devushke

Devushke is the Latin-script transliteration of the Russian Cyrillic form девушке, the dative or prepositional singular form of the noun девушка. In Russian, this form serves as the case ending after the preposition о (about) or as the indirect-object form with verbs that govern the dative. The base noun девушκа (девушка) means a girl or young woman.

In ordinary usage, девушка denotes a young woman or unmarried woman in everyday speech. The dative/prepositional form девушке translates to “to the girl,” “for the girl,” or “about the girl” depending on the syntactic context (for example: подарить подарок девушке – to give a gift to the girl; рассказать о девушке – to tell about the girl). The transliterated form devushke appears primarily in texts written in Latin script, or in digital communications where Cyrillic is not available or convenient, such as language-learning materials, social media, or bilingual content.

Etymology and related terms: the modern Russian word девушка comes from older East Slavic roots related to terms for a young woman or maiden, with the suffix -ушка forming a familiar or affectionate sense. Related words include девчонка (colloquial for a girl) and девочка (little girl). In many contexts, девушка can also refer to a girlfriend in romantic speech, though that sense is often clarified by possessives or modifiers (моя девушка).

See also: Russian language, девушка, девчонка, девочка, feminine nouns in Russian, transliteration practices.