(The last sound is like "h" in "inheritance").
This is a Russian
word which means "musician, a member of a musical band". I wonder what language it is borrowed from. I was told that the main suspects are Yiddish/Hebrew, Romanian and Turkish. But most likely it's Yiddish or Hebrew, if to believe this excerpt:
"When you play a wedding in Russia, you don�t want the customer to understand what you�re saying. So labukh or labushnik is a musician, lomir labern means "let�s play," bashalemen means to pay up, and a lazhuk is someone who�s a pain in the butt. My partner Mishka used to say, "Every simkhe, every celebration, has to have a lazhuk, someone who bothers you, who tells you that the music is too loud or too this or too that." That�s a lazhuk."
http://clevelandjewishradio.tripod.com/bezyler.html
