I need a definition of the word "platka," which I believe is Russian
for the practice, in Russian bathhouses, of hitting bathers with oak
branches to stimulate circulation. All I can find are anecdotal
definitions -- would like something definitive from a dictionary,
encycolopedia, or other reliable reference.

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Request for Question Clarification by answerfinder-ga on 07 Mar 2006 05:57 PST

Dear lazywriter-ga,

I have looked at this and found variations in the spelling: plaitza,
or platza, or pleytze,
but with the exception of one, I cannot find them in any dictionary /
encyclopaedia. Different web sites state that the massage in American
usage is named after a Yiddish word for shoulders or back. These are
some of examples for you (there numerous others).

Are these sufficient for your purposes, or would you like another
researcher to try?, (perhaps they may access to OED).

Yiddish Dictionary online
back (anatomical) 	pleytse
http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/


New York banya reviews and guide to traditional Russian baths.
 "Platza" - (Yiddish for shoulders) is a word not known in Russia, but
it is "de facto" American term for venik massage.
http://www.russian-bath.com/venik/

?You are looking at the plaitza bench, or top row, where one would lie
down to receive a plaitza (a steam room rubdown with an oak leaf
broom). Just below the top shelf is a water line with a tap filling a
blue bucket with cold water. The white tub to the right is the plaitza
bucket where the oak leaf broom, waiting to be used, resides in a bath
of hot soap-foamed water. Plaitza, or pleytze, is a Yiddish word
meaning "back" or "shoulder." ?
http://members.aol.com/OABH1930/oabh6.html

?In many cases, one must assume that there was a process of slow
replacement. A Germanic word for "shoulder," aksel, exists in Yiddish,
too, as a less frequently used synonym for pleytze, and clearly,
before Yiddish-speaking Jews began their migration into the Slavic
regions of Northern and Eastern Europe, aksel was the word they used;
next, pleytze would have entered Yiddish as a synonym for shoulder ?
perhaps originally in a translation of a Slavic idiom like the
Ukrainian znezuvat pletseyma, which became Yiddish kvetshn mit die
pleytzes, "to shrug"; ?
http://www.forward.com/articles/7096

answerfinder-ga

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Clarification of Question by lazywriter-ga on 07 Mar 2006 06:14 PST

That's very helpful, thanks. Maybe "venik" is the word I was looking
for. Yes, this is sufficient for my question.

Dear lazywriter-ga,

Pleased to read that it meets your requirements.

By way of any answer I'll just say: see above.

answerfinder-ga

Very prompt and helpful. Appreciate it.