These days I'm reading a book "История моего современника" by V. G. Korolenko (don't feel guilty for reading it online, you are not breaching any copyright laws in this case, since the author is actually a XIX-early XX centuries revolutionist, there's no copyright infringement).

There is a chapter on living in exile, in rural Russia (not in Siberia though :) Korolenko describes the speech of local residents, which is full of dialecticisms.

Here are some quotes:

  • Чё-ко-ся это?.. Что за мужичок у нас? - спросил незнакомец, отведя лучину от моего лица.
  • Негодь ты, негодь... Гли-ко-ся, Володимер: три дня шатался по лесу, а не принес ничего... Большой вырос, ума не вынес. Не стану и оружья давать дураку...
  • Ин полно-те вам, мужички,- примирительно сказала жена Гаври - Лукерья... - Собирай-ко-сь на стол, Марьюшка...

After some thought I've realised that this strange (and unintelligible to modern Russian speaker) form ко-ся/ко-сь actually remains in at least one phrase which is known by any native speaker, i.e. накося выкуси.

My question is, what is exactly is ко-ся from linguistics point of view (for example, what part of speech it is), when and to what extent is had been used in Russian and, of course, what does it mean.


Толковый словарь Даля can help you a bit:
look for ко in the meaning of ка - http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc2p/255986
and ся - http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc2p/362314

there are also definitions for ГЛИКО can be found in Толковый словарь Даля
and for накося in several other dictionaries on dic.academic

Dal's dictionary dated by 1863-1866, but we still use ка today(instead of ко), ся is also used sometimes.

  • 1
    sorry, but this is more like a comment than an answer. – shabunc Apr 3 '13 at 8:27
  • 1
    unfortunately i can't add comments yet, just trying to help. – Roman Apr 3 '13 at 8:28
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    +1 so you can make comments when you want to :-) – Peter M. - stands for Monica May 12 '17 at 17:18

-ка is an imperative particle akin to the dative preposition к, cf дай-ка, ну-ка etc.

-ся is a relaxed form of себе, as in иди себе, смотри себе etc.

The whole idiom is most probably a result of an alliteration, influenced by the second word выкуси.


-ко is correctly explained above, indeed it's an emphatic suffix or particle.

The recursive -ся here is used for emphasis, similar to "me comia una paella" in Spanish, which literally means "I was eating to me a paella", meaning "There, I was eating paella".

You may use the English "here" in translation:

  • гли-ко-ся = гляди-ко-ся = "but look here"
  • Чё-ко-ся = "what that is it here"
  • Собирай-ко-сь = "come on here, arrange the table"

-ко is emphasis; -ся is contraction of 'себе', 'self'. So -ко-ся would be a colloquial emphasis, "look you there".

  • I don't think I'm following this... – Aleks G Nov 17 '14 at 16:50

“накося” = на, держи, получи. -кося (или -ко+ся) уменьшительно-ласкательно-изветельское окончание. “накося выкуси” - употребляется как злорадное восклицание по поводу установленной справедливости или свершившейся маленькой мести.

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