Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A nesting doll that is part of a set and is decorated with the features of a woman in traditional Russian dress.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Russian matrëška, from diminutive of Matrëna, feminine personal name (associated in popular tradition with the mothers of large peasant families), from earlier Matrona, ultimately from Latin mātrōna, matron; see matron.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Russian матрёшка (matrjóška), from personal name Матрёна, formerly Матрона, ultimately from Latin mātrōna ("matron").

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Examples

  • Grape leaves are a narrative dish: each ingredient speaks as the package unfolds, containing multitudes, little edible matryoshka dolls.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • Their family portraits make them seem like a lengthy series of matryoshka, all dressed and groomed alike.

    Will the Duggars Inherit the Earth? - Boing Boing 2009

  • Grape leaves are a narrative dish: each ingredient speaks as the package unfolds, containing multitudes, little edible matryoshka dolls.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • Tara arranged the shapeshifting matryoshka in order.

    Rogue Oracle 2011

  • On the dresser was a painted Russian doll, a matryoshka.

    Rogue Oracle 2011

  • Tara arranged the shapeshifting matryoshka in order.

    Rogue Oracle 2011

  • On the dresser was a painted Russian doll, a matryoshka.

    Rogue Oracle 2011

  • 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.

    Everything will be better next year! 2011

  • 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.

    Rogue Oracle 2011

  • 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.

    Rogue Oracle 2011

Comments

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  • Russian hollow wooden doll. (from Phrontistery)

    May 23, 2008

  • 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.

    July 21, 2008

  • Reesetee!! It has a name!!

    July 24, 2008

  • Cool! Added. :-)

    July 25, 2008

  • 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?"

    July 26, 2008

  • 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?

    July 27, 2008

  • i thought most people knew this word! that's kind of adorable.

    July 27, 2008

  • Aww, gluppit the prawling strangles, will ya? That's not at all what I meant c_b.

    July 28, 2008

  • What did you mean, bilb? I took that for a bit of sarcasm myself.

    Signed,

    Will I Ever Catch Up with These Goldurned Comments?

    July 28, 2008

  • 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.

    July 28, 2008

  • 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.

    July 28, 2008

  • 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. :-)

    July 29, 2008

  • a doll. In a doll. In a doll. In a DOLL.

    July 30, 2008

  • I have a Harry Potter matryoshka. They're rather horrible depictions of the actors. And for some reason, Hagrid is the smallest one.

    July 30, 2008

  • 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.

    July 30, 2008

  • Sports? What's a sports?

    July 30, 2008

  • 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...

    July 30, 2008

  • Here is an interesting spin on the nesting doll....

    September 11, 2008

  • Lovely!

    September 11, 2008

  • 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.

    November 15, 2008

  • Oh! Its name isn't "those Russian nesting dolls."

    September 9, 2011