So this week President Vladimir Putin of Russia was quoted in the New York Times as complaining about "boorishness." Photo credit: Mauri Ratilainen/ European Pressphoto Agency for the NYT This was not the most noteworthy quote in the NYT this week (I am striving not to use profanity since reading about J.D. Vance's Mamaw in his Hillbilly Elegy , so I won't repeat the other quote). It was, however, named the " Quotation of the Day ." Not many Americans use the word "boorishness." In fact, I may never have heard it spoken aloud in my entire life. Nonetheless, as often happens when reading translations, I had to back-translate and realized immediately what Putin must have said in Russian. I checked on the Russian internet, and I was right: Putin called the new sanctions being imposed on Russia by the U.S. Senate "boorishness and cynicism" -- or khamstvo i tsinizm . The word khamstvo , or boorishness, seems like the kind of t...
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