Kujuffel

[L'irlandais]

Hello,
Following a previous discussion of mine : Kujambelwasser (Seemännisch)

On the subject of Navy slang in the German military, the suggestion was that Kujuffel, meaning coins or money had its origin in Russian, or perhaps Ukrainian. (Presumably during the September 1941 and August 1944 occupation.) Can anyone think of a word in Russian which might have been deformed and which may confirm this theory?

 

[Awwal12]

No ideas at the moment, I am afraid.

 

[L'irlandais]

I am a little skeptical myself, because I can see the English word « jam » in Kujambel. To me it suggests these are made up words. Not unlike the GI’s term Fubar; supposedly sounds German, but it reality is the initials of an entirely English phrase.

 

[L'irlandais]

From my parallel Ukrainian discussion, the idea of Crimean Tatar origins was raised for Kujambel.
This made me think of kopeks. One ruble was divided into 100 kopeks (Russian: копе́йка). It’s possible they made up a word reusing the initial K to mean worthless currency. In a way, allowing the soldiers to be dismissive about foreign cultures encountered on their campaign; such cultures are so basic everything starts with k, sort of attitude. K + ? + German -el suffix.

 

[Awwal12]

The most of the word is left unexplained anyway, which is not good.