Thread: опачки

I came across the following phrase in a comment left to a Russia Today article:

опачки, скажите, пожалуйста, когда Украина вовремя долги отдавала?

Wiktionary listed the Serbo-Croatian meaning as tilling or plowing, but no Russian translation. My Russian dictionary didn't even list the word. Google Translate doesn't know the word either. It just provided the following as output:

Opachki, please tell me when Ukraine gave debts on time?

Does anyone know what опачки means? Thanks!

There's no such word.
In this particular case it is a slang that derives from 'Опа!' (+diminutive suffix) - an exclamation that can roughly be an equivalent of 'Aha!'.
In some other cases, this can mean something like 'Oops'.
Here 'опачки' expresses surprise and sarcasm, questioning the fact that Ukraine has paid its debts.

"опачки" indicates here that the sentence should be pronounced with a question mark.
Also it indicates that we know answer yet (the rhetorical question).

Originally Posted by Ramil

There's no such word.

Why?

Originally Posted by Soft sign

Why?

Because...

Опачки = "little oops" (maybe it sounds weird in English, but it's literal)

Originally Posted by bobert

Does anyone know what опачки means? Thanks!

Emotional strenghtening. Similar to "wow", "euhhh", "sic!" ...

Very familiar slang, in your example - expressing some sort of prejudice to what someone just has read or heard.

(Now, please tell me when Ukraine gave debts on time?)