Bistro

The word "Bistro" is of course commonly attributed to the French - refering to all their small, quick, cute cafes where you can pick up a sandwich or coffee or the like which have been assimilated to some extent into our culture in the States. But I learned that this word is actually not French. It's Russian. The French adopted this word, however, after Russian cossacks were "inhabiting" their terrority during the time of Napoleon, and not being able to speak French, they simply shouted to the waitresses in Russian "быстро!" - [bwui-stra] - which is the Russian word for "quick! fast! hurry!" and thus... we have the butchered version "bistro."

Yea for history and language lessons. :)