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 live goat, thereby, as it were, shifting the sins of the whole people onto him. After that, the goat was driven out into the wilderness. Many, many years have passed, and the rite no longer exists, but the expression lives on ...
Tryn-grass
The mysterious "tryn-grass" is not at all some kind of herbal drug that is drunk so as not to worry. At first it was called "tyn-grass", and tyn is a fence. The result was “fence grass”, that is, a weed that no one needed, indifferent to everyone.
Master sour cabbage soup
Sour cabbage soup - simple peasant food: some water, yes sauerkraut. It wasn't hard to prepare them. And if someone was called a master of sour cabbage soup, it meant that he was not good for anything worthwhile.
put a pig
In all likelihood, this expression is due to the fact that some peoples do not eat pork for religious reasons. And if such a person was imperceptibly put pork meat in his food, then his faith was defiled by this.
Pour in the first number
Believe it or not, but... from the old school, where students were flogged every week, regardless of who is right, who is wrong. And if the mentor overdoes it, then such a spanking was enough for a long time, until the first day of the next month.
Register Izhitsa
Izhitsa is the name of the last letter of the Church Slavonic alphabet. Traces of flogging on famous places negligent students strongly looked like this letter. So to prescribe Izhitsu - teach a lesson, punish, it's easier to flog. And you still scold 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 wall-beating weapon. It was a completely smooth ("bare") cast-iron blank, fixed on chains. Nothing extra!
Orphan Kazan
So they say about a person who pretends to be unhappy, offended, helpless in order to pity someone. But why is the orphan "Kazan"? It turns out that this phraseological unit arose after the conquest of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. Mirzas (Tatar princes), being subjects of the Russian Tsar, tried to beg him for all sorts of indulgences, complaining about their orphanhood and bitter fate.
unlucky person
In the old days in Rus', "the way" was called not only the road, but also various positions at the prince's court. The falconer's path - in charge of princely hunting, the trapping path - canine hunting, the path of the stables - by carriages and horses. The boyars, by hook or by crook, tried to get a way from the prince - a position. And those who did not succeed, spoke of those with disdain: an unlucky person.
Inside out
Now it seems to be quite a harmless expression. And once it was associated with a shameful punishment. During the time of Ivan the Terrible, a guilty boyar was put back to front on a horse in clothes turned inside out and in this form, disgraced, was driven around the city to the whistle and ridicule of the street crowd.
Retired goat drummer
In the old days, trained bears were taken to fairs. They were accompanied by a dancer boy dressed up as a goat, and a drummer accompanying his dance. This was the goat drummer. He was perceived as a worthless, frivolous person.
lead by the nose
It can be seen that trained bears were very popular, because this expression was associated with fairground entertainment. The gypsies led the bears by wearing a nose ring. And they forced them, the poor fellows, to do various tricks, deceiving them with the promise of handouts.
Sharpen laces
Lyasy (balusters) are chiseled curly columns of railings at the porch. Only one could make such beauty real master. Probably, at first, “sharpening balusters” meant having an elegant, bizarre, ornate (like balusters) conversation. But craftsmen to conduct such a conversation by our time became less and less. 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 called a commemorative plaque, or a tag for records. 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 as a keepsake.
Break a leg
This expression arose among hunters and was based on the superstitious idea that with a direct wish (both down and feather), the results of the hunt can be jinxed. Feather in the language of hunters means a bird, fluff - animals. In ancient times, a hunter going fishing 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 set remain empty, just like the hunting pit!” To which the miner, in order not to jinx it, also replied: “To hell!”. And both were sure that the evil spirits, invisibly present at this dialogue, would be satisfied and leave behind, would not plot during the hunt.
Beat the thumbs
What are "backcloths", who and when "beats" them? For a long time handicraftsmen have been making spoons, cups and other utensils from wood. To cut a spoon, it was necessary to chip off a chock - a baklusha - from a log. Apprentices were entrusted with preparing buckwheat: it was an easy, trifling matter that did not require special skills. Cooking such chocks was called “beating bucks”. From here, from the mockery of the masters over the auxiliary workers - "bucketers", our saying went.
After the rain on Thursday
Rusichi - ancient ancestors Russians - honored among their gods the main god - the god of thunder and lightning Perun. One of the days of the week, Thursday, was dedicated to him (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 apply to everything that is not known when it will be fulfilled.
Get into a loop
In dialects, binding is a fish trap woven from branches. And, as in any trap, being in it is an unpleasant business. Beluga roar
Beluga roar
Mute like a fish - you have known this for a long time. And suddenly roar beluga? It turns out that we are not talking about a beluga here, but a beluga whale, as the polar dolphin is called. Here he is really roaring very loudly.
smoke rocker
In old Rus', the huts were often heated in black: the smoke did not escape through the chimney (it did not exist at all), but through a special window or door. And the shape of the smoke predicted the weather. There is a column of smoke - it will be clear, dragged - to fog, rain, rocker - to the wind, bad weather, and even a storm.
Out of court
This is a very old sign: both in the house and in the courtyard (in the yard), only the animal that the brownie likes will live. And if you don't like it, you'll get sick, get sick, or run away. What to do - not to the court!
Hair on end
But what kind of rack is this? It turns out that to stand on end is to stand at attention, on your fingertips. That is, when a person is frightened, his hair stands on tiptoe on his head.
Throw on the rampage
Rozhon is a sharp pole. And in some Russian provinces, the four-pronged pitchfork was called that. Indeed, you don’t really trample on them!
upside down
Tormashit - in many Russian provinces this word meant to walk. So, upside down - it's just walkers upside down, upside down.
Grated roll
By the way, in fact there was such a kind of bread - grated kalach. The dough for it was kneaded, kneaded, rubbed for a very long time, which made the kalach unusually magnificent. And there was also a proverb - do not grate, do not mint, there will be no kalach. That is, a person is taught by trials and tribulations. The expression came from a proverb, and not from the name of bread.
Output to clean water
Once they said to bring the fish to clean water. And if the fish, then everything is clear: in the thickets of reeds or where snags drown in the silt, a fish caught on a hook can easily cut off the line and leave. And in clear water, above a clean bottom - let him try. So is an exposed swindler: if all the circumstances are clear, he cannot escape retribution.
And there is a hole in the old woman
And what kind of hole (mistake, oversight by Ozhegov and Efremova) is this, a tear (i.e. flaw, defect) or what? The meaning, therefore, is this: And a wise person can make mistakes. Interpretation from the mouth of a connoisseur ancient Russian literature: And on the old woman there is a ruin Poruha (Ukrainian f. colloquial-decreased. 1 - Harm, destruction, damage; 2 - Trouble). In a specific sense, porukha (other Russian) is rape. Those. everything is possible.
Language will bring to Kyiv
In 999, a certain Kyivian Nikita Shchekomyaka got lost in the boundless, then Russian, steppe and ended up among the Polovtsians. When the Polovtsy asked him: Where are you from, Nikita? He replied that from the rich and beautiful city Kyiv, and so painted the wealth and beauty of the nomads hometown that the Polovtsian Khan Nunchak hooked Nikita by the tongue to the tail of his horse, and the Polovtsy went to fight and rob Kyiv. So Nikita Shchekomyaka got home with the help of his tongue.
Balloons
1812. When the French burned Moscow and were left without food in Russia, they came to Russian villages and asked for Sherami food, like give me. So the Russians began to call them that. (one of the hypotheses).
bastard
This is an idiomatic word. There is such a river Voloch, when the fishermen sailed with their catch, they said ours from Volochi came. There are several more tomological meanings of this word. To drag - to collect, drag. It is from them that the word originated. But it has become 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 old torture, in which the accused were driven under the nails with needles or nails, seeking a confession.
We often use idioms, the meaning of which seems obvious to us, but it is not at all clear where they came from. Let's try to break up with those of them that mention animals.
Eat clear!
What does it mean: clear even to a poorly educated, ignorant person.
Where do legs grow from? Vladimir Mayakovsky in “The Tale of Petya, the fat child, and Sim, who is thin,” he writes: “It’s clear even a hedgehog - / This Petya was a bourgeois.” Why is the hedgehog here? And here's what. "Hedgehogs" in the USSR were called pupils of boarding schools for gifted children. But not all, but those who studied in classes E and F. The fact is that, unlike classes A, B, C, D, E, where the guys gnawed at the granite of science for two years, they studied in E and F for a year and, Naturally, they managed to get through less. But if the “hedgehogs” could figure out what it was about, it was as easy as shelling pears for the rest.
Beluga roar
What does it mean: shout loudly, cry.
Where do legs grow from? we are talking not about the beluga, but the beluga - that's what the polar dolphin is called. He really roars very loudly.
Spreading thought along the tree
What does it mean: go into unnecessary details.
Where do legs grow from? There seems to be no animal in this proverb. But initially it was there. In the "Lay of Igor's Campaign" there are lines: "Boyan the prophetic, if someone wanted to compose a song, his mind spread over the tree, gray wolf on the ground, like a gray eagle under the clouds. In Old Russian, "mys" is a squirrel. But the translator from Old Church Slavonic mixed up the words a little.
Ate the dog
What does it mean: got a hand in something, became a master.
Where do legs grow from? the expression came from the proverb "he ate the dog, and choked on his tail." So they said about a man who almost coped with a difficult task, but stumbled over nonsense. Only the first part of the proverb remained in use, completely changing its meaning.
Lying like a gray gelding
What does it mean: speaks nonsense without blinking an eye.
Where do legs grow from? in the 19th century, a German was in one of the regiments of the Russian army von Sivers-Mehring. He liked to tell his colleagues all sorts of fables. The expression "lies like Sievers-Mering" began to be used throughout Russia, completely forgetting about its origin.
Now the bird will fly
What does it mean: the photographer is about to click the shutter.
Where do legs grow from? the bird, which the photographers reported, really was, but not alive, but brass. Previously, to get a good picture, people had to freeze in one position for a few seconds. To attract the attention of little fidgets, the photographer's assistant at the right time raised a shiny bird, which also knew how to make trills.
Back to our sheep
What does it mean: do not deviate from the main topic.
Where do legs grow from? In a medieval French comedy, a wealthy clothier sues a shepherd who stole his sheep. During the meeting, the clothier forgets about the shepherd and showers reproaches on his lawyer, who did not pay him for six cubits of cloth. The judge interrupts the speech with the words: "Let's return to our sheep", which have become winged.
Goal like a falcon
What does it mean: poor man, unmercenary.
Where do legs grow from? the falcon (with emphasis on the second syllable) in this case is not a bird, but an ancient wall-beating weapon that was used during the siege of fortresses. It was smoothly hewn wood or cast iron, without protruding parts, which is why it was called naked.
newspaper duck
What does it mean: deliberate lie.
Where do legs grow from? according to one version, the expression originated in Germany in late XVII century, where under newspaper articles that set out sensational but questionable information, they put N. T. - initial letters Latin words Non Testatur, which means "not tested". This abbreviation is read "en-te". And in German "ente" (Ente) - duck.
Retired goat drummer
What does it mean: a person who is out of work.
Where do legs grow from? in the old days, trained bears were taken to fairs. They were accompanied by a dancer boy dressed up as a goat, and a drummer accompanying his dance. This was the "goat drummer". To be in the position of a “retired drummer with a goat”, that is, to lose this job, was really sad.
Disservice
What does it mean: unnecessary help that harms the cause.
Where do legs grow from? phraseologism refers us to a fable I. A. Krylova"The Hermit and the Bear". Once the hermit lay down to sleep, and the bear drove flies away from him. He brushed the insect from his cheek, she sat on his nose, then on his forehead. The bear took a heavy cobblestone and killed a fly on his friend's forehead with it.
shot sparrow
What does it mean: a man who has seen a lot, who is not so easy to deceive.
Where do legs grow from? this is part of the proverb "You can't fool an old (shot) sparrow on chaff." Chaff - the remains of ears, which are obtained by threshing rye, wheat, flax and other crops. And although empty ears look like full ones, the old sparrow will never make a mistake, but will look for stacks that have not yet been threshed. The word "old" can be replaced by the word "shot" - the one that the peasants shot more than once, scaring them away from the crops.
By the way
The expression "where the legs grow from" came from thieves' jargon. The criminals, having stolen something, tried to get away, assuring that the stolen disappeared without their participation - “left with their feet” no one knows where.
Scapegoat
Tryn-grass
Sour soup master
put a pig
Throw a stone
Wolf in sheep's clothing
In borrowed plumes
Pour in the first number
Register Izhitsa
I carry everything with me
Everything flows, everything changes
Goal like a falcon
Orphan Kazan
unlucky person
Out of court
This is a very old sign: both in the house and in the courtyard (in the yard), only the animal that the brownie likes will live. And if you don’t like it, you will fall ill, become sick or run away. What to do - not to the court!
Hair on end
But what kind of rack is this? It turns out that to stand on end is to stand at attention, on your fingertips. That is, when a person is frightened, his hair stands on tiptoe on his head.
Throw on the rampage
Rozhon is a sharp pole. And in some Russian provinces, the four-pronged pitchfork was called that. Indeed, you don’t really trample on them!
From ship to ball
An expression from "Eugene Onegin" by A. S. Pushkin, chapter 8, stanza 13 (1832):
And travel to him
Like everything in the world, tired,
He returned and got
Like Chatsky, from the ship to the ball.
This expression is characterized by an unexpected, abrupt change in position, circumstances.
Combine pleasant with useful
An expression from the "Art of Poetry" by Horace, who says about the poet: "The one who combines the pleasant with the useful is worthy of all approval."
Wash your hands
Used in the meaning: to be removed from responsibility for something. Arising from the Gospel: Pilate washed his hands in front of the crowd, handing over Jesus to them for execution, and said: “I am not guilty of the blood of this righteous man” (Mat. 27:24). The ritual washing of hands, which serves as evidence of the non-participation of the person washing to something, is described in the Bible (Deuteronomy, 21, 6-7).
Vulnerable point
It arose from the myth about the only vulnerable spot on the hero's body: Achilles' heel, a spot on Siegfried's back, etc. Used in the meaning: weak side person, business.
Fortune. Wheel of Fortune
Fortune - in Roman mythology, the goddess of blind chance, happiness and misfortune. Depicted with a blindfold, standing on a ball or wheel (emphasizing her constant variability), and holding a steering wheel in one hand, and a cornucopia in the other. The steering wheel indicated that fortune controls the fate of a person.
upside down
Tormashit - in many Russian provinces this word meant to walk. 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 kalach. The dough for it was kneaded, kneaded, rubbed for a very long time, which made the kalach unusually magnificent. And there was also a proverb - do not grate, do not mint, there will be no kalach. That is, a person is taught by trials and tribulations. The expression came from a proverb, and not from the name of bread.
Bring to light
Once they said to bring the fish to clean water. And if the fish, then everything is clear: in the thickets of reeds or where snags drown in the silt, a fish caught on a hook can easily cut off the line and leave. And in clear water, above a clean bottom - let him try. So is an exposed swindler: if all the circumstances are clear, he cannot escape retribution.
And there is a hole in the old woman
And what kind of hole (mistake, oversight by Ozhegov and Efremova) is this, a tear (i.e. flaw, defect) or what? The meaning, therefore, is this: And a wise person can make mistakes. Interpretation from the lips of a connoisseur of ancient Russian literature: And the old woman is in trouble Poruha (Ukrainian f. colloquial-decreased 1 - Harm, destruction, damage; 2 - Trouble). In a specific sense, porukha (other Russian) is rape. Those. everything is possible.
He who laughs last laughs best
The expression belongs to the French writer Jean-Pierre Florian (1755-1794), who used it in the fable "Two Peasants and a Cloud".
End justifies the means
The idea of this expression, which is the basis of the morality of the Jesuits, was borrowed by them from the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679).
We constantly use short and capacious expressions. But few people know where they came from ...
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 whole people onto him. After that, the goat was driven out into the wilderness. Many, many years have passed, and the rite no longer exists, but the expression lives on ...
Tryn-grass
The mysterious “tryn-grass” is not at all some kind of herbal drug that is drunk so as not to worry. At first it was called “tyn-grass”, and tyn is a fence. The result was “fence grass”, that is, a weed that no one needed, indifferent to everyone.
Sour soup master
Sour cabbage soup is a simple peasant food: water and sauerkraut. It wasn't hard to prepare them. And if someone was called a master of sour cabbage soup, it meant that he was not good for anything worthwhile.
Balzac age
The expression arose after the publication of the novel French writer Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) "A Woman of Thirty" (1831); used as a characteristic of women aged 30-40 years.
White crow
This expression, as a designation of a rare person, sharply different from the rest, is given in the 7th satire of the Roman poet Juvenal (mid-1st century - after 127 AD): Fate gives kingdoms to slaves, delivers triumphs to captives. However, such a lucky man is less likely to be a white crow.
put a pig
In all likelihood, this expression is due to the fact that some peoples do not eat pork for religious reasons. And if such a person was imperceptibly put pork meat in his food, then his faith was defiled by this.
Throw a stone
The expression "to throw a stone" at someone in the sense of "accusing" arose from the Gospel (John, 8, 7); Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees, who, tempting him, brought to him a woman convicted of adultery: “He that is without sin among you, first cast a stone at her” (in ancient Judea, there was a penalty - to stone).
Paper endures everything (Paper does not blush)
The expression goes back to the Roman writer and orator Cicero (106 - 43 BC); in his letters “To Friends” there is an expression: “Epistola non erubescit” - “The letter does not blush”, that is, in writing you can express such thoughts that you are embarrassed to express orally.
To be or not to be, that is the question
Beginning of Hamlet's monologue tragedy of the same name Shakespeare translated by N.A. Field (1837).
Wolf in sheep's clothing
The expression originated from the Gospel: "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside they are ravenous wolves."
In borrowed plumes
It arose from the fable of I.A. Krylov "Crow" (1825).
Pour in the first number
Believe it or not, but... from the old school, where students were flogged every week, regardless of who was right or wrong. And if the mentor overdoes it, then such a spanking was enough for a long time, until the first day of the next month.
Register Izhitsa
Izhitsa is the name of the last letter of the Church Slavonic alphabet. Traces of flogging in known places of negligent students strongly looked like this letter. So to prescribe Izhitsa - to teach a lesson, to punish, it is easier to flog. And you still scold the modern school!
I carry everything with me
The expression originated from ancient Greek tradition. When Persian king Cyrus occupied the city of Priene in Ionia, the inhabitants left it, taking with them the most valuable of their property. Only Biant, one of the "seven wise men", a native of Priene, left empty-handed. In response to the bewildered questions of his fellow citizens, he answered, referring to spiritual values: "I carry everything that is mine with me." This expression is often used in Cicero's Latin formulation: Omnia mea mecum porto.
Everything flows, everything changes
This expression, which defines the constant variability of all things, expounds the essence of the teachings of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 530-470 BC)
Goal like a falcon
Orphan Kazan
So they say about a person who pretends to be unhappy, offended, helpless in order to pity someone. But why is the orphan "Kazan"? It turns out that this phraseological unit arose after the conquest of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. Mirzas (Tatar princes), being subjects of the Russian Tsar, tried to beg him for all sorts of indulgences, complaining about their orphanhood and bitter fate.
unlucky person
In the old days in Rus', "the way" was called not only the road, but also various positions at the prince's court. The falconer's path is in charge of princely hunting, the trapping path is dog hunting, the equestrian path is carriages and horses. The boyars, by hook or by crook, tried to get a way from the prince - a position. And those who did not succeed, spoke of those with disdain: an unlucky person.
Why do they say “small spool, but expensive” and what is this spool anyway? It turns out that this is a measure of weight. One spool equals approximately 4 g (4.266 g). The concept of "spool" was also used to refer to the purity of gold.
10th place: Bashi-bazouks (from Turk. bash - head, buzuk, bozuk - spoiled, rabid) - soldiers of irregular formations of the Turkish cavalry in the 18th-19th centuries. Detachments of bashi-bazouks in peacetime were used as internal paramilitary guards in remote areas of the Ottoman Empire.
9th place: Camarilla (Spanish camarilla, from camara - chamber, court of the monarch) - a court clique that manages the affairs of the state for its own selfish purposes. The term "camarilla" came into use under the Spanish king Ferdinand VII (reigned 1808, 1814-1833) and reflected the nature of relations at his court.
8th place: Arkharovtsy - the nickname of Russian police officers, named after the Moscow chief police officer late XVIII V. N. P. Arkharova. It's funny that in figurative meaning so they began to call desperate people and vagabonds.
7th place: The expression "party bosses" contradicts itself. Bonza is a Buddhist monk in Asian countries.
6th place: A state town in Russian Empire called locality, which enjoyed the rights of the city, but was not the administrative center of the county. In another way, provincial towns were called countless.
5th place: Satrap in Persian means "guardian of the kingdom." This was the name of the governor of a satrapy (province) in ancient and early medieval Iran. The satraps enjoyed full administrative power. Maybe that's why they often became despots and petty tyrants.
4th place: Outcast in ancient Rus' called a prince who did not have a hereditary right to the grand prince's throne. Over time, this value was lost, as there were too many outcasts.
3rd place: Locator (historical) - a noble person who received from a prince or a large feudal lord in Germany the right to found a settlement in Slavic lands. This word exists in German and now it means either a representative of the local authorities, or a person who rents out land or premises.
2nd place: Defamation is the official concept of Russian law in 1716-1766: a kind of disgraceful punishment for nobles sentenced to death penalty, eternal link, etc. Defamation consisted in declaring the guilty person a thief (rogue) and breaking a sword over his head. Defamation was accompanied by the deprivation of the nobility and class rights. It was later replaced by "deprivation of all rights of the state".
1 place: Bedlam is originally Mary of Bethlehem Hospital in London. However, the origin common noun quite justified: later the hospital became a lunatic asylum.
