Paracelsus > wrote:

> Actually borch is just a Russian a word for soup!

No, Bombastus, I don't think so. :-) First, borscht is of Ukrainian
origin; second, it is said to derive from "borschevik" or "borschevnik",
"hogweed", from which it is said to have been be prepared centuries ago,
though some people maintain that it derives from the Old Slavonic
"brsch", "beetroot", "beet". In any case, the name is not generic but
means a particular kind of soup always containing beets.

> Beet borch is usually eaten cold with sliced hard boiled egg
> and/or sour cream, my mother used to make cabbage soup (borch)
> with cubes of beef or oxtail (on a cold day in Brooklyn it was
> wonderful).

In Brooklyn, perhaps, not in Russia or the Ukraine. :-) The cold
"borch" you are describing is actually called "svekolnik" there.

The typical Russian soup with cabbage but sans beets would be "schi",
but even they ("schi" is plural) have not really ever been generic, even
if there used be many more versions in the centuries past. Schi always
contain cabbage or sauerkraut (with the exception of "green schi" that
are made with sorrel). The word that used to be closest to generic
"soup", is perhaps "ukha", of which there used to exist many dozens of
different versions prepared with many different ingredients. Now the
word means a particular kind of clear fish soup only. In modern
Russian, generic soup is called "sup" (pronouced "soup")... :-)

Victor