The origin of persistent phrases

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

Scapegoat

The history of this expression is as follows: the ancient Jews had a rite of absolution. The priest laid both hands on the head of a living goat, thereby, as it were, shifting the sins of the entire people onto it. After that, the goat was driven out into the desert. Many, many years have passed, and the rite no longer exists, but the expression still lives on …

Tryn grass

The mysterious "tryn-herb" is not at all some herbal medicine that is drunk so as not to worry. At first it was called "tyn-grass", and tyn is a fence. It turned out "podzabornaya grass", that is, useless, indifferent weed to everyone.

The Diamond Arm. Song about hares and tryn grass

Sour cabbage master

Sour cabbage soup is a simple peasant food: water and sauerkraut. It was not difficult to prepare them. And if someone was called a master of sour cabbage soup, this meant that he was not good for anything worthwhile.

Add a pig

In all likelihood, this expression is due to the fact that some peoples, for religious reasons, do not eat pork. And if such a person was imperceptibly put pork meat in his food, then his faith was defiled.

Pour in on the first number

Believe it or not, … from the old school, where students were flogged every week, regardless of who is right or who is wrong. And if the mentor overdoes it, then such a flogging was enough for a long time, until the first day of the next month.

Prescribe Izhitsa

Izhitsa is the name of the last letter of the Church Slavonic alphabet. Traces of flogging in certain places of negligent students strongly resembled this letter. So to prescribe an ichitsa is to teach a lesson, punish, it is easier to flog. And you still scold the modern school!

Goal like a falcon

Terribly poor, beggar. Usually they think that we are talking about a bird. But the falcon has nothing to do with it. In fact, the "falcon" is an old military battering weapon. It was a completely smooth ("naked") cast iron bar, fixed on chains. Nothing extra!

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? It turns out that 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.

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.

Inside out

Now this seems to be a completely harmless expression. And once it was associated with shameful punishment. In the days of Ivan the Terrible, the guilty boyar was put backwards on a horse in clothes turned inside out and in this form, disgraced, they were driven around the city under the whistle and ridicule of the street crowd.

Retired goat drummer

The official version sounds like this: in the old days, trained bears were taken to fairs. They were accompanied by a dancer boy dressed as a goat and a drummer accompanying him to the dance. This was the goat drummer. He was perceived as a worthless, frivolous person.

In fact, this is not at all the case. Kazn in Arabic is a judge, and in Russian there are many words with protokorn kaz: mandate, decree, order, punishment, execution, casuistry, Cossack. Apparently, during the existence of the ancient Slavic Copa (meeting of family elders), the person responsible for implementing the decisions of the Copa was called kaz … He had a drummer with him. Over time, the word "kaz" was forgotten, and they began to say "judge", and "kaz" in Russian folk speech turned into a "goat". In its original form, the proverb sounded like this: "Retired kaz drummer".

Lead by the nose

"Lead by the nose" - to deceive.

Apparently, trained bears were very popular, because this expression was also associated with fairground entertainment. The gypsies used to lead the bears by a ring threaded through their noses. And they forced them, poor fellows, to do different tricks, deceiving with the promise of handouts.

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.

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.

Break a leg

This expression arose among hunters and was based on the superstitious idea that with a direct desire (both down and feather), the results of a hunt can be jinxed. A feather in the language of hunters means a bird, down means animals. In ancient times, a hunter setting out on a hunt received this parting word, the "translation" of which looks something like this: "Let your arrows fly past the target, let the snares and traps you placed remain empty, just like the trapping pit!" To which the earner, in order not to jinx him too, replied: "To hell!" And both were sure that the evil spirits who were invisibly present during this dialogue would be satisfied and lag behind, and would not intrigue during the hunt.

Beat the thumbs

Baklusha - a piece of wood

What are "thumbs", who and when "beats" them? For a long time, artisans have made spoons, cups and other utensils from wood. To cut out a spoon, it was necessary to chop off a piece of wood from the log - a thumbs-up. Apprentices were entrusted with preparing thumbs: it was an easy, trifling matter that did not require special skill. Cooking such chocks was called "beat the thumbs." Hence, from the mockery of the foremen at the auxiliary workers - "baklushniks", our saying began.

After the rain on Thursday

The Rusichi - the most ancient ancestors of the Russians - honored among their gods the main god - 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 Perun - Jupiter). Perun offered prayers 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 it will be fulfilled.

Get in the grip

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

Beluga roar

The beluga whale emits a variety of sound signals: whistling, screeching, dull groans, chirping, screaming, grinding, shrill cry, roar (hence the proverb "roars like a beluga").

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.

Smoke yoke

In old Russia, huts were often heated in black: the smoke did not go out through the chimney (there was no chimney at all), but through a special window or door. And the weather was predicted by the shape of the smoke. There is a pillar of smoke - it will be clear, dragging - to the fog, rain, yoke - to the wind, bad weather, or even a storm.

Not to court

This is a very old omen: both in the house and in the courtyard (in the courtyard) only that animal will live that the brownie likes. And if you don't like it, it will get sick, wither or run away. What to do - not to the court!

Hair Dybom

But what kind of rack is this? It turns out that standing on end is standing at attention, at your fingertips. That is, when a person is scared, his hair seems to stand on tiptoe on his head.

Shoot on the rampage

Rojon is a sharp pole. And in some Russian provinces, this was the name of the four-pronged pitchfork. Indeed, not really trample on them!

Upside down

To brake - in many Russian provinces this word meant walking. So, upside down is just walking upside down, upside down.

Grated roll

By the way, in fact there was such a kind of bread - grated roll. The dough for him was kneaded, kneaded, rubbed for a very long time, which made the roll unusually lush. And there was also a proverb - do not rub, do not mint, there will be no rolls. That is, a person is taught by trials and troubles. The expression came from a proverb, and not from the name of bread.

Bring to light

Once they said to bring fish to clean water. And if it's a fish, then everything is clear: in the thickets of reeds or where driftwood drowns in the silt, a fish caught on the hook can easily break the line and leave. And in clear water, above a clean bottom - let him try. So is the exposed swindler: if all the circumstances are clear, he cannot escape the reckoning.

And there is a hole in the old woman

And what kind of a hole (a mistake, an oversight in Ozhegov and Efremova) is this, a hole (that is, a flaw, a defect) or what? The meaning, therefore, is this: And a wise person can be wrong. Interpretation from the mouth of a connoisseur of Old Russian literature: And the old woman can be ruined Porukha (Ukr. In a concrete sense, ruin (other Russian) is rape. Those. everything is possible.

Language will bring to Kiev

In 999, a certain citizen of Kiev, Nikita Schekomyaka, got lost in the endless, then Russian, steppe and came to the Polovtsians. When the Polovtsians asked him: Where are you from, Nikita? He replied that he was from the rich and beautiful city of Kiev, and so painted the nomads the wealth and beauty of his native city that the Polovtsian Khan Nunchak hooked Nikita by the tongue to the tail of his horse, and the Polovtsians went to fight and plunder Kiev. So Nikita Schekomyaka got home with his tongue.

Ball skiers

1812 When the French burned Moscow and were left in Russia without food, they came to Russian villages and asked for food for Shera mi, like give it to me. So the Russians began to call them that. (one of the hypotheses).

Trash

- … With you she will not be like that, and she herself, perhaps, will be horrified by such a case, but with me she will be just like that. After all, it’s so. Like the last trash he looks at me. " (F. Dostoevsky "The Idiot")

Since the peasants were not always able to provide "humanitarian aid" to the former occupants, they often included horse meat in their diet, including the dead. In French "horse" is cheval (hence, by the way, the well-known word "chevalier" - knight, horseman). However, the Russians, who did not see any special chivalry in eating horses, christened the miserable Frenchmen with the word "trash", in the sense of "rags".

Bastard

This is an idiomatic word. There is such a river Voloch, when the fishermen sailed with a catch, we said we came from Voloch. There are several more tomological meanings of this word. Dragging - collecting, dragging. This word came from them. But it became abusive not long ago. This is the merit of 70 years in the CPSU.

Know all the ins and outs

The expression is associated with an ancient torture in which the accused was driven under the nails of needles or nails, seeking a confession.