Which of us did not read in childhood, voluntarily or "under duress" (as required by school program), an adventure novel by Daniel Defoe about Robinson Crusoe? The novel was written in the genre of "fictitious autobiography" (1719), which was relatively rare in those days.
The fact that the biography is fictitious did not immediately reach the readers, and many believed that everything in the novel was pure truth from beginning to end: the adventures of Robinson and his faithful companion Friday are so realistically written that the reality of the "autobiography" no one doubts.
As the years passed, when there were more and more books in the style of "Robinsonade", and the name of the protagonist became a household name (two hundred years ago), it became more and more difficult to believe in the truth of the adventures of numerous Robinsons.
However, interest in this work, which in four years will "knock" three hundred years, does not decrease. Therefore, it is not surprising that the question - did Robinson Crusoe really exist - pops up again and again.
are being put forward different versions. However, it should be said right away: the Robinson Crusoe described in the novel, alas, never existed ... However, there were prototypes.
The hero of the novel "Robinson Crusoe" is collectively of the many stories about survivors on the uninhabited islands of sailors, of which there were many in that era.
The fact is that, although Daniel Defoe avoids this topic in his work, but all (or almost all) real prototypes his novels were pirated.
As a last resort - privateers, that is, essentially the same pirates, only not "wild", but "working" under a contract for one of the warring countries (they were most often used by Great Britain to rob Spanish "golden caravans").
Since a guardhouse was not provided for on pirate ships in principle, for misconduct such sailors were either killed or left on a desert island "for the judgment of God."
In the latter case, the islands were used as "natural prisons". (In that era of uninhabited islands, as they say, you could eat at least with a spoon ...) Indeed, you can’t escape from such an island, and it’s not easy to survive there. This was the "divine court": if after a year or a couple of years the sailor remained alive, then he was again taken away by his own "colleagues" in the pirate "workshop", if not ... No, as they say, there is no court.
It is believed that Daniel Defoe's greatest influence was the story of the survival of the Scotsman Alexander Selkirk. This was a sailor who, since 1703, sailed on the galley (small military vessel) "Cinque Ports", where he served as a boatswain (according to other sources, as an assistant to the captain).
In 1704, he was part of a small privateer flotilla under the leadership famous captain pirates William Dampier was supposed to rob Spanish ships off the coast South America. The captain treated him very well. However, after the death of the captain, Thomas Stradling became the head of the ship.
He was a very tough person. And apparently not very smart. And if we also take into account the fact that Selkirk - like a true Scottish privateer - had a nasty character and violent temper, because of which he constantly quarreled with other sailors, then the picture emerges disappointing. It would be fine with the team, but Selkirk argued with the captain. And to quarrel with the captain of the pirates is more expensive for yourself.
Due to one of these quarrels (Selkirk urged the captain to fix a hole in the hold by landing on one of the islands, and the captain claimed that this required a dock), he was demoted.
Selkirk called Stradling "the devil's captain" and said that he would feel safer on a deserted island than on a ship commanded by such mediocrity. The captain took his words literally and ordered to land on the nearest uninhabited island...
The ship at that time was sailing closer to Chile, to the Juan Fernandez archipelago. Despite the fact that the unfortunate boatswain repented and asked to cancel the order, Stradling equipped the sailor with everything necessary and landed on the small island of Mas a Tierra, 600 km from the coast of Chile. Smiling wickedly, the captain wrote in the ship's log that Alexander Selkirk was missing...
I must say that Selkirk received excellent equipment for those times - even despite the quarrel with the captain. He was given spare clothes and underwear (a true luxury for those times), a blanket, tobacco, a cooking cauldron, a knife and an axe.
And most importantly, our hero was supplied with a completely modern flintlock gun with a pound of gunpowder, bullets and flint. They also included the Bible, without which "God's judgment" would not have been a judgment.
Three hundred years later, archaeologists also found navigational instruments at the site of his camp in the tropics, thanks to which Selkirk probably observed the stars, thus determining the day and month.
It should also be noted that important fact: equipment with equipment, but the boatswain himself was a seasoned man, although he was only 27 years old at the time of the landing (people in those days grew up much faster). Selkirk was the son of a shoemaker, but a quiet, calm life did not satisfy him, he raved about the sea and ran away from home at the age of eighteen and hired himself as a cabin boy on a ship.
However, he did not sail long: his ship was almost immediately captured by French pirates, who sold Alexander into slavery. Nevertheless, the brave young man fled, then joined the pirates and returned home as an experienced sailor with a voluminous purse full of gold coins obtained by unrighteous means ... However, in our modern opinion, unrighteous. In those days, they thought quite differently ...
Once on a desert island, our sailor spread vigorous activity, although he hoped that sooner or later the British or French would take him. To begin with, he examined his possessions and almost immediately discovered a source of fresh water.
Then he built an observation post and two huts: an "office" and a "kitchen". Of course he had to rely on own forces and learn everything: and build, and get food ...
At first, he ate local fruits and roots (he found, for example, a local variety of turnip), hunted marine life, turtles, crabs and shellfish.
So only a very lazy person could die of hunger here. Moreover, a little later, Selkirk discovered a small population of goats, which he hunted with his gun.
Then, when the gunpowder began to run out, he tamed goats, began to receive milk, meat and skins from them. The latter came in handy when a couple of years later his clothes fell into disrepair. Using the found nail, he sewed himself simple clothes from goatskins: his experience in his father's shoe workshop came in handy.
From half a coconut he made himself a "cup" on a leg, "furniture", etc. In other words, Selkirk settled down on the island quite thoroughly. Although, no doubt, his life is on the verge of insanity...
Here, however, Selkirk never met his “Friday” (or was it his? Here the opinions of researchers differ regarding the sex of Defoe’s Friday), so he suffered most from loneliness.
The main tests, according to him own confession were just loneliness. But it didn't break him. And his analytical mind helped him survive in the wild.
The second problem was the fight against the rats that infested this island. The rats ate food supplies and spoiled all the rest of his property. Selkirk even made a chest (which he decorated with carvings) on his own to protect things from bad weather and rats.
However, the boatswain found wild cats on the island, which he tamed, and thus protected himself from tailed pests. Some researchers believe that the presence of goats, rats and feral cats indicated that this island was once inhabited, but Selkirk never found traces of other people.
The statement is controversial: rats could sail on the wreckage of wrecked ships or on ships that stopped at the island of ships; cats and goats were originally wild animals, so why shouldn't they also live on this island?
In order not to forget human speech, Selkirk talked to himself and read the Bible aloud. Despite the fact that the boatswain was not the most righteous person, it was the Bible, as he himself later admitted, that helped him remain a man in a wild environment.
One day, two Spanish ships arrived on the island, probably in search of fresh water, but Selkirk, who was a British privateer, was afraid to go out to them, since the Spaniards would probably hang him on the yards for piracy. The ships left, and the boatswain was again left alone with the goats and cats.
However, fate was merciful to him: he was still saved. Four years after he hit the island, on February 1, 1709, his own flotilla returned for Selkirk. However, its composition was already different, and the vessel "Cinque Ports" was not there: it soon fell into a storm and sank.
According to some reports, the team died, according to others, it was picked up by the Spaniards and was put on trial for piracy. So, in the end, Selkirk won by not staying on this ship and ended up on a desert island. But, of course, he could not know this at the time of landing, and he repented because of a quarrel with the captain.
It is noteworthy that Woods Rogers, the captain of the ship "Duke", which was directly involved in the evacuation of the prototype of the hero "Robinson Crusoe", indicated in his ship's log that he was rescuing the "governor of the island". And which, in principle, did not greatly sin against the truth ...
Although the sight of the "governor" was still the same: a thoroughly run wild man in a beautiful physical form(running for food and constant physical work on fresh air contributes greatly to this) with long hair and a beard in clothes made of goat skins with a thoroughly forgotten speech. Speech, however, quickly recovered.
Arriving two years later in his native place (he sailed on the "Duke" until 1711), the former "Robinson" Selkirk became a frequenter of taverns, where he told stories of his adventures on a desert island over a mug of beer. Probably one of the witnesses of his drunken speeches was Daniel Defoe.
So the novel was based on the life of Selkirk. How truthfully did the Scot tell about what happened to him? After all, it is known that sailors, pirates, fishermen have always considered it simply necessary to brag. What a holy thing! Who will check something?
However, it is most likely that Defoe read Woods Rogers's book "A Journey Around the World", published in 1712 in London, where Rogers described his meeting with Selkirk.
It must be said that after his release from the uninhabited island, Selkirk did not stay long on land. Some time later, he returned to privateering, but ten years later, off the coast of West Africa, he died of yellow fever and was "buried at sea" (that is, thrown overboard with all honors). Thus ended the story of the real Robinson.
By the way, the island where Selkirk lived was called "Robinson Crusoe", and the neighboring one - "Alexander Selkirk". But this happened already after the inglorious death of the brave Scottish boatswain with a bad character, who died without knowing that he had become a legend. Nowadays, many curious tourists come to these islands.
In conclusion, I would like to note one fact that is not directly related to the story about the prototype of the hero of the novel: Daniel Defoe wrote not one novel, as is commonly believed, but four.
Moreover, the latter tells about the adventures of the already elderly Robinson in ... Siberia! Unfortunately, the latest novels in the series have not been fully translated into Russian.
Many words, like people, have their own history, their own destiny. From this article you will learn the origin of such popular expressions as "Filkin's letter", "Throw pearls in front of pigs", "How to give a drink" and many others.
slap
This word, as well as the expression "Hey you, hat!", Has nothing to do with headdresses, soft-bodied intelligentsia and other standard images that arise in our heads with you. This word came into slang straight from Yiddish and is a distorted form of the German verb "schlafen" - "sleep." And the "hat", respectively, "sleepy, open." While you are here hat, your suitcase is drape.
Nonsense
Seminarians who studied Latin grammar had a serious score with it. Take, for example, the gerund - this respected 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 so many rules and conditions that often seminarians were carried straight from class to the infirmary with a cerebral fever. Instead, seminarians began to call "nonsense" any tedious, tedious and completely incomprehensible nonsense.
Not scared idiot
Most people who are inherently idiotic have the fortunate feature that they are pretty hard to scare (as well as persuade to use a spoon and zip up their pants). Painfully staunchly, they do not want to absorb any information from the outside. The expression went for a walk with light hand Ilf and Petrova, 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 Prishvin’s then very popular book “In the Land of Fearless 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 strangling his Desdemona. In fact Shakespearean hero was anyone, but not a cynic: he would rather hang 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 achieve power, and after the victory he realized that yesterday's comrades-in-arms did not care about him from the high Genoese bell tower.
Cast pearls before swine
The process of throwing small glass debris in front of a pig is a really ideal idea in its senselessness. But in the original text of the Bible, from where this phrase was scratched out, there is no question of any beads. There is something about people who throw precious pearls into the feeder of pigs. It's just that once the words "pearl", "beads" and "pearl" meant precisely pearls, its different varieties. It was later that the industry became more agile in stamping penny glass balls and called them beautiful word"beads".
With a twist
The image of a raisin - some small piquant detail that gives a sense of sharpness and unusualness - was given to us personally by Leo Tolstoy. It was he who first introduced the expression "a woman with a twist." In his drama The Living Corpse, one character says to another: "My wife ideal woman was... But what can I say? There was no zest, - you know, is there a zest in kvass? - there was no game in our life.
Latest Chinese Warning
If you were born before 1960, then you yourself perfectly remember the origin of this expression, because this is never forgotten. But subsequent generations were already deprived of the happiness of watching the confrontation between the United States and China at the turn of the 50s and 60s of the 20th century. When, in 1958, China, outraged that the US air force and navy were supporting Taiwan, issued its angry note, called 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 the 400th note under the same name, the world howled with delight. Since, in addition to papers with with menacing words, China had nothing to oppose to the States, Taiwan still retained its independence, which Beijing does not recognize to this day.
How to drink to give
It would not be very clear how the process of serving a drink is connected with the concepts “for sure” and “guaranteed”, if lists of criminal jargon of the 18th-19th centuries were not preserved, in which the expression “give drink” is a synonym for the word “poison”. For poisoning is indeed one of the most reliable and safest ways for a killer to get rid of a disturbing person.
Not one iota
Iota is the letter of the Greek alphabet, denoting the sound [and]. It was depicted as a tiny dash, and quite often lazy scribes simply threw it out of the text, since even without iots it was always possible to understand what was being said. We don’t put an end to the “yo”, do we? The author of the phrase is Jesus Christ, who promised the Jews that the Law would not change “one iota”, that is, even the most insignificant changes would be excluded.
It smells like kerosene
Yes, at first we also thought that these words were a common phrase from the lexicon of a fireman who, examining the charred ruins, puts forward a version of deliberate arson. So: nothing like that! The aphorism has a very specific author - the famous journalist Mikhail Koltsov, who published the feuilleton "Everything is in order" in Pravda in 1924. The feuilleton castigates the morals of American oil tycoons, handing out "kerosene-smelling" bribes back and forth.
Alive, bitch!
The famous expression, about which everyone knows that it belongs to the poet Pushkin, actually does not belong to Pushkin. This is a sentence from a once popular children's game. The children, standing in a circle, quickly passed each other a burning splinter and sang: “Alive, alive smoking room! The smoking room is still alive! The same unfortunate man, in whose hands the smoking room went out, was considered a loser and had to perform some stupid, and sometimes unsafe task - for example, pour snuff into the nightcap of the disgusting Amalia Yakovlevna.
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 skit, comedians depicted the principles of creating reports on Soviet television. “Let's go to the first random passerby. This is retired Seregin, a labor shock worker. IN free time he loves to play the piano. And just in the bushes, by chance, there is a piano on which Stepan Vasilyevich will play Oginsky's Polonaise for us.
Passion-face
The word became popular thanks to Gorky, who called one of his stories that way. But Gorky, who was not distinguished by his ability for verbal refinements, did not come up with it himself, but stole it from an optimistic folk lullaby, which in its entirety sounds like this:
Passion-faces will come,
They will bring misfortune with them,
They will bring misfortune,
Break your heart into pieces!
Oh, trouble! Oh, trouble!
Where can we hide, where?
In general, if Good night, kids! decide to finally change their song intro, we have something to offer them.
dance from the stove
And here we have a slightly sad, but instructive example of how almost nothing was left of a whole writer. Does the name of Vasily Sleptsov mean anything to you? Don't be upset, you're not the only one. Sleptsov today is known only to erudite specialists in Russian literature. He was simply unlucky: he was born and lived at the same time as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and other Turgenevs. So three words remained from Sleptsov in the memory of the people. In the novel " Good man"The hero recalls how, as a child, he was tortured with dance lessons - they put him in front of the stove and forced him to walk in a dance step through the hall. And then he will chop, then he will turn his sock - and again they drive him to dance from the stove.
Filkin's letter
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 short-sighted man, who forgot that the most important duty of the Moscow pontiff is to diligently give to Caesar what is Caesar's, so he relied on his misfortune with the tsar-priest Ivan the Terrible. He took it into his head, you know, 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’s writing “Filka’s letter”, swore that Filka was lying, and imprisoned Filka in a distant monastery, where the sent assassins killed the metropolitan almost immediately.
quiet glanders
Sapa is borrowed from French, meaning in the Russian army a mine, a bomb, as well as any explosive work. The quiet glanders were called digging under the walls of a besieged city or fortifications of an enemy camp. The sappers conducted such a dig unnoticed, usually at night, so that the subsequent loud boom would come as a complete surprise to the enemy.
Bohemia
creative intelligence, beautiful life, glamor and other receptions - all this has nothing to do with bohemia. 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 drunken wife hugging guests, no regime, rubbish, chaos, lawlessness and dirty nails everywhere. Because the word "bohemian" means "gypsy", and in Russian "bohemia" is perfectly accurately translated as "gypsy".
Cretin
Words sometimes jump from meaning to meaning, like lions on trainer's pedestals, and sit down in the most unexpected combinations. For example, there was a doctor in France named Chrétien, which means "Christian". Not that often, but not too much either. rare surname(we have a whole class of peasants, that is, Christians, they called it). But it was this doctor who managed to formulate the diagnosis of “congenital thyroid insufficiency syndrome” for the first time. From now on, this disease began to be called by the name of the scientist "cretinism", and patients, respectively, cretins. That is, Christians.
Suffer x@rney
If you look, there is nothing indecent in the word "dick". This was the name of the letter “x” in the Church Slavonic alphabet, as well as any cross in the shape of the letter “x”. When unnecessary places in the text were crossed out with a cross, this was called "fuck". The old alphabet with all the basics and beeches was finally canceled at the beginning of the 20th century, and the word “dick”, having gone out of use, after half a century turned into a synonym for a short word with “x” (you know what). And at the same time, a common expression with a similar root - “to suffer garbage” began to seem obscene. Hernia in Latin means "hernia", and it was this diagnosis that good military doctors most often exposed to the children of wealthy philistines who did not want to serve in the army. Every fifth citizen-conscript in Russia in late XIX for centuries, he regularly suffered from garbage (the peasants, on the other hand, most often could not afford garbage, and they were shaved much more actively).
Places not so remote
In the Penal Code of 1845, places of exile were divided into "remote" and "not so remote". By "remote" was meant the Siberian provinces and further Sakhalin, by "not so remote" - Karelia, Vologda, Arkhangelsk regions and some other places located just a few days away from St. Petersburg.
MENSBY
4.4
Many used idioms have interesting story. Where did the expression lead by the nose, pour on the first number or shove on the rampage?
Winged words- figurative and stable phraseological units that have entered the vocabulary and have become widespread due to their expressiveness. The sources of popular expressions can be myths, folklore, literature or other sources. Winged expressions are used by us every day, but the very origin of these words has been forgotten. It's time to remember the history of popular expressions.
Unlucky, bad master. Sour cabbage soup - simple peasant food: some water, yes sauerkraut. It wasn't hard to prepare them. And if anyone was called a master sour cabbage soup, which meant that he was not good for anything worthwhile.
Secretly set up some filth, play a dirty trick. 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
Something, but this expression is familiar to you ... And where did it just fall on your unfortunate head! 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. By the way, the same "educational measure" gave one more phraseological unit.
Register izhitsu.
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 - "to teach a lesson, to punish", it's easier to "flog". And you still scold the modern school!
This means getting into a difficult, dangerous or unpleasant situation. In dialects, BINDING is a fish trap woven from branches. And, as in any trap, being in it is an unpleasant business.
This is the name of a person who is blamed for someone else's fault. 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 ... Why do you think?
That's what they call a person tall, verzilu. In the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow, there was a summer residence of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The road there was busy, wide and was considered the main one in the state. And when they put up huge milestones, the likes of which have never happened in Russia, the glory of this road increased even more. The savvy people did not fail to take advantage of the novelty and dubbed the lanky man Kolomna verst. It still says so...
It means frivolous, careless, dissolute. In the old days in Rus', not only the road was called the way, 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. By hook or by crook, the boyars tried to get a way-position from the prince. And those who did not succeed, spoke of those with disdain: unlucky person. So this disapproving assessment has been preserved.
Inside out
If you did something wrong, on the contrary, mixed it up - in such cases they will say: topsy-turvy. 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.
Terribly poor, beggar. Everyone thinks that we are talking about the falcon. But she is neither poor nor rich. In fact, the "falcon" is an old military battering ram. It was a completely smooth ("bare") cast-iron ingot, mounted on chains. Nothing extra!
Spread gossip, lie. And for good reason. In the old days it was believed: the more gossip, fairy tales and fables will be told when casting the bell, the louder it will sound.
So they say about a person who pretends to be unhappy, offended, helpless in order to pity someone. But why is the orphan specifically "Kazan"? Moscow or Saratov, from this the orphanage does not become happier. 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.
Retired goat drummer
No one needs, no one respected person. 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. And if the goat is also "retired"?
lead by the nose
To deceive, promising and not fulfilling the promise. It can be seen that trained bears were very popular, because this expression was associated with fairground entertainment. Gypsies drove bears for a ring threaded through their noses. And they forced them, poor fellows, to do various tricks, deceiving them with the promise of handouts.
Noise, noise, confusion, turmoil. 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 smoke in a "column" - it will be clear, "drag" - to fog, rain, "yoke" - to the wind, bad weather, and even a storm.
Out of court
Unsuitable, unsuitable. 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!
It means that the person was very scared. But what kind of "dub" 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.
All tryn grass
Everything is indifferent, nothing matters. The mysterious "tryn-grass" is not some kind of herbal medicine, so as not to worry. At first it was called "tyn-grass". Tyn is a fence, i.e. "fence grass", useless, indifferent weed to everyone.
Custom Search
Speaking in literary language, a catch phrase (phrase) is a stable phraseological unit that appeared from any literary sources (for example: the phrase "Appetite comes with eating" belongs to the French writer Francois Rabelais (c. 1494 - 1553), who first used her in the novel "Gargantua", part 1, ch.5.). Or the source of the appearance of popular expressions are any historical events, phrases of famous historical figures, if these words are very expressive and memorable, then they receive the status of a catch phrase (for example: the exclamation "Japanese policeman!" appeared at the end of the 19th century after the incident that happened to Tsarevich Nicholas - the future Tsar Nicholas II in In the Japanese town of Otsu, a local policeman, indignant that the Europeans were having too much fun, rushed at the Tsarevich and hit him on the head with a scabbard of a saber. its meaning. Therefore, having learned the origin and original meaning of this or that winged expression, one can be very surprised (for example: the word "sharomyzhnik" appeared in Russian after the war of 1812, and came from "sher a mi" (in French - "dear friend") ). The modern meaning of this word, as you understand, is very far from the original.To view the history of a catchphrase or expression, click on it. To close the history of a phrase, click on it again.
A car is not a luxury, but a means of transportation.
Ilya Ilf., "The Golden Calf" (phrase of a beardless man)
Appetite comes with eating.
An expression from the novel by Francois Rabelais (c. 1494 - 1553) "Gargantua", part 1, ch.5
White crow.
This expression, as a designation of a rare, exceptional person, is given in the 7th satire of the Roman poet Juvenal (mid-I.c. - after 127 AD): “Rock gives kingdoms to slaves, delivers triumphs to captives. there are crows."
Beat the buckets.
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 "baklushi to beat." From here, from the mockery of the masters over the auxiliary workers - "bottlenecks", this expression came from
Be alert.
In ancient times, this expression was written separately and through "and": on chiku. In Russian dialects, the meaning of the word chik is fight, crush or ride, vanity. That is, to live on a chiku meant to be on a high road, in a busy place. As a rule, this was said about inns at the crossroads, from where one could expect good and bad guests, bad and good events. Of course, in this position, one had to be on the alert - that is, ready for anything, including any unpleasant surprise. If you look even further into history, then you can find information about the original meaning of this expression - to be at the crossroads of forest paths, waiting for the beast. In modern Russian, the phraseological unit "to be on the alert" has not departed too far from its original meaning - to be ready, on the alert, try not to be taken by surprise.
The paper does not turn red.
This phrase belongs to Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Time heals everything.
The expression goes back to the "Confession" of Augustine (354-430). Similar to it is already found in antiquity, in the Greek writer Menander (c. 343 - c. 291 BC): "Time is the doctor of all inevitable evils."
Time is money.
Aphorism from the work of the American scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) "Advice to a Young Merchant" (1748). An expression similar in thought is already found in the Greek philosopher Theophrastus (c. 372-287 BC): "Time is a costly waste."
Time works for us.
In 1866 in England, in the House of Commons, under the influence of the growth of the labor movement, Lord Russell's liberal cabinet put forward a bill for the reform of the suffrage. During the debate, W. Gladstone (1809-1898), the future prime minister, defending the political rights of the workers, exclaimed to the conservatives: "You cannot fight against the future. Time works for us." Last phrase, which has become winged in Russian speech, is not a completely accurate translation. The original words of Gladstone: "Time is on our side", that is, "Time is on our side."
All roads lead to Rome.
Medieval saying, which entered our literary speech, probably from the fable of Lafontaine (1621-1695) "Arbitrator, brother of mercy and hermit".
Written with a pitchfork on the water.
To contribute.
IN Ancient Greece there was a small coin mite. IN gospel parable the poor widow donates her last two mites for the construction of the temple. From the parable came the expression "to contribute."
Lead by the nose.
To deceive, promising and not fulfilling the promise. 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.
Pour in the first number.
In a pre-revolutionary school, students were flogged every week, regardless of who was right and who was 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.
Rub glasses.
This is not about glasses that are used to correct vision. There is another meaning of the word "points": red and black marks on playing cards. There is even a gambling card game, so called - "point". Since the cards exist, there have been dishonest players, cheaters in the world. They, in order to deceive a partner, indulged in all sorts of tricks. They were able, among other things, to quietly "rub glasses" - to turn a seven into a six or a four into a five, on the go, during the game, sticking a "point" or covering it with a special white powder. And the expression "rubbing glasses" began to mean "cheating", hence other words were born: "fraud", "fraudster" - a trickster who knows how to embellish his work, pass off bad as very good.
Newspaper duck.
It turns out that the expression "newspaper duck" arose for the first time in Germany, in late XVII century. It was there that under the newspaper articles, which set out sensational, but doubtful, not entirely reliable information, it was customary to put two letters: N. T. - initial letters Latin words“non testatur”, which means “not tested” in translation. This abbreviation is read, this abbreviation is “en-te”. And in German "ente" (Ente) - duck. By the way, more than a quarter of a century ago, in the American city of Trenton, a kind of special bureau was established to fix works falling under the heading “newspaper duck”. This bureau even published a monthly magazine in which the most sensational, extravagant journalistic ducks were reprinted ...
Gallop across Europe.
The aphorism "galloping across Europe" is A. Zharov's remark about shortening the stay of a group of Soviet journalists in Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Where do crayfish hibernate?
Where do crayfish hibernate? Fishermen know: for the winter they climb into holes dug by them in underwater shores, under stones, sunken snags. Threateningly putting out their sharp fighting claws, crayfish sleep like that until spring. Isn't that why we remember about the wintering of crayfish, bearing in mind the difficulties that a person can get into? The place where they hibernate is really very uncomfortable - both dark and cold.
Blue blood.
Why do they say about aristocrats that they have blue blood? Spanish The Royal Family and the nobility were proud that, unlike common people, they trace their ancestry to the West Goths and never mixed with the Moors who entered Spain from Africa. Unlike the dark-skinned commoners, blue veins stood out in the pale skin of the upper class, and therefore they called themselves sangre azul, which means "blue blood". Hence this expression for the designation of the aristocracy has penetrated into many European languages, including Russian.
Goal like a falcon.
In the bag.
In the old days, the messengers who delivered the mail sewed very important papers, or "deeds" under the lining of their caps or hats, so as not to attract the attention of robbers. This is where the expression "in the bag" comes from.
Get to the handle.
The phraseological expression "to reach the handle", meaning "to go down, lose human appearance" was coined in Ancient Rus'. Its origin is very entertaining and is directly related to kalach. Kalach is a wheat bread baked in the shape of a castle with a round bow. The townspeople often ate kalachi right on the street, holding this very round bow. The pen itself was not eaten for reasons of hygiene, but was given to beggars or dogs. About those who did not disdain to eat it, they said "reached the handle."
The case is tobacco.
In this case, we are talking about great depth. Barge haulers tied a pouch of tobacco to their necks and, when the water reached this level, they warned their comrades: "Under the tobacco."
Long box.
Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a long box for petitions hung in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow.
Uncle Sam (Himself).
That's what the US is called. There is an explanation that this name came from the nickname that a certain Samuel Wilson, a native of New York, who settled in late XVIII V. in Troy, on the Hudson River; locals they called him "Uncle Sam" (according to another transcription - Sam). During the second Anglo-American war (1812-1814), Wilson, who was very popular, served as a food inspector in the army supply authorities. On boxes of food sent to the army, Wilson put the letters U.S. i.e. United States-United States. The Americans deciphered these letters as Uncle Sam - "Uncle Sam". However latest research this interpretation, as anecdotal, is denied.
If the mountain does not go to Mohammed, then Mohammed goes to the mountain
There are various explanations about the origin of this expression. It is believed, for example, that it goes back to one of the anecdotal stories associated with Khoja Nasreddin, a beloved hero of Middle Eastern folklore. Once, when he pretended to be a saint, he was asked by what miracle he could prove it. Nasreddin replied that he told the palm tree to come closer to him and it would obey. When the miracle failed, Nasreddin went to the tree with the words: "Prophets and saints are devoid of arrogance.. If the palm tree does not come to me, I go to it." this story is in an Arabic collection, presumably dated to 1631. Another story is in the notes of the famous traveler Marco Polo (1254-1324), the first edition of which is on Latin published without indication of place or year; presumably: Venice or Rome, 1484. Marco Polo tells that a certain Baghdad shoemaker undertook to prove to Caliph Al-Muetasim the advantages Christian faith and allegedly performed a miracle: the mountain, at his call, moved towards him. The researcher believes that the European version of this Eastern legend replaced the palm tree with a mountain due to the Christian tradition, which claims that faith moves mountains (I Epistle to the Corinthians, 13.2). Finally, there is a well-known Turkish proverb - possible source this expression: "Mountain, mountain, wander; if the mountain does not wander, let the saint wander." The circulation of this proverb is traced back to the 17th century. Finally, already in 1597, the English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) in his "Moral and Political Essays", in the essay "On Courage" says that Mohammed promised the people to move the mountain by force, and when he failed, he said: "Well! since the mountain does not want to go to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to her."
Written with a pitchfork on the water.
In the expression "it is written with a pitchfork on the water," the pitchfork means old name circles on the water.
There is life in the old dog yet.
Quote from N. V. Gogol's story "Taras Bulba" (1842), ch. 9: "There is still gunpowder in the powder flasks? Hasn't the Cossack strength weakened? Are the Cossacks bending?" - "There is still, father, gunpowder in the powder flasks. The Cossack strength has not yet weakened; the Cossacks are not bending yet!"
Yellow press
This expression, used in the sense of base, deceitful, greedy for all kinds of cheap sensationalism, arose in the United States. In 1985, the American graphic artist Richard Outcault placed in a number of issues of the New York newspaper " The World"a series of frivolous drawings with humorous text; among the drawings was a child in a yellow shirt, to whom various funny statements were attributed. Soon another American newspaper, the New-York Journal, began to print a series of similar drawings. A dispute arose between these two newspapers because the title to this “yellow boy.” In 1896, Erwin Wardman, editor of the New York Press, published an article in that magazine in which he contemptuously referred to the two rival newspapers as “yellow press.” Since then, the expression has become catchy.
Life is a struggle
The expression goes back to ancient authors. Euripides in the tragedy "The Petitioners": "Our life is a struggle." In the letters of Seneca: "To live is to fight." Voltaire in the tragedy "Fanaticism, or the Prophet Mohammed" puts into the mouth of Mohammed the phrase: "Life is a struggle."
Bosom friend.
The old expression "to pour over the Adam's apple" meant "to get drunk", "to drink alcohol". Hence the phraseological unit "bosom friend" was formed, which today is used to refer to a very close friend.
Nick down
In this expression, the word "nose" has nothing to do with the organ of smell. "Nose" was a commemorative wooden plaque. 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. Here the word "nose" is what "wear" (from the verb "wear")
shabby look
Expression shabby look appeared under Peter I and has nothing to do with the meal. Zatrapeznikov is the surname of a merchant whose factory produced very coarse and low-quality fabric. Since then and talk about sloppy dressed man that he has a shabby appearance.
Hot spot.
The expression arose from the "mortuary" prayer: "Rest the soul of your servant in a place of light, in a place of greenery, in a place of peace"; here, as in the Bible (Psalm 22), "hot spot" means: a pleasant, calm, abundant place for everyone. But more often this expression is used ironically, in the opposite sense; especially often in the meaning: a place of drunkenness and debauchery.
Knowledge is power
Expression of the English materialist philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) in Moral and Political Essays, 2, 11 (1597)
Golden youth
So they call the rich aristocratic youth, winding money, burning through life. Initially, this was the nickname of the Parisian counter-revolutionary youth, grouped after 9 Thermidor (1794) around Freron (1754-1802), one of the leaders of the Thermidorian reaction. Led by Freron, the "golden youth" persecuted the last Montagnards. In his journal "Orateur du peuple" on 30 Jan. 1795 Freron says that the nickname "golden youth" originated in Jacobin circles. The French novelist François Xavier Pages (1745-1802) introduced him to the 2nd part of the Secret History published in early 1797 french revolution". Then it was forgotten, but after 1824, thanks to historical works Mignet, Thiers, Thibodeau and Prudhomme are back in wide circulation.
Go uphill.
The expression to go uphill has become a common colloquial speech intelligentsia in the first third of the 19th century. from gambling slang: it was popular among the people card game"slide", somewhat reminiscent of poker. When a player began to bet, forcing partners to fold, they said about him that he was "going uphill." Later, this expression penetrated into everyday speech and is now used to refer to a person who is steadily increasing his position and achieving success.
I'm going to you.
According to the chronicle, Prince Svyatoslav, not wanting to take advantage of an unexpected attack, always declared war in advance, ordering the enemy to say: "I'm going to attack you." That is, on you (N. M. Karamzin, History of the Russian State, St. Petersburg. 1842, vol. I, p. 104).
Massacre of the innocents
The expression arose from the gospel legend about the killing of all babies in Bethlehem at the command of the Jewish king Herod, after he learned from the Magi about the birth of Jesus, who they called the king of the Jews (Matt., 2, 1-5 and 16). Used as a definition of child abuse, as well as when jokingly talking about the strict measures applied to them.
And there is a hole in the old woman
Now this phrase means that even an experienced person is mistaken. The word "prorukha" comes from the old Russian "porukh" - trouble, own oversight, mistake
Search a woman
This expression is used (often in French: "Cherchez la femme") when they want to say that a woman is the culprit of an event, disaster, crime. It became winged thanks to the novel by Alexandre Dumas père (1802-1870) The Mohicans of Paris, which he remade into a drama of the same name (1864). These words in "The Mohicans of Paris" (in the novel, part III, ch. 10 and 11, in the play - d. 2, 16) are a favorite saying of a Parisian police official. Dumas used an expression that was actually used by the famous French police officer Gabriel de Sartine (1729-1801). The idea behind this expression is not new. The earliest version of it is found in the Roman poet Juvenal (c. 43-113 AD); in the 6th satire, he says that "there is hardly a lawsuit in which a woman would not be the cause of the quarrel." In Richardson's (1689-1761) novel "Charles Grandison" (1753), in letter 24 we read: "There is a woman behind these intrigues." In the 2nd chapter of the novel by I. S. Turgenev "Rudin" (1855), the misogynist Pigasov asks about any misfortune: What is her name?
Like a squirrel in a wheel
An expression from the fable of I. A. Krylov "Squirrel" (1833 You look at another businessman: Busy, rushing about, everyone marvels at him: He seems to be torn from the skin, Yes, but everything does not move forward, Like a squirrel in a wheel. This expression is used in Meaning: to constantly fuss, to bother with no visible results; to be very busy.
When cancer on the mountain whistles
The meaning of the phraseological unit "when the cancer whistles on the mountain (and the fish sings)" - means "it is not known when; in an indefinite future time; never." Such a formula of the impossible, in fact, is an ironically-joking saying. Comparing with this phraseological unit other expressions that have a similar meaning: Russian - for Turkish Easter; into Russian bayram; after the carrot spell; after the rain on Thursday; on Monday after Wednesday; for that summer, not for this; for the year when the devil dies; when the devil is baptized; when the bald ones curl up (when the bald head curls up); when the magpie turns white; when the pigs walk from the field; when the gelding becomes moribund; when the rooster lays the egg; English - when the moon turns into green cheese; when pigs fly and one day under a blue moon, French - when chickens have teeth, German - when dogs bark their tails, Kazakh - when a camel's tail reaches the ground, Kyrgyz - when a donkey's tail touches the ground, Bulgarian - when a pig in yellow slippers climbs a pear , it can be seen that the figurative meaning of such structures is realized as a result of a violation of the "logical" compatibility of components.
It is written with a pitchfork on the water
In the expression "it is written with a pitchfork on the water," the pitchfork refers to the ancient name of the circles on the water.
Search on Historic.RU
