Codoi

• IPA^(key): /koˈdoj/
• Rhymes: -oj

From codoi, augmentative of coadă (“tail”).

Codoi m (genitive and dative lui Codoi)

1. a surname

A reference to a gaffe supposedly committed by Elena Ceaușescu, First Lady of the Socialist Republic of Romania. An uneducated woman with prestigious but unearned credentials in chemistry, she is alleged to have publicly misread the chemical formula CO₂ as “codoi”, reading the characters as if they formed a word, instead of separately, as in an abbreviation. This humorously coincides with the word codoi, an augmentative meaning “big tail”.

Codoi f (genitive and dative lui Codoi)

1. (derogatory, humorous) Nickname for Elena Ceaușescu.
   • c. 1985, subversive parody of the song “Magistrala Albastră” (“The Blue Highway”); quoted in Radu Paraschivescu, Maimuța Carpatină [The Carpathian monkey]‎^[1], Bucharest: Humanitas, 2013, →ISBN:

     Magistrala lu’ Ceașcă și-a lu’ Leanța Codoi, / Doi țărani neciopliți, dușmănoși și huliți, / Buni de Carul cu boi.

     Ceaușescu and Nellie Codoi’s highway, / Two boorish, hostile and despised peasants, / Fit for Grigorescu’s Oxcart.

   • 1989 December 25, 59:38 from the start, in Trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu‎^[2] (television broadcast), spoken by Constantin Lucescu, via TVR:

     Cu asta se ocupa scumpa noastră conducere, marea savantă de renume mondial „Coidoi”^[sic], să-mi iertați experiența ^{[sic – meaning expresia]}.

     This is what our dear leadership—the great, world renowned scientist “Codoi”, forgive my expression—was preoccupied with.

   • 2008 May 21, Akile <Antricot@yahoo.com>, “cresterea demografica pe scr [Demographic growth on soc.culture.romanian]”, in soc.culture.romanian‎^[3] (Usenet):

     apropo de mihai azi e sfintu constantin si sfinta con...elena. ups, ar fi fost ziua ceausestei. ba nu! ca baba codoi nu era crestina.

     [Apropo de Mihai, azi e Sfântul Constantin și Sfânta Con… Elena. Ups, ar fi fost ziua Ceaușeștei. Ba nu! că baba Codoi nu era creștină.]

     Speaking of Michael, today is the feast day of Saint Constantine and Saint Con— I mean Helen. Oops, it would’ve been the wife Ceaușescu’s name day. I mean, no! old Codoi wasn’t a Christian.

   • 2019 December, Florica Ichim, “Doar un protest [Only a protest]”, in Teatrul azi [Theatre today], number 12, Bucharest, →ISSN, page 144:

     Nu este ca tovarășa codoi (CO₂) de neuitat, dar nici prea departe.

     She isn’t as unforgettable as Comrade Codoi (CO₂), but she isn’t that far off either.

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