastronomy, nymph, obsequious, serendipity, champagne, gossamer and 125 more...
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bloodworm's list
These are words that I enjoy because they are unique, rare, long, or just cool.
circumlocution, hysteresis, schadenfreude, quixotic, loquacious, ennui, sesquipedalian, defenestrate, obfuscate, syzygy, ubiquitous, superfluous and 231 more...
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the favourites
These are words that I like; either because they sound amazing, mean pretty things, seem particularly suited to their assigned definition, or just have good mouthfeel. The best ones embody some com...
tatterdemalion, alpenglow, dapple, defenestrate, wacky, lissom, lithe, whisper, madcap, magniloquent, whimsy, sallow and 208 more...
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words in foreign languages
weltanschauung, saudade, bokeh, caoutchouc, pamplemousse, citrouille, nocturne, kaddish, matryoshka, tournesol, weltschmerz, duende and 56 more...
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speaking in tongues
schadenfreude, naïve, gnosis, sangfroid, capisce, flagrante delicto, lux, veritas, gravitas, coquette, panache, nom de plume and 73 more...
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foreign
demitasse, apéritif, joie de vivre, sui generis, weltschmerz, weltanschauung, l'esprit de l'esc..., magnum opus, paterfamilias, idée fixe, saudade, gestalt and 62 more...
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isoglossian's verbal reservoir
where classification begins~
retrospective fal..., kinetosis, umami, mise en abyme, self-similarity, ouroboros, zeugma, semordnilap, counterfactual, pas de deux, götterdämmerung, patternicity and 60 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for matryoshka.
ruzuzu Oh! Its name isn't "those Russian nesting dolls." Sep 9, 2011
trivet And another. (The "in room" view is the best, I couldn't find a better picture from the google, sorry)
I may be developing an obsession with the nesting dolls. They are so cute, even when kiss-themed. Nov 15, 2008
Prolagus Lovely! Sep 10, 2008
trivet Here is an interesting spin on the nesting doll.... Sep 10, 2008
dontcry I love sports, most of them anyway (not ice hockey or boxing and the like where people aim to hurt each other). But I like sports for the fun of playing the game, the fresh air and exercise. I'm not a fan of professional sports. I'm also not a fan of professional sports fans. Kinda creepy. I mean, if you love football so much, why don't you put the beer down, take that stupid jersey off (by the way you're last name is NOT "Favre"), get off the couch and go throw a ball with your kid, eh?
I'm not a fan of the nesting dolls either. Also kinda creepy -- like the big one ate the rest... Jul 30, 2008
reesetee Sports? What's a sports? Jul 30, 2008
chained_bear The name I've always known them by is "Russian dolls" or "nesting dolls." And I viewed reesetee's list the same way he/she did, hence my comment.
P.S. Sports can kiss my fat white ass. I am aggressively apathetic about baseball in particular, so that was probably the wrong analogy to draw. Jul 30, 2008
plethora I have a Harry Potter matryoshka. They're rather horrible depictions of the actors. And for some reason, Hagrid is the smallest one. Jul 30, 2008
Prolagus a doll. In a doll. In a doll. In a DOLL. Jul 30, 2008
reesetee Ah, I understand. Makes perfect sense, but I have a somewhat different guideline for adding words to the list c_b refers to. It's not that the thing or concept is so obscure that it doesn't (or wouldn't) have a name, but that the name itself is somewhat obscure. I know lots of people who know of Russian dolls; I don't know many who know that this is the word for them. More of a "What the heck is that called, anyway?" kind of list. Completely subjective, you see. :-) Jul 29, 2008
sionnach I understand the bilbster's point, and concur. It would be surprising if there wasn't a specific word for matryoshka dolls, given their ubiquity and significance as a kind of cultural icon.
Jul 28, 2008
bilby Well, the It Has A Name category presupposes (to me) that the thing/concept is so obscure that it seems it most probably wouldn't have a name.
Try this:
- there's a word for having rounded buttocks that resemble the two shapeliest hills of the seven in downtown Amman?
- there's a word for Russian dolls?
The latter doesn't have enough wow in it for me, so I was inviting c_b to explain why there was wow in it for her.
Jul 28, 2008
reesetee What did you mean, bilb? I took that for a bit of sarcasm myself.
Signed,
Will I Ever Catch Up with These Goldurned Comments? Jul 28, 2008
bilby Aww, gluppit the prawling strangles, will ya? That's not at all what I meant c_b. Jul 28, 2008
bestiary i thought most people knew this word! that's kind of adorable. Jul 27, 2008
chained_bear I was telling Reesetee that this word might be a good candidate for the list called "It Has a Name." Is that okay with you? Jul 27, 2008
bilby c_b, why would you be surprised that a prime cultural icon of a major world society has a name? I can't think of why it wouldn't have a name. It'd be like Americans never having gotten around to naming baseball. "Gee, what is that thing I take my son to every Saturday morning where they throw the ball around and run between the bases if they hit it?" Jul 26, 2008
reesetee Cool! Added. :-) Jul 25, 2008
chained_bear Reesetee!! It has a name!! Jul 24, 2008
johnmperry A matryoshka doll or a Russian nested doll, also called a stacking doll or Babooshka doll, is a set of dolls of decreasing sizes placed one inside the other. "Matryoshka" is a derivative of the Russian female first name "Matryona", which is traditionally associated with a fat, robust Russian woman. Jul 21, 2008
whichbe Russian hollow wooden doll. (from Phrontistery) May 23, 2008