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  What it means

  Literally “the seventh water after the kisel,” this colourful idiom describes a very distant relative — someone whose family connection is so remote it is essentially meaningless. ‘Kisel’ is a traditional Slavic fruit jelly; the image is of water that has been used to rinse the pot so many times that no trace of the original flavour remains. “On jest dla mnie siódmą wodą po kisielu” means he is some incredibly distant relation, barely worth mentioning.

  Vocabulary

  • siódma — seventh (feminine, agreeing with 'woda')
  • woda — water
  • po — after (preposition governing locative)
  • kisielu — kisel (locative of 'kisiel') — a traditional Slavic fruit jelly or starch pudding

  Grammar note

  The preposition 'po' here means 'after' and governs the locative case: 'kisielu' is the locative of 'kisiel.' The numeral 'siódma' agrees with 'woda' in gender (feminine) and case (nominative). The phrase functions as a predicate: 'X jest siódmą wodą po kisielu' — X is a very distant relation.

  Cultural context

  This is a vivid, folk-flavoured expression rooted in the traditional Polish kitchen. 'Kisiel' (sometimes spelled 'kisel') is a thick fruit pudding once common in Polish homes. The expression is warm and humorous rather than insulting — it pokes gentle fun at the absurdity of claiming distant family ties. Register: informal, colloquial. English equivalents: 'a very distant cousin,' 'twice removed and then some.'

  Intermediate

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