Russian БЛИН: say or not to say?

Have you heard that Russian word BLIN has many meanings? It is actually one of the most common words in Russia because you can hear it absolutely everywhere. The first meaning of this word is PANCAKE. Does it mean that Russians eat pancakes all the time? 

Not really. Another meaning for this word is a negative БЛИН. It is a synonym to English DAMN!

For example, we can say:

• Вчера у бабушки были очень вкусные блины – Yesterday my grandma’s pancakes were superb!
  OR:

• Блин, я потерял мамину любимую книгу – Damn, I’ve lost mom’s favorite book.

• Я опоздал на поезд! Блин! – I missed the train. Damn it!

As you see, in Russian these two words are similar, but as they have different meanings we translate them into English in different ways.

However over the course of time the meaning of the word slightly changed, it became more neutral than positive. DLitt Natalia Bogdanova explains: “Nowadays we can hear the word BLIN mostly at home, in shops and cafes but not in offices and educational institutions. If initially it had only a negative meaning, now the native speakers do not put up any emotions into it.”According to the statistics, this word is number one by a frequency of use in everyday conversations. Well, if we do not take into account swearing words:)