Dear readers! Alas and ah, but circumstances still do not allow me to meet with you as often as I would like. I, Nadya Bokhan, thank you for your attention and say “see you soon!”. I hand over the reins of power to the new author and I hope he will keep them in a tight grip. And why in a hedgehog, and what kind of mittens they are, he himself will tell you.
We have already discovered the secret of the origin of ordinary mittens, this time we will try to find out the genealogy of the “hedgehog mittens”, their use, and so on.
At first glance, everything is quite transparent - for sure, these are mittens made of hedgehogs. The imagination vividly draws a brave tailor who came up with a crazy idea to sew small, harmless and even useful (from the point of view of gardeners) snorting animals clothes for hands from the skins of small animals. It is obvious, however, that such mittens do not represent any value other than aesthetic and educational. However, this monstrous conjecture about a Swedish man who has not heard of Greenpeace is not so far from the truth. In Dahl's explanatory dictionary, it is stated that special muzzles were sewn from needle skins for grown calves so that the cow would not be allowed to suck on them.
And what's with the gloves?
Let us recall the family of the princes Golitsyn. They owe their surname to the golitsy widely known in narrow circles. This was the name of the working tops made of rough leather without woolen or fur linings. Having dressed in them, you can painlessly do almost anything for yourself: even catch hedgehogs. With their help, this simple occupation was mostly indulged in. Well, that's why the golitsy got the nickname - "hedgehogs".
Phraseological turn "to take someone with a hedgehog" was born from a little-known Russian proverb "with a hedgehog and a soft body taken" and no less little-known Russian proverb "Hedgehog head - to teach a craftswoman." In the 19th century, with the light hands of writers, whom we used to call our everything, it began to be often used in literature, which, naturally, brought their glory to the iron fists.
Remember Petrusha Grinev's unsuccessful attempt to deceive the elderly German general in The Captain's Daughter without a twinge of conscience?
- Now about the case ... To you, my rake ... um ... "keep in tight irons" ... What are yeshyov mittens? It must be a Russian saying... he repeated, turning to me.
“That means,” I answered him with an air as innocent as possible, “to be kind, not too strict, to give more freedom, to keep in tight rein.
– Um, I understand... “and not to give him free rein”... no, it’s obvious that Jeshev’s mittens don’t mean that...
Exactly one hundred years later, in the thirties of the twentieth century, the phrase "hedgehogs" acquired an extremely sinister meaning. Ironically, the NKVD of the USSR at that time was headed by Nikolai Yezhov.
On the poster, the artist B. Efimov depicted the commissar himself, tightly holding a reptile with the heads of "Trotsky-Bukharin-Rykov spies, pests, saboteurs" by the throat.
It is noteworthy that after the chief Commissar for Foreign Affairs in 1939 ended up in the place of his victims, the iron gloves were not renamed "Beria".
12 chord selections
Biography
The Yezhov Mittens group. Compound:Anna Ezhova (St. Petersburg): author of poetry, music and jokes, vocals, rhythm guitar
- Dmitry Savrasov (Volzhsky): author of music and jokes, solo guitar. Bass and shaker (if very nice to ask)
- Victoria Chebotareva (Volgograd): violin and grace
- Maria Akimova-Zayats (Saratov): percussion, vocal lessons
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Anton Shcherbakov (in Volzhsky): shaker
Roman Zabelin (in St. Petersburg): viola
Formed in 2006.
What are the Mittens playing? The group, assembled in the youth association ARGO, initially focused specifically on the bard song. Anya and Dima (still separately) took part in city competitions in this direction. That is, at first everything was clear: poetry, guitar - an author's song. But within the group itself, the Mittens played electricity. Arrangements have arrived. The style has become more complex. Anna's poetry became more complicated too. It was no longer similar to the primitive-folk “it's great that we are all here…”. But in order to be called short and simple - a "rock group" the duo lacked drums.
The group was created in Volgograd, but at the moment the members live in different cities - Anna in St. Petersburg, Dmitry - in Volgograd. October 18, 2009 at the Theater of the New Spectator "Synthesis", the first concert took place in St. Petersburg.
For 4 years of existence, the team managed to "light up" at the Grushinsky festival and the St. Petersburg FOREST.
http://vkontakte.ru/club1286465
Anna is also an active author of the Poetry.Ru portal.
All of us have repeatedly heard the expression "keep tight." The meaning of the expression is clear to most of us - it means to treat someone strictly and harshly, to keep on a "short leash" and not allow slack. And probably, many of us came up with an association with mittens made from hedgehogs, or rather from their skins - of course, the feeling when you are held in mittens full of thorns can hardly be called free and pleasant ...
But what is the origin of this expression? And did there ever exist such an object as hedgehog gloves, where did this image migrate to this phraseological turn, and if so, what did they look like?
At the end of the first half of the twentieth century, after the era of the infamous Stalinist rule, it was widely believed that the expression came from the People's Commissar of the NKVD named Yezhov, who became famous for his harshness and repression in the 30s. This image was additionally fixed in the public consciousness by the poster of the artist Efimov, which was called: "Hedgehogs". This poster depicted the people's commissar holding a monster in the form of a many-headed hydra in prickly (so, after all, from hedgehogs?) mittens - it personified the "enemies of the regime" Trotskyists and Bukharinites.
But in fact, this expression is much older than the Stalinist repressions. It has been known since much more ancient times, and has been repeatedly encountered in classical Russian literature - the expression "keep in tight rein" can be found in the works of Pushkin, Chekhov, and Turgenev. It was used in a meaning close to the modern meaning - that is, “to press against the nail”, not to give relief and the opportunity to escape from strict control. In the dictionaries of the 18th century there is a proverb: “To be taken with hedgehogs and for a soft body”, while its meaning was close to that voiced above, although it did not mean punishment.
Where did the image used in the expression come from? And how did those hedgehog gloves look like?
The fact is that mice often started in the basements of houses and barns of peasants (which is not surprising, since it was there that the peasants stored their supplies). To combat them, not only cats were used, but also other predators that hunt mice, namely hedgehogs. But a cat is a domestic animal, tamed, but how to lure a hedgehog into the right room? It is problematic to take it in bare hands, just because of its prickly skin. What then to do? It was for this that hedgehog gloves, or the so-called golitsy, were needed. They were made of very thick leather and had no lining. It is with such mittens that you can take a hedgehog, curled up into a prickly ball, and take it to a barn or basement to new hunting grounds. And then, when he brilliantly fulfills his mission and copes with the mouse attack, take him to freedom with the same mittens.
So in the manufacture of hedgehog gloves, not a single hedgehog was harmed!
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Our vocabulary is full of various proverbs and expressions, and the origin of many of them is rather vague. This circumstance pushes immature minds to get into explanatory dictionaries in search of the required information. However, the search in these thick and dusty tomes is a big problem, and therefore we decided to create this resource, in which you will find transcripts on a variety of topics. I strongly recommend adding our site to your bookmarks so as not to miss useful and important information. Today we will finally analyze such a funny at first glance proverb as Keep tight-lipped which means you can read a little below.
However, before I continue, I would like to point you to a couple of our other popular publications on the topic of phraseological units. For example, what does Woe from Wit mean; the meaning of the expression Yuperny theater; how to understand the phrase Go through the forest; which means Seven Fridays in a week, etc.
So let's continue Keep a tight rein on the meaning? This proverb has a rather vague origin, but we will try to give the most detailed answer.
Keep tight-lipped- means to be strict and harsh, to keep in subjection, to force to completely obey oneself
Synonym for the phrase Hold tight: keep in a black body.
This expression was first noted in the first half of the 18th century as part of a folk proverb - " Hedgehogs, but take for a soft body". From here it is clear that these were really real mittens, and not some kind of euphemism. However, questions remain, what kind of mittens are they, and could they be sewn from hedgehog skin?
If we delve into dictionaries, we can find out that the word "hedgehog" does not mean " hedgehog", but rather means " hedgehog-like". Having studied the explanatory dictionary, we begin to understand that "hedgehog" is the thing with which you can hold this same hedgehog in your hands. As a result, we come to interesting information that in ancient times, there were special gloves that protect hands, they were called " golitsy"or" hedgehog gloves. "They were made of rough leather without fur and lining, and they were an excellent protection for working people when working. However, it was also easy to grab hedgehogs in them.
This phraseological unit gained additional meaning during the Soviet era, when young Soviet Russia was just getting up from its knees, after the civil war, and Comrade Yezhov was appointed head of the NKVD. It is with him that the wholesale landings of enemies of the people, as well as citizens who are not personally pleasing to him, are connected. Even in his entourage, they were afraid of this man, because he did not spare either his relatives or friends.
Many years later, and after the total propaganda of "liberda", it is now difficult to say how bad everything was, and whether those people were guilty. Of course, one cannot be guided by the information provided by such liars as Solzhenitsyn and other oppositionists. Since they, and those like them, in fact, were the very enemies of the people, and having taken power in their hands in the 90s, they began to actively throw some kind of brown substance on our past.
After reading this informative article, you learned what is Hold tight, and now you will not get into a predicament by discovering this phraseological unit in the future.
The role of phraseological units in the Russian language can hardly be overestimated. Thanks to their use, the speaker's speech acquires a special brilliance, liveliness, and imagery. The roots of a great many set expressions should be sought in the vernacular. It is he who is the storehouse of truly precious treasures of our modern vocabulary.
The meaning of the expression "hedgehogs"
When one person wants to characterize the methods or methods of raising another, emphasizing their particular severity, perhaps even cruelty, he most often declares that he keeps his family in a black body. It is appropriate in the same sense to use the phraseological unit "hedgehogs".
The phrases, say, “fox coat”, “beaver hat”, are quite familiar, but what does a piece of clothing from a prickly mammal look like and does it really exist? We learn this by considering the etymology of the phraseological unit.
The history of the origin of the expression
It turns out that such mittens were not made from the skin of an animal, but to catch him. As you know, hedgehogs, along with cats, are good mousers. And the peasants in the old days very often used them for this very purpose, launching them into their cellars and undergrounds.
And how is it more convenient to catch a prickly creature, so as not to get hurt yourself, and not to injure him? This is where hedgehog gloves came to the rescue - specially made for catching mouse hunters. They were sewn without lining, from very rough leather, and they were called golits.
Use of the expression in colloquial speech and literature
It is believed that "hedgehogs" mean not just strictness in upbringing, attitude, but restriction of freedom, perhaps exaggerated, but out of the best of intentions - for the benefit of the educated person himself.
The old expression, which classical writers used more than once in their work, suddenly acquired a new sound during the years of Stalinist repressions. These same mittens were associated among the people with the name of the head of the NKVD Yezhov - much more eloquent!
If we note the use of the expression in literature, then an episode from Pushkin's "The Captain's Daughter" immediately comes to mind. There, the protagonist, having handed a letter from his father to his future boss, tries to cheat, in his own way explaining to the German general the meaning of the words "keep tight." Say, this means to treat gently, without severity, but he quickly realizes that this is not so, continuing to read the letter.
In modern colloquial speech, this expression is not so common.
