ピロシキ

1955 is Shogakukan's printed point for ピロシキ: Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten cites Watanabe Zen'ichiro's Fudan-gi no Soren with ピローシキ. The source is Russian пирожки, romanized pirozhki. In Russian grammar this is plural; the singular is пирожок, pirozhok, a diminutive related to пирог, pirog, a larger pie. English dictionaries such as Collins also label pirozhki as a plural noun. Japanese use is tied to Russian and Soviet food contact in the 20th century, then to yōshoku, bakery, and department-store food culture after 1945. Japanese explanations often describe meat, egg, or vegetables wrapped in flour dough and fried in oil. Russian cuisine also includes baked pirozhki, and fillings such as cabbage, potato, mushroom, fish, rice, and egg appear in Russian cookbooks. Heibonsha's encyclopedia connects pirozhki with zakuska, Russian appetizers. Modern Japanese ピロシキ behaves like a singular noun: a customer can say ピロシキを1個ください. That differs from Russian pirozhki, which already means more than one item, while pirozhok names one. In Japan the word often suggests a fried savory bread sold beside カレーパン and コロッケパン, not the full range of Russian small pies.