The history of the origin of proverbs. Proverbs and sayings and their origin. Russian proverbs and sayings
Proverbs and sayings have long been part of our speech, but few people think about their origin. After all, once stable phraseological units did not exist, but certain conditions contributed to the emergence of a new culture of communication. To better understand the meaning of proverbs and sayings, hotshow life offers to delve into their history. Here are some interesting facts about how famous Russian proverbs and sayings appeared.
Filkin's letter
For those who are not in the know, the expression means a document of no value. In the people, fake papers are often called "filkin's letter". The history of the proverb comes from the distant 16th century, marked by the reign of Ivan the Terrible. At that time, Metropolitan Philip II of Moscow was engaged in writing complaint papers in order to expose the villainy of the tsar. Ivan the Terrible, with contempt and mockery, called the messages "filka's letter."
Not at ease
People use this idiom when they want to express awkwardness and some embarrassment. There was a catchphrase from the French expression "ne pas danser son assiette", which was erroneously mistranslated. If the original is correctly translated, the saying should sound something like "to be at a disadvantage." The word "assiette" has two translations - "position" and, in fact, "plate". By an absurd accident, the homonyms were confused, and the expression took on the form in which it is known to modern people.
They carry water on the offended
The famous expression has appeared in Russian speech since the 19th century. It is easy to guess that it is associated with merchants of drinking water. The cost of a valuable product at that time was equal to 7 silver coins per year. Naturally, some cunning water carriers wanted to earn more and inflated the price of the goods. Such acts were recognized as illegal and were punished. In order to teach a dishonest merchant a lesson, his horse was taken away. The offended water carrier had to harness himself to the cart and drag the heavy load.
And there is a hole in the old woman
It is not worth arguing about the original Russian origin of the saying. "Prorukha" is a word used by the Slavs in the old days, denoting a gross mistake, a blunder. Further analysis of the proverb is quite simple. The old woman can be regarded as an experienced and wise person who has seen a lot in life. It turns out a banal, but wise truth: even the best masters sometimes make mistakes in business.
Ate the dog
Some proverbs and sayings have come down to us not quite in their original form. So, for example, the phrase "ate a dog" came from the ancient Slavs, originally had a different meaning. Today, the expression is used as a characteristic of a person endowed with invaluable experience and a huge store of knowledge in a particular area. A few centuries ago phraseologism sounded somewhat different. People said “I ate the dog and choked on my tail” when they wanted to laugh at someone else's failure. The meaning of the phrase is this: a person was able to do a great job, but stumbled over a minor detail.
Written on the forehead
As you know, people say “it is written on the forehead” about individuals with clearly negative character traits. Naturally, in fact, there are no inscriptions on the person’s face, the phrase sounds rather abstract. In the first half of the 18th century, the saying sounded more true. The Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna issued a decree requiring that all caught criminals be branded. Thus, thieves and murderers could be easily distinguished from law-abiding citizens. The brand was placed on the forehead and remained on the skin for life.
Orphan of Kazan
Selfish people have existed at all times. Not without them and in the time of Ivan the Terrible. When the tsar conquered Kazan, the local princes began to put pressure on pity. Everyone tried his best: most of the population turned out to be poor and miserable, requiring the patronage of the great sovereign. With the help of a cunning move, the princes hoped to get the location of Ivan the Terrible. Apparently, the selfish motives of the inhabitants of the city were revealed, as they began to be called "orphans of Kazan."
The emergence of the first proverbs refers to the distant times of human history. Most scientists in the last century believed that proverbs arose when the Slavic tribes were still in a state of ethnic and linguistic community. It was generally accepted that ancient proverbs expressed mythical concepts and ideas. The antiquity of proverbs was not in doubt.
The secret of the origin of proverbs is hidden in them. Many proverbs invade the sphere of business relations, customs, become part of them. The poetic expression of thought in these proverbial judgments is just an unconsciously artistic form of reflecting reality: "Mosquitoes are talking - to a bucket", "Dry March, and wet May make good bread." In all these proverbs, their vital and practical meaning is most important. These are advice, everyday rules, observations of the weather, an expression of social orders that one has to obey - in a word, business life in all its manifestations. Everyday and social orders were reflected in such proverbs directly - as their direct expression. These proverbs arose in everyday life and did not go beyond everyday use. This is the oldest type of folk sayings. It can be assumed that the whole complex area of unwritten laws and rules of human behavior, life, orders, was expressed in the first proverbial judgments, in their formulas.
In conditions where there was no written language, proverbs were necessarily rhythmic: this form helped them to remember accurately. The stability of proverbs was facilitated by the stability of the customs and everyday institutions to which they belonged. As for brevity, this property of proverbs is quite explicable by the fact that the proverbial judgment did not need proof, it was based on common experience.
Genre proverb in the Saratov region
There are few proverbs and sayings among the collected materials of Saratov folklore. Recording them takes a long time, so their collections, printed and handwritten, dating back to the 19th century, are small in terms of the number of texts.
The bulk of Saratov proverbs are all-Russian proverbs in their ideological and aesthetic nature. Some of them bear a vivid imprint of the feudal and capitalist eras. Some of them, undoubtedly, of the Volga origin, like the old burlatskaya or robber, for example, "There is nothing to pay the debt - I run to the Volga."
Unlike other genres of folklore, the proverb is perfect, devoid of idealization of life phenomena and human relations, it hits, "not in the eyebrow, but in the eye."
“In the simplicity of the word - the greatest wisdom, proverbs and songs are always short, and the mind and feelings are invested in them for whole books,” M. Gorky argued. Indeed, proverbs and sayings are the smallest genre of oral folk art. This is also an ancient genre used by chroniclers. They summarize centuries-old labor experience, moral convictions, religious ideas and social views of the people. Since ancient times, proverbs have come into popular use and from literary works. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin's epigraph to the work "The Captain's Daughter" is given such a proverb "Take care of honor from a young age."
Author: Zimovets Natalya Viktorovna, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign Languages of the Pedagogical Institute Belgorod State National Research University, Belgorod, Russia
Matveeva Anna Alexandrovna, 5th year student of the Faculty of History and Philology of the Pedagogical Institute Belgorod State National Research University, Belgorod, Russia
Proverbs and sayings are an ancient genre of folk art. They arose in ancient times and have their roots deep into the centuries. Many of them appeared even when there was no written language. Phraseology has a special section - paremiology, which studies the structural-semantic type of stable combinations of words called proverbs and sayings. Many linguists have studied the origin of proverbs and sayings; they put forward various hypotheses about their appearance and functioning in the language.
V.A. Zhukov claims that it is very difficult to determine from what time proverbs began to circulate among the people - oral short sayings on a variety of topics. The time of the appearance of the first sayings is also unknown - well-aimed sayings that are able to expressively and accurately characterize something in a conversation without the help of tedious and complex explanations, but, according to the researcher, one thing is undeniable: proverbs and sayings arose in remote antiquity and have been accompanying the people since then. throughout its history. Special properties made both proverbs and sayings so persistent and necessary in everyday life and speech.
L.N. Orkina notes that a proverb is not a simple saying. It expresses the opinion of the people. It contains the people's assessment of life, the observations of the people's mind. Not every saying became a proverb, but only one that was consistent with the way of life, the thoughts of many people - such a saying could exist for millennia, passing from century to century. Behind each proverb is the authority of the generations that created them. Therefore, proverbs do not argue, do not prove - they simply affirm or deny something in the certainty that everything they say is a solid truth.
According to S.G. Berezhan, one of the sources of proverbs and sayings is oral folk art - songs, fairy tales, epics, riddles.
As you can see, the question of the primary sources of proverbs and sayings is still open.
In this article, we consider the main sources of the emergence of English proverbs and sayings. The analysis of special literature made it possible to identify the following ways of their origin: folk, literary (including Shakespeare's quotes), biblical, borrowings from another culture, as well as sayings of famous people.
Of course, any proverb was created by a specific person in certain circumstances, however, it is not always possible to establish the true origin of all proverbs and sayings, and especially ancient ones. Therefore, it is more correct to say that some proverbs and sayings are of folk origin, that their primary source is in the collective mind of the people. In many statements summarizing everyday experience, the meaning of the words seems to have developed into the form of a proverb gradually, without any explicit announcement. After many hundreds of people expressed the same thought in various ways, after many trials and errors, this thought finally acquired its memorized form and began its life as a proverb.
The so-called native English proverbs have a folk origin, the peculiarity of the origin of which is that they arose due to the traditions, customs and beliefs of the English people, and also that they were created on the basis of various realities and facts of English history.
So the appearance of the proverb " Play fast and loose" (meaning "to play a dishonest, double game") is associated with an old game that was played mainly at fairs in England. The conditions of the game were that a belt or rope was either tightly wound around the finger, or a rope or rope was unraveled, and the audience could not catch the deft manipulation of the hands and invariably lost the bet.
Expression " beat the air(or the wind)” (meaning “trying in vain, wasting energy”) comes from the medieval custom of brandishing weapons as a sign of victory when the enemy did not appear at the court of honor to resolve the dispute with weapons.
The use of the proverb Good wine needs no bush” (meaning “a good product praises itself”) is associated with an old custom when innkeepers hung ivy branches as a sign that wine was on sale.
Some thoughts noticed from practical work activity are also expressed in English proverbs, for example: “ Make hay while the sun shines" (meaning "everything needs to be done on time") from the experience of farming; " Don't put all your eggs in one basket” (meaning “everything should not be put in one place”) from the experience of trade relations.
Expression " Rob Peter to pay Paid” (meaning “to take from one to give to another”) goes back to the old custom of the clergy to transfer various church utensils from rich churches to poor churches.
It is difficult to restore the source of literary proverbs, since one can only determine who first introduced them into literature. The introduction of certain proverbs into literature does not always mean their creation, since the author could use expressions common in his era.
Here are some examples of established literary proverbs: The remedy is worse than the disease"("The cure is worse than the disease") (Chaucer), " Marriage is a lottery"("Marriage is a lottery") (Ben Johnson), " Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven"("Better to reign in hell than to be a slave in heaven") (John Milton), " Bite the hand that feeds you"("Bite the hand that feeds you", "repay with black ingratitude") (Edmund Burke), " Ignorance is bliss"("What you don't know, you don't answer for") (Thomas Grey), " (As) cool as a cucumber"("Totally unflappable", "calm", "nothing will break through") (John Gay), " Break a butterfly on the wheel"("Shoot sparrows from a cannon") (Alexander Pop), " Rain cats and dogs” (“Pouring like a bucket”) (Jonathan Swift).
Of course, Shakespeare excels in the number of quotations used as English proverbs. No one, however, can be sure which of the proverbs attributed to Shakespeare are really his creations, and which are taken in one form or another from oral tradition. Scientists still continue to find proverbs that existed before Shakespeare, which later became the lines of his works: Twelfth Night - “ Better a witty fool than a foolish wit"("Better a smart fool than a stupid sage"); Julius Caesar - Cowards die many times before their deaths"("Cowards die many times"); Antony and Cleopatra Salad days"(" It's time for youthful inexperience "); Hamlet - " Something is rotten in the slate of Denmark"("Something is rotten in the Danish kingdom", "something is wrong").
Many "Shakespearean" proverbs in English have retained their original form, such as:
« The biter is sometimes bit"("The thief stole the baton from the thief"), " Brevity is the soul of wit"("Brevity is the soul of the mind"), " Sweet are the uses of adversity"("There would be no happiness, but misfortune helped"), " Cowards die many times before their death("A coward dies many times").
Others are adaptations of his sayings, for example:
« A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"("A rose smells like a rose, call it a rose, or not").
The primary sources of English proverbs of literary origin are also fairy tales and fables. So the fairy-tale character Fortunatus is reflected in the saying " Fortunatus's purse" (meaning "an inexhaustible purse"), and the expressions " The whole bag of tricks"("The whole arsenal of tricks, tricks") and "(In) borrowed plumes"("Crow in peacock feathers").
Proverbs taken from the Bible can be considered both literary and borrowed, since the Bible is translated from Hebrew, and its wise sayings reflect the consciousness of the Hebrew society. In the old days, the Bible was widely read, so that many of its sayings became part of the public consciousness to such an extent that only a few now guess the biblical origin of certain proverbs. Some English proverbs are taken entirely from Scripture, for example: " You cannot serve God and mammon"("You can not serve God and the devil"), " The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"("The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"), " As you sow, so you reap" ("What goes around comes around!"), " Don't cast your pearls before swine"("Do not cast beads (pearls) in front of pigs"), " Cast not the first stone"("Do not throw the first stone"), " Charity covers a multitude of sins"(" Mercy atones for many sins ")," Do not put new wine into old bottles"("Do not pour wine into old dishes)," A house divided against itself cannot stand"("A house divided in itself cannot stand"), " If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the aitch"("If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit"), "Bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh" ("Bone from bone and flesh from flesh").
Proverbs of biblical origin are also revealed, in which some words are changed: “ Spare the rod and spoil the child"("Spare the rod, spoil the child"), " You can't make bricks without straw"("You can't make a brick without straw").
Another important source of English proverbs is proverbs and sayings that originated in other cultures and are reflected in other languages. It is very difficult to establish their original source, because a proverb, before becoming English, could exist in Latin, French or Spanish, and before that it was borrowed from some other language. However, the origin of some proverbs is established precisely.
Proverb " Evil be to him who evil thinks"came into English from French" Honi soit qoi mal y pense».
English proverb " Through hardships to the stars"("Through thorns to the stars") is of Latin origin" Per aspera ad astra", and another proverb" Man is to man wolf"("Man is a wolf to man") from the Latin expression "Homo homini lupus est".
A large number of borrowed proverbs remained in the original. Among them: " noble oblige"("Nobility obliges"), " In vino veritas"("Truth in wine").
Some proverbs originated from the sayings of famous people.
Winston Churchill said on American radio on February 9, 1941: Give us the tools, and we will finish the job"("Give us the opportunity, and we will finish the job") - and these words of his later became a proverb.
Quote by a famous American general: I do not allow myself, gentlemen, to call myself the smartest man in the country, but in this case I am very much like an old Dutch farmer who remarked that it would not be the best option to change horses at the crossing ...", made during the civil war, has become a real catchphrase. Today the English proverb sounds like " Don't change horses in mid-stream"("They don't change horses at the crossing").
English proverbs have different origins, but most linguists agree that proverbs and sayings are generated by oral folk art or borrowed from certain literary sources, losing touch with them, but, nevertheless, they generalize the experience of the people, derived from its social practice.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Zhukov, V.P. Semantics of phraseological turns. Textbook for students of pedagogical institutes in the specialty "Russian language and literature" - M .: Education, 1978. - 160 p.
2. Orkina, A.N. Aspectual-temporal characteristics of statements with the semantics of conditionality in the modern Russian language. Dissertation abstract - St. Petersburg, 2000.
3. Berezhan, S.G. On the question of the range of variation of phraseological units // Studies in semantics. Semantics of language units of different levels. - Ufa, 1988. - 148 p.
4. Rideout, R., Whitting, K. Explanatory dictionary of English proverbs. - St. Petersburg: Lan, 1997. - 256 p.
Proverbs are short sayings in which a judgment is made about some object or event. In ancient times proverbs were called "parables".
Initially, proverbs were part of short stories about some events, fairy tales, songs, and represented an aptly and concisely expressed generalization of what was discussed in the story or song. Often differing in the dimensionality of the warehouse, often having consonances at the beginning and in the middle (alliteration) or at the end (rhyme), these generalizations were easily remembered, stood out from the stories, and even experienced the stories themselves in the people's memory. Examples of proverbs that are still associated with stories or songs can be the following: “It’s not hard to live in grief, but to walk naked - don’t be ashamed” (from a song), “curls curl with joy, split in sadness”, “the nose will pull out , the tail will get stuck, the tail will be pulled out, the nose will get stuck "(from the fairy tale about the crane), "and the willow bush stands for the truth" (from the fairy tale about the murdered sister and the pipe), "the beaten unbeaten one is lucky" (from the fairy tale), "the old one, then and deed" (from antiquity).
Proverbs in folk life play an important role: they serve as guiding principles of activity; they are referred to to justify their actions and actions, they are used to accuse or denounce others. The people expressed the importance of the proverb in proverbs: “An old proverb will not break forever”, “an old proverb does not pass by”, “a good proverb is not in the eyebrow, but right in the eye”, “there is no judgment on the proverb”.
Proverbs relate to historical events, reflect ancient life, pagan and Christian beliefs, family and social life, morality, etc.
Proverbs
Proverbs reflecting historical events
This category of proverbs embraces historical events from ancient times to the latest. Examples: "Dead, like Aubrey (Avars), they have neither name nor inheritance" (in the annals), "trouble, like in Rodnya" (famine in 980 in Rodnya), "Rus can not drink fun without that life" (Vladimir's words to Mohammedan missionaries under 986), "Putyata baptize (Novgorodians) with a sword, and Dobrynya with fire" (about the baptism of Novgorodians who resisted), "do not crush (do not crush) bees, do not eat honey," said Volhynia-Galician prince Roman about masterful boyars (under 1231), "at the wrong time the guest is worse than a Tatar", "here it was like Mamai fought", "what is the khan, such is the horde" (these proverbs reflect the Tatar region), "seven will go, Siberia will be taken" (after the conquest of Siberia by the Cossacks with Yermak at the head), "here's your grandmother and Yuryev's day" (regarding the prohibition under Boris for peasants to move to other landowners even on autumn Yuryev's day), "disappeared like a Swede near Poltava" (after the defeat of the Swedes near Poltava, "a hungry Frenchman and a crow glad" (during the sitting of the French in Moscow).The following proverbs also have historical content: "At one veche, but not only speeches" (echoes of the veche form of government), "Bratchina judges like a judge" (the judiciary of the community), "Brother to brother with his head in payment" (mutual responsibility of relatives for crimes committed by one of them), “In fact, right, but guilty on the rack” (torture), “The soul has sinned, but the legs are to blame” (torture, right), “They don’t beat the recumbent” (during fisticuffs), “By name give you a place, welcome by patronymic "(localism).
Proverbs reflecting pagan beliefs and rituals
Examples: “The sun works during the day, and takes rest at night” (animistic view of the sun), “Which God soaks, that one will dry up” (polytheism), “The praying ram went away, the walking one came” (a hint of sacrifice), “He lived in forest, prayed to the stumps "(veneration of the goblin)," Brave, strong, but you can’t cope with the goblin", "If there was a demon, there would be a goblin", "The goblin is in the forest, but the stepmother is at home", "Egoriy da Vlas is an eye for the whole household "(veneration of Volos), "What is in the teeth of a wolf, Yegory gave", "He sat on the stove, prayed to the bricks" (veneration of the brownie), "The brownie will not love (cattle), you will not take anything", "Not all that is a mermaid, that dives into the water", "The old raven will not croak past", "Every crow should croak on his head", "They were crowned around the spruce, and the features sang" (marriage without a church ceremony), "I took God by the little leg, and on the floor "(the overthrow of idols).Under the influence of the clergy, they began to look at the pagan gods as an unclean force, demons, the devil, and Satan. This was reflected in the following proverbs: “From an empty hollow, either an owl, or an owl, or Satan himself” (i.e. goblin), “Every devil is free to roam in his swamp” (water), “There are devils in a still pool).
Some proverbs express faith in fate: “You can’t get around a betrothed-mummer and you won’t go around on a horse”, “Don’t be afraid, but fate can’t be avoided”, “Where there is no share, there is no happiness”, “Don’t be born either good or come in handy, be born happy", "Sinisters beyond the mountains are not terrible", "Money goes to the rich, the sinners - to the wretched", "You won't get away from the hardship".
Proverbs concerning economic activities
These proverbs express mainly agricultural labor. Examples: “It’s not the field that feeds, but the cornfield”, “You can’t travel the whole field with one horse”, “Fish is water, berries are grass, and bread is the head of everything”, “It doesn’t matter that quinoa is in the rye, but troubles, if not rye, no quinoa", "A man is going to die, and pasha's land", "Expensive goods grow from the earth".Proverbs reflecting Christian beliefs
Examples: “God is not in power, but in truth”, “Without God, not to the threshold, but with God even beyond the sea”, “If the Lord does not save the city, then all guards and fences are in vain”, “Gold is tempted by fire, and man misfortunes", "A parable of the town" (from the Psalter), "Humble in spirit, but proud of the belly", "Looks at the sky, but rummages on the ground", "You smoke heavily, you will conceive the saints", "Front - blessed is the husband, and behind - vsky staggering" (about people who cover up bad deeds with outward piety).Proverbs that reflect family life
Examples: "The owner is in the house, like a khan in the Crimea", "Like God to people, so the father is to children", "The girls are seated - grief is gone, married - they have arrived twice", "One matchmaker swears for someone else's soul", " There is a bear in the forest, and a stepmother at home", "To let your wife down - you won’t see good", "Love your wife like a soul, shake her like a pear", "Who loves, he beats" (wife), "Do not beat your wife - sweet not to be."Proverbs reflecting the meaning of the public - the world
Examples: “What the world has ordered, God has judged”, “You are for the world, and the world is for you”, “Worldly truth stands firmly”, “The world is a great man”, “The world will stand up for itself”, “There is no judgment on the world "," The world will roar, so the forests groan.Proverbs reflecting ancient legal proceedings
Examples: “The judge is like a carpenter: he cut down what he wanted”, “What are the laws to me: I know the judges”, “Do not be afraid of the court - be afraid of the judge”, “The horse competed with the wolf - the tail and mane remained”, “God punished the people - sent the voivode", "The horse loves oats, and the voivode loves the bring."Proverbs about wealth and poverty
Examples: “Money, like stones, is hard on the soul”, “The rich man will not buy his conscience, but destroys his own: he will climb into wealth, forget the brotherhood”, “Goal and naked - before God is right”, “The rich do not feed the poor, but everyone is full”, “A rich man would eat money, if the poor did not feed him bread”, “If money is spoken, then the truth is silent”, “Do not ask the rich, ask the tattered one”, “In the wrong hands, the chunk seems great, but how we will get it, it will seem so small.Proverbs reflecting moral concepts
Examples: “You can’t look at the truth that is in the sun with all your eyes”, “Put the truth in gold, and it will emerge”, “Brings the truth from the day of the sea”, “Falsely you will pass the whole world, but you won’t come back”, “Better falsehood to endure than to twirl the truth", "There was, they say, and the truth is in the world, but in the villages it went into balance", "Truth does not stand in the world, but walks around the world", "One cannot live without truth, and one cannot live about truth "," The truth is not good for business, but put it in a bow and pray, "" The fish is looking for where it is deeper, and the man, where it is better, "" A zealous horse does not live long."Proverbs that depict the characters of people
Examples: “Hisses like red-hot iron when you spit” (about a hot, irritable person), “You can’t do it in a mortar with a pestle” (stubborn), “Walks in boots, and the trail is barefoot” (cunning), “Wherever you step, here it will knock "(lump)," Hemmed with winds "(inconstant), "He says how he drags a collar on a horse with tongs" (mumbling), "From young and early, cries like a rooster" (upstart), "Batters that a magpie" ( about someone who is talking soon), “He said that he chopped off” (about the speaker briefly and decisively), “He says that the river is flowing” (smoothly), “Cooing like a dove” (gently), “What the word says, then the ruble will give "(speaking well and efficiently).Proverbs for different everyday occasions
Examples: “Do not be afraid of the dog that barks, but be afraid of the one that bites on the sly”, “Do not be angry at a rude word, but do not give up on a gentle one”, “To recognize a person, you need to eat a pound of salt with him.”sayings
Sayings are expressions used in conversation, most often in the form of comparisons, in order to give speech a special clarity. "A proverb, - says the people, - a flower, a proverb - a berry." Sayings are also called "proverbs" and "sayings". Examples: "Spinning like a demon before matins", "Like two drops of water", "One, like a finger", "Neither give nor take", "Like snow on the head", "Light in sight", "Again , but grows by the hour", "Neither think, nor guess, nor describe with a pen", "Soon a fairy tale is told, but not soon the deed is done."My language i.
The old expression "to pour over the Adam's apple" meant "to get drunk." Hence the phraseological unit "bosom friend" was formed.
The silent beluga fish has nothing to do with the expression "beluga roar." Previously, the beluga was called not only fish, but also the polar dolphin, which today is known to us as the beluga whale and is distinguished by a loud roar.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the “hill” card game, somewhat reminiscent of poker, was popular among the people. When a player began to bet, forcing partners to fold, they said about him that he was "going uphill."
The word sape means "hoe" in French. In the 16th-19th centuries, the term "sapa" meant a way to open a trench, ditch or tunnel to approach the fortifications. Gunpowder bombs were sometimes planted in the tunnels to the castle walls, and the specialists trained to do this were called sappers. And from the secretive digging of tunnels came the expression "sneaky".
In the operetta "Wedding in Malinovka" one of the characters jokingly distorted the name of the two-step dance, calling it "To that steppe." From here, the expression “To the wrong steppe” spread among the people.
Prosak used to be a special machine for weaving ropes and ropes. It had a complex structure and twisted strands so strongly that getting clothes, hair, beard into it could cost a person life.
In ancient Rus', kalachi was baked in the shape of a castle with a round bow. The townspeople bought rolls and ate them right on the street, holding this bow, or handle. For reasons of hygiene, the pen itself was not used for food, but was given to the poor or thrown to be eaten by dogs. About those who did not disdain to eat it, they said: it reached the handle.
In the "Lay of Igor's Campaign" one can find the lines: "Boyan the prophetic, if someone wanted to compose a song, spread his mind along the tree, like a gray wolf on the ground, a gray eagle under the clouds." Translated from Old Russian, "mys" is a squirrel. And because of the incorrect translation, in some editions of the Lay, a playful expression appeared, “to spread thought along the tree.”
In the pre-revolutionary alphabet, the letter D was called "good". The flag corresponding to this letter in the code of signals of the navy has the meaning "yes, I agree, I allow." This is what led to the emergence of the expression "give good."
In the old days, schoolchildren were often flogged, often without any fault of the punished. If the mentor showed particular zeal, and the student got hit especially hard, he could be released from further vices in the current month, up to the first day of the next month. This is how the expression "pour on the first number" arose.
After the capture of Kazan, Ivan the Terrible, wanting to bind the local aristocracy to himself, rewarded high-ranking Tatars who voluntarily came to him. Many of them, in order to receive rich gifts, pretended to be heavily affected by the war. This is where the expression "Kazan orphan" came from.
In Soviet boarding schools for gifted children, teenagers were recruited who had two years left to study (classes A, B, C, D, E) or one year (classes E, F, I). The students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs”. When they came to the boarding school, two-year students were already ahead of them in a non-standard program, so at the beginning of the school year, the expression "no brainer" was very relevant.
Whipping boys in England and other European countries of the 15th-18th centuries were called boys who were brought up with princes and received corporal punishment for the faults of the prince.
Tyutelka is a diminutive of the dialectal tyutya (“hit, hit”), the name of an exact hit with an ax in the same place during carpentry work.
The most experienced and strong hauler, walking in the strap first, was called a bump. This has evolved into the expression "big shot".
Previously, Friday was a free day from work, and, as a result, a market day. On Friday, when they received the goods, they promised to give back the money due for it on the next market day. Since then, to refer to people who do not keep their promises, they say: "He has seven Fridays in the week."
Previously, in addition to part of the face, the nose was called a tag that they carried with them and on which they put notches to record work, debts, as well as a bribe, etc. On the nose, one could either hack (negotiate) or stay with him (when a bribe is not accepted).
When doctors discovered the meaning of nerves in the human body, they named them the same word, nervus, by their resemblance to the strings of musical instruments. Hence the expression - "play on the nerves."
A small horny tubercle on the tip of the tongue in birds, which helps them peck food, is called a pip. The growth of such a tubercle can be a sign of illness. Hard pimples on the human tongue are called pips by analogy with these bird tubercles. According to ideas, a pip appears in deceitful people.
The opening of the Eiffel Tower, which looked like a nail, was timed to coincide with the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris, which caused a sensation. Since then, the expression "highlight of the program" has entered the language.
