[izacus]

It bothers me more than it should that he calls them "spomeniks", because that's literally just a word meaning "monument" in the local languages.

It's like someone going "did you know American monuments are known as monuments locally?"

[grujicd]

While that's true that we use word spomenik for all monuments, I think outside of Balkans it's now recognized as a word describing specific abstract and grandiose type of monument. So world (or Internet community at least) took our word and appropriated it to mean something else.

Anyway, if someone visit one of Balkan countries and ask to see spomenik, expect locals to be confused and would not know what exactly you mean.

[pvg]

Паметник would like to have a word!

More seriously, I think you're exactly right about the adopted internet-English meaning of 'spomenik' and the article is right to make a distinction between this particular (and much more interesting) variety and your more generic strictly-regime-sponsored concrete artblob.

[izacus]

Hence why I said "bothers me more than it should". Language lives and I know english took upon a certain meaning. It still tickles my brain wrong :)

[debugnik]

This is common with loan words, though: Sahara, chai, manga, naan, salsa... They're all generic words which non-native speakers attach context to.

[literallycancer]

Yeah, people obsessed with Russia, and sometimes even normal experts studying Russia tend to use Russian words that way.