A funny story of words and expressions

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The history of the emergence of many fixed expressions sometimes surprises no less than the expressions themselves. How did a Chinese apple become an orange? Where is the country of unafraid idiots? When did plywood fly over Paris? Why did a bird fly out of photographers at the dawn of photography?

Sand is pouring

We have long been using and hearing the sarcastic expression “your sand is pouring” for a long time and we hear it in our ordinary life, knowing full well that we are talking about old age. And this phrase has become so familiar that it does not even occur to us to think about where it came from, or it does not come to mind, but very slowly and somehow, perhaps even suddenly. But each such expression that has come into common use has its own, sometimes very interesting, prehistory …

The most dynamically developing areas of life around the world have always been considered two necessary human needs: food and clothing. It was in these two directions that you could always create your own unique style. When this style became popular, and more and more people wanted to adhere to it, it was already Fashion. Unfortunately, fashion has always had a limited time period, interacting with other areas of culture and the identity of society, but it has always left its intricate imprint in the history of mankind, at least in such phrases.

The roots of this particular expression originate in Europe, in the 16th century. It was a time of harsh reforms and the reign of the Spanish Inquisition. Heretics and blasphemers were subjected to cruel torture and death. "Dice for the testicles" even sounds very painful, and what the then heretics underwent during these sophisticated tortures, I am afraid to imagine. The male genital organ has always been of great importance, and such treatment in those days focused on it the increased attention of society.

And in order to make up for his (organ's) humiliated dignity, in men's fashion, in France, such an accessory of clothing as "codpiece" is developed and decorated in every possible way (from the Dutch word gulp - a trouser pocket or a bag where "manhood" was put). It was not just a new trend in fashion, it was a kind of challenge to the Pope himself, whose Inquisition dared to encroach on the most vulnerable part of a man's body. And the further, the more the male organ was cultivated, forcing the hearts of the court ladies to beat faster when looking at this wonderful bag for the phallus.

The codpiece was sewn from such expensive fabrics as velvet and silk, embroidered with gold threads and decorated with pearls. Men of that time competed with each other, attracting and luring admiring female attention. The old ladies' men also did not want to miss this great opportunity, and in order to seem, so to speak, “I have a hoo” and “I am still very much as I can”, they put additional sandbags in their cogs.

But, for example, in a dance or with another strong movement, and perhaps even after some time of use, such a bag could easily break, leaving behind its owner a path of spilled sand. After such a poor fellow, the phrase sounded: "sand is already pouring out of him, but he still cannot calm down", which has become fundamental to today's habitual expression.

Slip through

This word, as well as the expression "Hey you, hat!", Has nothing to do with headdresses, soft intelligentsia and other standard images that arise in our heads with you. This word came into slang speech straight from Yiddish and is a distorted form of the German verb "schlafen" - "to sleep". And the "hat", respectively, "sleepy, raunchy": "While you are hat here, your suitcase is draped."

Out of place

In French “asset” is a plate, a mood, and a state. It is said that at the beginning of the 19th century, a certain translator, making a translation of a French piece, translated the phrase "friend, you are out of sorts" as "you are not at ease."

Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov, who was an inveterate theater-goer, of course, could not pass by such a brilliant blooper and put an illiterate phrase in Famusov's mouth: “Beloved! You are not at ease. Sleep is needed from the road."

With the light hand of Alexander Sergeevich, the crazy phrase made sense and took root in the Russian language for a long time.

Pip your tongue

The small horny bump on the tip of the tongue in birds that helps them chew on food is called a pip. The growth of such a tubercle can be a sign of illness. Hard pimples in the human language are called pips by analogy with these bird bumps. According to superstitious beliefs, the pip usually appears with deceitful people. Hence the unkind wish "a pip on your tongue."

And prove that you are not a camel …

This phrase became very popular after the publication of the next series of the tavern "Thirteen Chairs". There was a miniature in which Pan Director was talking with Pan Himalayan about a camel recently brought to the circus.

The accompanying documents read: “We are sending a two-humped camel and a Himalayan camel to your circus”, i.e. the surname of Pan Himalayan was written with a small letter. Fearing bureaucratic checks, Pan Director demands a certificate from Pan Himalayan that he is not really a camel.

This made fun of the role of the bureaucratic machine in our country so vividly that the expression very quickly went among the people and became popular. Now we say so when we are required to prove the obvious things.

And a no brainer

The students of the one-year stream were called so - “hedgehogs”. When they came to the boarding school, biennial 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.

Nonsense

Seminarians who studied Latin grammar had serious problems with it. Take, for example, the gerund - this venerable member of the grammatical community, which simply does not exist in the Russian language. The gerund is a cross between a noun and a verb, and the use of this form in Latin requires knowledge of such a number of rules and conditions that often seminarians were taken to the infirmary right from class with a fever. Instead, the seminarians began to call any tedious, tedious and completely unintelligible nonsense "nonsense".

Leave in english

When someone leaves without saying goodbye, we use the expression “left in English”. Although in the original this idiom was invented by the British themselves, but it sounded like to take French leave. It appeared during the Seven Years War in the 18th century in a mockery of the French soldiers who voluntarily left the location of the unit. At the same time, the French copied this expression, but already in relation to the British (mutual accusations between the British and the French were quite common), and in this form it was fixed in the Russian language.

Unafraid idiot

Most people with congenital idiocy have the happy trait that they are quite difficult to scare (as well as convince them to use a spoon and button their pants). Painfully steadfast, they do not want to absorb any information from the outside. The expression went for a walk with the light hand of Ilf and Petrov, who in their "Notebooks" enriched the world with the aphorism "The land of unafraid idiots. It's time to scare. " At the same time, the writers simply parodied the title of the then very popular book by Prishvin "In the Land of Unafraid Birds".

The Moor has done his job, the Moor can go

For some reason, most people (even those who actually read Shakespeare) believe that these words belong to Othello, who strangled his Desdemona. In fact, the Shakespearean hero was anything but a cynic: he would rather strangle himself than blurt out such tactlessness over the corpse of his beloved. This phrase is said by another theatrical Moor - the hero of Schiller's play "The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa." That Moor helped the conspirators to gain power, and after the victory he realized that yesterday's comrades-in-arms did not care about him from the high Genoese bell tower.

Set the horns

The origin of this expression is very ancient. During the reign of the emperor Comnenus Andronicus (ancient Byzantium), the following rule was in use: those husbands with whose wives the emperor had an affair were allowed to hunt in the emperor's menagerie, where he kept many exotic animals. And I must say that this privilege was in great demand then. So, the gates of houses where such families lived were decorated with antlers - a sign of special honor.

Freeze stupidity

This expression appeared thanks to the gentlemen of the gymnasium students. The fact is that the word "moros" in translation from Greek just means "stupidity". The teachers told the negligent students when they, from ignorance of the lesson, began to talk nonsense: "You are carrying drizzle." Then the words were rearranged - and it turned out that ignorance of the high school students "froze stupidity."

Cast pearls before swine

The process of throwing small glass rubbish in front of a pig is really an ideal idea in its meaninglessness. But in the original text of the Bible, from where this phrase was engraved, there is no talk of any beads. It says about people who throw precious pearls into the pigs' feeder. It's just that once the words "pearl", "beads" and "pearls" meant exactly pearls, its different varieties. It was then that the industry perked up to stamp penny glass beads and called them the beautiful word "beads".

Give good

In the pre-revolutionary alphabet, the letter D was called “good”. The flag corresponding to this letter in the naval code of signals has the meaning "yes, I agree, I agree." This is what caused the expression “to give the good”. Derived from this, the expression “Customs gives good” first appeared in the film “White Sun of the Desert”.

Pound water in a mortar

This expression means engaging in a useless business, has a very ancient origin - it was used by ancient authors, for example, Lucian. And in medieval monasteries, it had a literal character: guilty monks were forced to pound water as a punishment.

Fly like plywood over Paris

It would not be an exaggeration to say that everyone has heard the expression “Fly like plywood over Paris”. The meaning of this phraseological unit can be conveyed as a missed opportunity to do or receive something, to be out of work, to fail. But where did this saying come from?

In 1908, the famous French aviator Auguste Fannier, making a demonstration flight over Paris, crashed into the Eiffel Tower and died. After which the well-known Menshevik Martov wrote in Iskra that "the tsarist regime is flying to its death as quickly as Mr. Fanniere over Paris."

The Russian people perceived this maxim in a slightly different way, changing the name of the foreign aviator to plywood. Hence the expression "fly like plywood over Paris".

A bird will fly out now

Previously, photographers, in order for all children in a group photo to look into the lens, said: “Look here! A bird will fly out now! " This bird was quite real at the beginning of the era of mass photography - though not alive, but brass. In those days, cameras were far from perfect, and to get a good picture, people had to freeze in one position for a few seconds. To attract the attention of restless children, the assistant of the photographer at the right moment raised a brilliant "bird", which already knew how to issue trills.

Tunic in tunic

Tyutelka is a diminutive of the dialect tyutya ("hit, hit"): the name of the exact hit with an ax in the same place during carpentry work. This expression characterizes either the exceptional accuracy of the action, or the great similarity, identity between objects or phenomena.

With a twist

The image of a zest - a certain small piquant detail that gives a sense of sharpness and unusualness - was presented to us personally by Lev Tolstoy. It was he who first introduced the expression "woman with a twist" into circulation. In his drama Living Corpse, one character says to another: “My wife was an ideal woman … But what can I tell you? There was no zest - you know, there is a zest in kvass? - there was no game in our life."

The last Chinese warning

If you were born before 1960, then you yourself perfectly remember the origin of this expression, for this is never forgotten. But subsequent generations have already been deprived of the happiness of watching the confrontation between the United States and China at the turn of the 50-60s of the XX century. When, in 1958, China, outraged that the US air force and navy were supporting Taiwan, issued an angry note titled "The Last Warning", the world shuddered in horror and held its breath in anticipation of a third world war.

When, seven years later, China issued its 400th note under the same name, the world howled with delight. Since, apart from pieces of paper with menacing words, China had nothing to oppose to the United States, Taiwan nevertheless retained its independence, which Beijing still does not recognize.

Get out of the ground

In ancient times in Russia it was necessary to pay the master's rent. And the peasant wanted to save a little for his life. Therefore, they buried some of the available money in the ground, i.e. made a cache. Only the one who hid it knew about the place of this cache. But the master also knew that the peasants were hiding money. And when the peasant said “No money” to the demand to pay the quitrent, the owner always answered “Get it out of the ground,” meaning the stash. This was clear to both the master and the peasant.

Sleep without hind legs

This expression has arisen a long time ago. The peasants, often observing the animals, noticed that when you wake up the animals, they, waking up, try to stand on their feet and always on the front. The hind legs do not obey them at first. That is, the horse rises first on the front legs, and then on the hind legs. It seems that when the front legs are already at work, the hind legs are still watching the dream. So, now we use this expression when talking about a soundly sleeping person.

How to drink give

It would not be very clear how the process of serving drinking is related to the concepts of “certain” and “guaranteed” if the lists of criminal jargon of the 18th – 19th centuries had not survived, in which the expression “to drink to give” is synonymous with the word “to poison”. For poisoning is indeed one of the safest and safest ways for a killer to get rid of a disturbing person.

Not one iota

Iota is the letter of the Greek alphabet for the sound [and]. It was portrayed as a tiny dash, and all the time lazy scribes simply threw it out of the text, since even without iot it was always possible to understand what was at stake. We don't always dot the "e", do we? The author of the phrase is Jesus Christ, who promised the Jews that the Law will not change "one iota", that is, even the most insignificant changes will be excluded.

Everything on the ointment

This expression came from carriers. They were obliged to make sure that the carts were greased on time, so that they did not creak, and that nothing was frayed or broken on the way. And when the merchant asked the carriers if everything was ready for the further journey, they answered “everything is in ointment,” that is, the carts are ready for the road.

Not from a timid dozen

This expression came from among the military in Ancient Russia. The fact is that "ten" is the name of a military unit, the smallest military unit headed by a foreman. Ten of these "dozen" were called a hundred and were headed by a centurion. And every single dozen warriors had their own reputation. And if a warrior showed courage in battle, they said that he was not one of a timid dozen. Then this expression spreads from military speech to everyday speech.

The case smells like kerosene

These words are not an ordinary phrase from the vocabulary of a firefighter who, examining the burnt ruins, puts forward a version of deliberate arson. The aphorism has a very specific author - the famous journalist Mikhail Koltsov, who published the feuilleton "Everything is All Right" in Pravda in 1924. The feuilleton castigates the mores of the American oil magnates who hand out "kerosene-smelling" bribes back and forth.

Old horseradish

Remember how many times we have heard this expression. Now it sounds ironic and is usually addressed to old people. Ever wondered why?

It's all really about hell. Yes, yes, in that vegetable that we still grow in our gardens. Young horseradish is usually smooth, white, but it does not have that strength and vigor as in an old, two or three year old. Try rubbing old horseradish. Tears will pour in a stream for a long time and profusely. So, when we say to a man “you old fuck,” we do not offend him, but only emphasize the strength and experience gained over the years.

Inside out

The history of this expression is connected with the decree of Ivan the Terrible to mark the guilty in a special way. The guilty boyars were dressed in a shirt inside out and put on a horse backwards and so they drove around the city, "so that everyone could see the scoundrel, and so that others would not disdain."

Shabby view

This expression goes back to the time of Tsar Peter the Great. In those days there was such a manufacturer Zatrapeznikov. His manufacture produced very coarse and low-quality cloth. This fabric was bought only by poor people who could not buy something better for themselves. And the appearance of such poor people was appropriate. Since then, if a person is dressed sloppily, they say about him that he has a shabby appearance.

Alive, smoking room

The famous expression, about which everyone knows that it belongs to the poet Pushkin, in fact does not belong to Pushkin. This is a verdict from the once popular children's game. Children, standing in a circle, quickly passed each other a burning splinter and sang: “The smoking-room is alive, alive! The smoking-room is still alive!"

The same unfortunate man, in whose hands the smoking-room was extinguished, was considered a loser and had to perform some stupid and sometimes unsafe task - for example, add snuff to the nasty Amalia Yakovlevna in her nightcap.

Piano in the bushes

But this phrase is actually the author's. It was taken from the famous sketch by Gorin and Arkanov "Quite by accident". In this scene, comedians depicted the principles of creating reports on Soviet television. “Let's go to the first bystander. This is pensioner Seregin, a labor drummer. In his spare time he likes to play the piano. And just in the bushes there is a grand piano on which Stepan Vasilyevich will play Oginsky's Polonaise for us”.

Passion-face

The word became popular thanks to Gorky, who named one of his stories that way. But Gorky, who was not distinguished by his ability to verbal delights, did not come up with it himself, but pulled it out of an optimistic folk lullaby, which sounds like this:

Passion-Faces will come, Bring adversity with them

They will bring adversity, Tear your heart apart!

Oh, trouble! Oh, trouble!

Where can we hide, where?

Dance from the stove

And here we have a slightly sad, but instructive example of how almost nothing remained of a whole writer. To whom does the name of Vasily Sleptsov say anything now? Today only erudite specialists in Russian literature know him.

He was simply not lucky: he was born and lived at the same time as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and other Turgenevs. So three words remained from Sleptsov in the people's memory. In the novel The Good Man, the hero recalls how in childhood he was tortured with dance lessons - they put him to the stove and forced him to walk with a dance step across the hall. And he then skosolap, then twist the sock - and again they drive him to dance from the stove.

It is written on my forehead

This expression appeared during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. She issued a written order to stigmatize the criminals. The stigma was placed on the forehead, "so that he could be distinguished from the righteous." Looking at such a person, they said that all his bad thoughts were written on his forehead, meaning the stigma.

Soap opera

This is what we used to call TV series. And what does this expression mean? In 1932, the opera Betty and Bob was a huge success in the United States. It was sponsored by soap and detergent manufacturers. And later, to clarify what kind of opera they were talking about, they talked about a "soap opera", meaning this one.

Soul wide open

Even in ancient times in Russia it was believed that the human soul has its place on the body, it is a dimple between the collarbones. And if any person wanted to show that he had no bad thoughts, he would unbutton the button on his shirt, showing this dimple. This meant that a person lives with an open soul, that is, he is sincere in his thoughts and actions.

Filkin's certificate

Unlike Trishka with a caftan or Kuzka with his mysterious mother, Filka is a completely historical person. This is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Philip II of Moscow. He was a shortsighted man who forgot that the first duty of the Moscow high priest was to diligently give Caesar the Caesar's, so he repented to his misfortune with the Tsar-Father Ivan the Terrible.

You understand, he took it into his head to expose the bloody atrocities of the tsarist regime - he began to write true stories about how many people the tsar tortured, tortured, burned and poisoned. The tsar called the metropolitan writings "Filka's letter", swore that Filka was lying, and imprisoned Filka in a distant monastery.

Disservice

This expression is directly related to Krylov's fable "The Hermit and the Bear". Once a hermit with a bear went for a walk in the forest in hot weather. The hermit was tired, sat down to rest and fell asleep, while the bear was driving the flies away from him. And when another fly landed on the hermit's forehead, the bear took a cobblestone and killed the fly, while at the same time he cut open the hermit's skull.

So, doing a disservice means doing harm instead of the promised help.

Lie to the rescue

The phrase "lying for salvation" goes back to the Bible. But nothing more: this phrase is not there!

When the 32nd psalm of King David was translated into the Church Slavonic language, the verse that even on a fast horse one cannot escape the righteous judgment began to sound like this: "Lie the horse for salvation." Very soon the phrase became completely incomprehensible, and the horse gradually disappeared from it. In fact, the Bible says (as it is recorded in the modern translation): "A horse is not reliable for salvation, it will not deliver by its great strength!"

Silently

Sapa is a term borrowed from the French for a mine, a bomb, and any explosive work in the Russian army. Silent glanders were called digging under the walls of a besieged city or fortifications of an enemy camp. Sappers carried out such a dig unnoticed, usually at night, so that the subsequent loud boom would come as a complete surprise to the enemy.

Doctor

Did you know that the word "doctor" has a rather dubious origin?

In the old days, they were treated with conspiracies, spells, various whispers. An ancient healer, a sorcerer said to the patient something like this: "Go away, illness, into the quicksands, into the dense forests …" And he muttered different words over the sick man. Do you know what muttering, chatter was called until the beginning of the 19th century? Mumbling, chatter was then called a lie. To mumble was to lie. He who trumpets is the trumpeter, who weaves is the weaver, and who lies is the doctor. Are our doctors different now?

Bride

Everyone understands the expression "get married." It means "to be behind the husband's back." The groom - this is also understandable: a man brings a woman into the house, here is the groom. But with the bride it is a little more difficult. This word has such linguistic cousins as "ignorant". This speaks of an ancient custom: the bride was brought into the house by the matchmakers, the groom's relatives did not know anything about her before, did not know. Often the groom himself never saw the chosen one before the matchmaking. The bride is a stranger, unknown. The bride is who knows who and whence… Such an echo in the language was left by ancient traditions, nowadays forgotten almost everywhere. And the word remained.

Bohemia

Creative intelligentsia, beautiful life, glamor and other buffets - all this has nothing to do with bohemianism. The real bohemia, which the Parisians had in mind when using this word, is the lack of housing and work, a bunch of children, a drunk wife in an embrace with guests, no regime, rubbish everywhere, chaos, lawlessness and dirty nails. Because the word "bohemian" means "gypsy", and in Russian "bohemian" is ideally accurately translated as "gypsy".

Cretin

Words sometimes jump from meaning to meaning, like lions on the trainer's pedestals, and sit down in the most unexpected combinations. For example, there was a doctor in France by the name of Chretien, which means "Christian." It's not that common, but not too rare a surname (we have a whole class of peasants, that is, Christians, called). But it was this doctor who managed to formulate the diagnosis of congenital thyroid insufficiency syndrome for the first time. Henceforth, this disease began to be called by the name of the scientist "cretinism", and the sick, respectively, were cretins. That is, Christians.

Orange

We all love oranges. Many people love them even more than apples. And how can you compare a noble citrus fruit with some Antonovka! Meanwhile, until the 16th century, Europeans had no idea about oranges at all. Russians - even more so. Oranges don't grow here!

And then the Portuguese seafarers brought these delicious orange balls from the eastern countries. And they began to trade them with their neighbors. Those, of course, asked: "Where did the apples come from?" - because they haven't heard of oranges, but in shape this fruit looks like an apple. The merchants answered honestly: "Apples from China, Chinese!" And so it was remembered.

And oranges came to Russia from Holland. In Dutch, "apple" is appel, and Chinese is sien. So the orange came out.

Fuck

Perhaps we will get into trouble because we have written such foul language in our pious publication. Although, if you look at it, there is nothing indecent in the word "dick". This was the name in the Church Slavonic alphabet of the letter "x", as well as any cross in the form of the letter "x". When unnecessary places in the text were crossed out with a cross, it was called “to lose”.

The old alphabet with all the basics and beeches was finally abolished at the beginning of the 20th century, and the word "dick", having gone out of use, after half a century has become a synonym for a short word on "x". And at the same time it began to seem obscene and widespread expression with a similar root - "to suffer garbage."

Hernia in Latin means "hernia", and it was this diagnosis that good military doctors most often exhibited to the children of wealthy townspeople who did not want to serve in the army. Every fifth citizen-conscript in Russia at the end of the 19th century regularly suffered from garbage (the peasants often could not afford garbage, and they were shaved much more actively).

After the rain on Thursday

The Russians honored among their gods the god of thunder and lightning Perun. One of the days of the week was dedicated to him - Thursday (it is interesting that among the ancient Romans Thursday was also dedicated to the Latin - Jupiter). Perun was offered demands for rain in a drought. It was believed that he should be especially willing to fulfill requests on "his day" - Thursday. And since these prayers often remained in vain, the saying "After the rain on Thursday" began to be applied to everything that does not know when will be fulfilled.

Bikini

Swimming has a variety of fans. And, of course, female fans. Some of them go in for their favorite sport in closed swimsuits, others in open ones with upper and lower details. And such swimsuits have appeared relatively recently. The most important frontier in the life of swimwear has become the Marshall Islands located in the Pacific Ocean (not far from the world's deepest Mariana Trench). And not at all because it is warm there almost all year round. Rather, on one of the islands of the archipelago on July 1, 1946, the Americans detonated an atomic bomb.

The inventor of a new ladies' beach suit, Parisian Leu Rear, gave his brainchild the name of this tiny piece of land surrounded on all sides by water: a great advertisement.

Leu Rear was not a fashion designer, he was a mechanical engineer and engaged in clothing design in his spare time. But the new swimsuit brought him unprecedented - at first scandalous - success. In Italy and Spain, the Rhear product was banned under threat of criminal penalties. Only after movie stars began to publicly appear in his swimwear, the novelty conquered the whole world. That seems to be all.

No, not all! We forgot to give the coordinates of the island on which the US exploded: 11 degrees 35 minutes north, 165 degrees, 25 minutes east. And its name is Bikini.

Scapegoat

The history of this expression is as follows: among the ancient Jews there existed and still exists to this day a rite of absolution. The priest (rabbi) lays both hands on the head of a living goat, thereby, as it were, shifting the sins of the entire people onto it. After this, the goat is driven out into the desert. Many, many years have passed, but the rite exists, and it still lives to this day, our times …

Kazan orphan

So they say about a person who pretends to be unhappy, offended, helpless in order to pity someone. But why is it the "Kazan" orphan? According to the official version, this phraseological unit arose after the conquest of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. Mirza (Tatar princes), being subjects of the Russian Tsar, tried to beg him all sorts of indulgences, complaining about their orphanhood and bitter fate.

Get in the grip

In dialects, BIND is a fish trap woven from branches. And, as in any trap, it is not pleasant to be in it.

Beluga roar

He is like a fish - you have known this for a long time. And suddenly howling a beluga? It turns out that we are not talking about a beluga, but a beluga, as the polar dolphin is called. Here he really roars very loudly.

Big boss

Remember the painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga", how on it the barge haulers drag the barge with all their might? The hardest and most important place in this strap is the place of the first barge haule. He sets the stage, he directs the rest.

Therefore, this place was occupied by the strongest man. This man in a burlak strap was called “the bump”. This means that the "big shot" is a big and important person.

Unlucky person

In the old days in Russia “the way” was called not only the road, but also various positions at the court of the prince. The falconer's path is in charge of princely hunt, the hunter's path is hound hunting, the equestrian path is in carriages and horses. Boyars by hook or by crook tried to get the way from the prince - a position. And those who did not succeed, they were disparaged about those: unlucky person.

Nick down

In this expression, the word "nose" has nothing to do with the organ of smell. "Nose" was the name of the plaque, or note tag. In the distant past, illiterate people always carried with them such boards and sticks, with the help of which all kinds of notes or notches were made for memory.

Sharpen the fringes

Balusters (balusters) are chiseled curly posts of the railing near the porch. Only a real master could make such beauty. Probably, at first, "sharpening balusters" meant conducting an elegant, bizarre, ornate (like balusters) conversation. But by our time there were fewer and fewer skilled craftsmen to conduct such a conversation. So this expression began to denote empty chatter.

Places not so distant

In the "Code on Punishments" of 1845, the places of exile were divided into "distant" and "not so distant". By "remote" was meant the Siberian provinces and later Sakhalin, by "not so remote" - Karelia, Vologda, Arkhangelsk regions and some other places located just a few days' journey from St. Petersburg.