Many people know the story of how the word vampire is the only Serbian word that is accepted in the whole world and there is no substitute for it. But, that is not the only word that is Serbian, and it is used in the world. When we talk about Serbs, a vampire is one of them. But, where does that word come from, if we know that Dracula is the most famous vampire, and he comes from Romania.
The vampire is a mythological phenomenon that is characteristic of the Balkans and Slavs. However, it was noted that the first vampire was Petar Blagojević.
Petar Blagojevic, in Austrian sources Petar Plogojovic, was a peasant from Serbia, who is said to have become a vampire after his death and killed nine people, including his son, before a local priest called on the then Austrian authorities to help the village against vampire
This case gained in mystery when the Austrian authorities decided to check the whole case. Thus, accompanied by two imperial officials, Peter's tomb was excavated, and then it was noticed that his body did not even begin to disintegrate. With this, the case of Petar Blagojević gained in mystery, and that legend has been passed down for decades.
The word vampire is one of the words of Serbian origin that has become common to all world languages. This expression was first recorded in a report by the Austrian official Frombald on a case that took place in the Serbian village of Kisiljevo in 1725, published in the Viennese magazine Vineries Diarum ("Vienna Diary"), under the title "Vampire von Kisilova."
This report is the first mention of vampirism in recent Europe, it has been translated into several languages and caused "vampire mania" in England, France and Germany.
In the "vampire case", the fact that foreigners knowingly "stole" and falsified a large part of Serbian history and culture reappears. This is most clearly seen in the case of the world's most famous vampire, Count Dracula, who is still an inexhaustible Hollywood inspiration, while the Romanians invented Dracula's castle because of this myth and made it a tourist attraction.
However, although the word vampire is the most famous Serbism in the world, there are several more.
The word paprika is a word that is often called Serbian. When it comes to food, there is also the word plum brandy, which is typical only for Serbs and is a national Serbian drink (plum brandy), and is used worldwide as slivovitz and slivovitz.
Serbs are the only people in the world who have a custom of celebrating the holiday of the family, slava (each family celebrates its patron saint of the house). Thus, the word slava is a word that is generally accepted in the world. The words zadruga, skupština and četnik are words that are characteristic of the Serbialanguage.There is also the word vila (fairy), also from the folklore of the Serbian people.
When we talk about customs that are related to the ethnology of the Serbian people, there are also the words kolo (a type of folk dance) and gusle (folk musical instrument).
Šljivovica (originally Serbian Шљивовица) is a settlement in Serbia, which administratively falls under the Municipality of Čajetina; the latter is part of the Zlatibor administrative district. And this is probably only in Serbia.