What's in a Prague street name

Originally posted on Twitter on 26 April 2022.

K Lučinám was built in 1962.

Like ‘luka’, a ‘lučina’ is a meadow, but the word is archaic enough to not even appear on Seznam Slovník.

But it does appear in the Czech national anthem: ‘voda hučí po lučinách’ (water streams across the meadows), otherwise knows as ‘Line Two’.

While ‘u’ indicates you are in/at a place (as in https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/18/prague-3-day-2-u-knezske-louky/), ‘k’ indicates motion towards it.

So yesterday’s street is literally where the meadow is. Today’s street heads towards it. And while yesterday’s street is a singular meadow, lučiny (dative: lučinám) are plural.

We may never know how many meadows there actually were.

Many Czechs know Lučina mainly as a cream cheese. CZK 22.90 from Tesco if you’re hankering for some. (At least it was in April, and inflation is ridiculous lately)