Кабак

I like to follow a wonderful blog on Turkish cuisine that features enticing closeups and simple recipes. A recent entry was on stuffed squash - Etli Kabak Dolmasi.

In Russian, squash is кабак or кабачок (ka-ba-CHOK), the Turkish word with a Russian ending. But кабак has another meaning in Russian that has always mystified me. A кабак is a loud tavern-style restaurant. As in the immortal "Если б я был матрос, я б уплыл по тебе, как по морю / В чужеземном порту пропивать башмаки в кабаке" ("If I were a sailor, I would sail away over you like the sea, / to a кабак in a foreign port where I'd sell my shoes for a drink").

I've lived here for years assuming that squash and taverns had somehow cross-pollinated in the Russian mind, but now I see I was wrong. Vasmer mentions theories that the term might come from a similar-sounding Turkish word for a boxing match (where the spectators would drink?), from Arabic, or even from German. A wee bit disappointing...