мъка

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *mǫka (abstract noun), originally meaning “pressure, stress”.

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɤkɐ]

мъ́ка • (mǎ́ka) f

1. trouble, hardship, struggle, laborious effort (experience)

   с мъка върша нещо ― s mǎka vǎrša nešto ― to do something with a struggle

   с триста мъки (idiom) ― s trista mǎki ― with great difficulty (literally, “with three hundred efforts”)

2. throe, agony, anguish, suffering (feeling, sensation)

   творческа мъка ― tvorčeska mǎka ― throes of creation

   родилни мъки ― rodilni mǎki ― pangs of childbirth

3. (figurative) sadness, sorrow, depression

   някому е мъка ― njakomu e mǎka ― to feel/experience sadness (literally, “there is stress/hardship onto s.o.”)

• ма́ка (máka), му́ка (múka) — with dialectal reflexes of Proto-Slavic *-ǫ-

• мука́ (muká, “flour”) (Russian borrowing)
• мъ́чник (mǎ́čnik, “flour crate”) (obsolete)

• “мъка”, in Речник на българския език [Dictionary of the Bulgarian Language] (in Bulgarian), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2014
• “мъка”, in Речник на българския език [Dictionary of the Bulgarian Language] (in Bulgarian), Chitanka, 2010
• Nayden Gerov (1899) “мѫ́ка”, in Рѣчникъ на Блъгарскꙑй язꙑкъ. Съ тлъкувание рѣчи-тꙑ на Блъгарскꙑ и на Русскꙑ. [Dictionary of the Bulgarian language]‎^[1] (in Bulgarian), volume 3, Plovdiv: Дружествена печꙗтница "Съгласие.", page 107
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., Duridanov, I. V., editors (1995), “мъка”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 4 (мѝнго² – па̀дам), Sofia: Prof. Marin Drinov Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 381
• “мѫка¹”, in Старобългарски речник [Dictionary of Old Bulgarian] (in Bulgarian), https://histdict.uni-sofia.bg, 2011—2025