Catch phrases and their meaning.

Speech is a way of communication between people. In order to achieve complete mutual understanding, to express one's thoughts more clearly and figuratively, many lexical techniques are used, in particular, phraseological units (phraseological unit, idiom) - stable turns of speech that have an independent meaning and are characteristic of a particular language. Often, to achieve some kind of speech effect, simple words are not enough. Irony, bitterness, love, mockery, one's own attitude to what is happening - all this can be expressed much more capaciously, more precisely, more emotionally. We often use phraseological units in everyday speech, sometimes without even noticing - after all, some of them are simple, familiar, and familiar from childhood. Many of the phraseological units came to us from other languages, eras, fairy tales, legends.

Augean stables

Rake first these Augean stables, and then you will go for a walk.

Meaning. A cluttered, polluted place where everything is in complete disarray.

Origin. He lived in ancient Elis, according to an ancient Greek legend, King Augius, a passionate lover of horses: he kept three thousand horses in his stables. However, the stalls in which the horses were kept had not been cleaned for thirty years, and they were overgrown with manure up to the roof.

Hercules was sent to the service of Avgius, to whom the king instructed to clean the stables, which no one else could do.

Hercules was as cunning as he was powerful. He directed the waters of the river through the gates of the stables, and a stormy stream washed out all the dirt from there in a day.

The Greeks sang this feat along with the other eleven, and the expression "Augean stables" began to apply to everything neglected, polluted to the last limit, and in general to denote a great mess.

Arshin swallow

It stands as if the arshin swallowed.

Meaning. Stay unnaturally straight.

Origin. The Turkish word "arshin", meaning a measure of length of one cubit, has long become Russian. Until the revolution, Russian merchants and artisans constantly used arshins - wooden and metal rulers seventy-one centimeters long. Imagine how a person who swallowed such a ruler should look like, and you will understand why this expression is used in relation to stiff and arrogant people.

henbane overeat

In Pushkin's "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish," an old man, indignant at the shameless greed of his old woman, angrily says to her: "What are you, a woman, overeating with henbane?"

Meaning. Act absurdly, viciously, like crazy.

Origin. In the countryside, in the backyards and dumps, you can find tall bushes with dirty yellowish, purple-veined flowers and an unpleasant smell. This is henbane - a very poisonous plant. Its seeds resemble poppies, but the one who eats them becomes like a madman: he raves, rages, and often dies.

Buridan's donkey

He rushes about, cannot decide on anything, like Buridan's donkey.

Meaning. An extremely indecisive person, hesitating in the choice between equivalent decisions.

Origin. The philosophers of the late Middle Ages put forward a theory according to which the actions of living beings do not depend on their own will, "but solely on external causes. The scientist Buridan (more precisely, Buridan), who lived in France in the 14th century, confirmed this idea with such an example. Let's take a hungry donkey and put on either side of his muzzle, at equal distances, are two identical bundles of hay. The donkey will have no reason to prefer one of them over the other: they are exactly alike. He will not be able to reach out either to the right or to the left, and in the end he will die. with hunger.

Back to our sheep

However, enough about this, let's get back to our sheep.

Meaning. A call to the speaker not to digress from the main topic; a statement that his digression from the topic of conversation is over.

Origin. Let's return to our rams - tracing paper from the French revenons a nos moutons from the farce "Lawyer Pierre Patlin" (c. 1470). With these words, the judge interrupts the rich clothier's speech. Having initiated a case against the shepherd who stole the sheep from him, the clothier, forgetting about his lawsuit, showers reproaches on the shepherd's defender, Patlen's lawyer, who did not pay him for six cubits of cloth.

Versta Kolomna

At such a verst of Kolomna as you, everyone will immediately pay attention.

Meaning. So they call a person of very tall stature, a tall man.

Origin. 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 the Kolomna verst. That's what they still say.

lead by the nose

The smartest man, more than once or twice led the enemy by the nose.

Meaning. To deceive, mislead, promise and not fulfill the promise.

Origin. The expression was associated with fairground entertainment. Gypsies took bears to the show for a ring threaded through their noses. And they forced them, poor fellows, to do various tricks, deceiving them with the promise of handouts.

Hair on end

Horror seized him: his eyes popped out, his hair stood on end.

Meaning. So they say when a person is very scared.

Origin. “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.

That's where the dog is buried!

Ah, that's it! Now it is clear where the dog is buried.

Meaning. That's the thing, that's the real reason.

Origin. There is a story: the Austrian warrior Sigismund Altensteig spent all campaigns and battles with his beloved dog. Once, while traveling in the Netherlands, the dog even saved his owner from death. The grateful warrior solemnly buried his four-legged friend and erected a monument on his grave, which stood for more than two centuries - until the beginning of the 19th century.

Later, the dog monument could be found by tourists only with the help of local residents. At that time, the saying "That's where the dog is buried!" Was born, which now has the meaning: "I found what I was looking for", "got to the bottom of the matter."

But there is an older and no less likely source of the proverb that has come down to us. When the Greeks decided to give the Persian king Xerxes a battle at sea, they put old men, women and children on ships in advance and transported them to the island of Salamis.

They say that the dog that belonged to Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, did not want to part with his master, jumped into the sea and swam, following the ship, reached Salamis. Exhausted from fatigue, she immediately died.

According to the historian of antiquity Plutarch, this dog was placed on the seashore with a kinosema - a canine monument, which was shown to the curious for a very long time.

Some German linguists believe that this expression was created by treasure hunters, who, out of fear of the evil spirit that allegedly guarded every treasure, did not dare to directly mention the purpose of their search and conditionally began to talk about a black dog, meaning the trait and the treasure.

Thus, according to this version, the expression "this is where the dog is buried" meant: "this is where the treasure is buried."

Pour in the first number

For such deeds, of course, they should be poured on the first number!

Meaning. Severely punish, scold someone

Origin. 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 whether they were 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.

rub glasses

Do not believe it, they rub glasses on you!

Meaning. To deceive someone by presenting the matter in a distorted, incorrect, but favorable light for the speaker.

Origin. We are not talking about glasses that are used to correct vision. There is another meaning of the word "points": red and black marks on playing cards. Ever since there were cards, there have been dishonest players, cheaters in the world. They, in order to deceive a partner, indulged in all sorts of tricks. By the way, they were able to quietly “rub glasses” - turn a seven into a six or a four into a five, on the go, during the game, gluing a “point” or covering it with a special white powder. It is clear that “rubbing glasses” began to mean “cheating”, hence the special words were born: “fraud”, “fraudster” - a trickster who knows how to embellish his work, pass off bad as very good.

Voice in the wilderness

Wasted labor, you won't convince them, your words are the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

Meaning. Denotes vain persuasion, calls that no one heeds.

Origin. As biblical legends convey, one of the Hebrew prophets called out from the desert to the Israelites to prepare the way for God: to lay roads in the desert, to make the mountains go down, the valleys to be filled, and the curvature and unevenness to straighten. However, the calls of the prophet-hermit remained "a voice crying in the wilderness" - they were not heard. The people did not want to serve their fierce and cruel god.

Goal like a falcon

Who will say a kind word to me? After all, I'm an orphan. Goal like a falcon.

Meaning. Very poor, beggar.

Origin. Many people think that we are talking about a bird. But she is neither poor nor rich. In fact, the “falcon” is an old military wall-beating weapon. It was a completely smooth (“bare”) cast-iron ingot, mounted on chains. Nothing extra!

Naked truth

This is the state of affairs, the naked truth without embellishment.

Meaning. Truth as it is, no bluff.

Origin. This expression is Latin: Nuda Veritas [nuda veritas]. It is taken from the 24th ode of the Roman poet Horace (65 - 8 BC). Ancient sculptors allegorically depicted the truth (truth) in the form of a naked woman, which was supposed to symbolize the true state of affairs without silence or embellishment.

Woe onion

Do you know how to cook soup, onion woe.

Meaning. Idiot, unlucky person.

Origin. The caustic volatile substances contained in the onion in abundance irritate the eyes, and the hostess, while she crushes the onion for her cooking, sheds tears, although there is not the slightest grief. It is curious that tears caused by the action of irritating substances differ in chemical composition from sincere tears. There is more protein in fake tears (this is not surprising, because such tears are designed to neutralize caustic substances that have entered the eye), so fake tears are slightly cloudy. However, every person knows this fact intuitively: there is no faith in muddy tears. And onion grief is not called grief, but a transitory nuisance. Most often, half-jokingly, half-sorrowful, they turn to a child who has again done something wrong.

Two-faced Janus

She is deceitful, quirky and hypocritical, a real two-faced Janus.

Meaning. Two-faced, hypocritical person

Origin. In Roman mythology, the god of all beginnings. He was depicted with two faces - a young man and an old man - looking in opposite directions. One face is turned to the future, the other to the past.

In the bag

Well, everything, now you can sleep peacefully: it's in the bag.

Meaning. It's all right, everything ended well.

Origin. Sometimes the origin of this expression is explained by the fact that in the days of Ivan the Terrible, some court cases were decided by lot, and the lot was drawn from the judge's hat. However, the word "hat" came to us no earlier than in the days of Boris Godunov, and even then it was applied only to foreign headdresses. It is unlikely that this rare word could get into a folk saying at the same time.

There is another explanation: _, much later, clerks and clerks, sorting out court cases, used their hats to receive bribes.

If only you could help me, - the plaintiff says to the deacu in a caustic poem. A. K. Tolstoy, - I would have poured those, she-she, ten rubles into a hat. Joke? "Rash now," said the deacon, holding up his cap. - Come on!

It is very possible that the question: “Well, how am I doing?” - the clerks often answered with a sly wink: "It's in the bag." This is where the proverb could come from.

Money doesn't smell

He took this money and did not wince, the money does not smell.

Meaning. It is the availability of money that is important, not the source of its origin.

Origin. To urgently replenish the treasury, the Roman emperor Vespasian introduced a tax on public urinals. However, Titus reproached his father for this. Vespasian held the money to his son's nose and asked if it smelled. He answered in the negative. Then the emperor said: “But they are from urine ...” On the basis of this episode, a catchphrase developed.

Keep in a black body

Don't let her sleep in bedBy the light of the morning star Keep a lazy man in a black body And don't take the reins off her!

Nikolay Zabolotsky

Meaning. to be harsh, to be strict with someone, making you work hard; oppress someone.

Origin. The expression comes from the Turkic expressions associated with horse breeding, meaning - moderately nourish, undernourish (kara kesek - meat without fat). The literal translation of these phrases is "black meat" (kara - black, kesek - meat). From the literal meaning of the expression came "keep in a black body."

Bring to white heat

Vile type, brings me to white heat.

Meaning. To piss off to the limit, to bring to madness.

Origin. When the metal is heated during forging, it glows differently depending on the temperature: first red, then yellow, and finally dazzling white. At higher temperatures, the metal will melt and boil. An expression from the speech of blacksmiths.

smoke rocker

In the tavern, smoke stood like a yoke: songs, dances, screams, fights.

Meaning. Noise, noise, confusion, turmoil.

Origin. In old Russia, the huts were often heated in black: the smoke did not escape through the chimney, 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.

Egyptian executions

What kind of punishment is this, just Egyptian executions!

Meaning. Calamities that bring torment, heavy punishment

Origin. It goes back to the biblical story about the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. For Pharaoh's refusal to release the Jews from captivity, the Lord subjected Egypt to terrible punishments - ten Egyptian plagues. Blood instead of water. All the water in the Nile, other reservoirs and containers turned into red, but remained transparent to the Jews. Execution by frogs. As Pharaoh was promised: “They will go out and enter into your house, and into your bedroom, and onto your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens, and into your kneaders. Frogs filled the whole land of Egypt.

Midge invasion. As a third punishment, hordes of midges fell upon Egypt, which attacked the Egyptians, stuck around them, climbed into their eyes, nose, ears.

Dog flies. The country was flooded with dog flies, from which all animals, including domestic ones, began to throw themselves at the Egyptians.

Sea of ​​cattle. All the Egyptians lost their livestock, the attack did not affect only the Jews. Ulcers and boils. The Lord commanded Moses and Aaron to take a handful of furnace black and throw it up in front of Pharaoh. And the bodies of the Egyptians and animals were covered with their terrible sores and boils. Thunder, lightning and fiery hail. A storm began, thunder roared, lightning flashed, and fiery hail fell on Egypt. Locust invasion. A strong wind blew, and behind the wind hordes of locusts flew into Egypt, devouring all the greenery down to the last blade of grass on the land of Egypt.

Unusual darkness. The darkness that fell on Egypt was thick and dense, you could even touch it; and candles and torches could not dispel the darkness. Only the Jews had light.

Execution of the firstborn. After all the first-born in Egypt (with the exception of the Jews) died in one night, the pharaoh surrendered and allowed the Jews to leave Egypt. Thus began the Exodus.

Iron curtain

We live like behind an iron curtain, no one comes to us, and we don't visit anyone.

Meaning. Barriers, obstacles, complete political isolation of the country.

Origin. At the end of the XVIII century. an iron curtain was lowered onto the theater stage to protect the audience in the event of a fire on it. At that time, open fire was used to illuminate the stage - candles and oil lamps.

This expression acquired political overtones during the First World War. On December 23, 1919, Georges Clemenceau declared in the French Chamber of Deputies: "We want to put an iron curtain around Bolshevism so as not to destroy civilized Europe in the future."

Yellow press

Where did you read all this? Do not trust the yellow press.

Meaning. Base, deceitful, greedy for cheap sensations press.

Origin. In 1895, the New York World newspaper began to publish a series of comic strips called "The Yellow Kid" on a regular basis. Its main character, a boy in a toe-length yellow shirt, made funny comments on various events. In early 1896, another newspaper, the New York Morning Journal, poached the creator of the comic book, artist Richard Outcolt. Both publications thrived on the publication of scandalous material. A dispute flared up between competitors over the copyright to the "Yellow Baby". In the spring of 1896, the editor of the New York Press, Erwin Wardman, commenting on this lawsuit, contemptuously called both newspapers "yellow press."

Alive Smoking Room

A. S. Pushkin wrote an epigram to the critic M. Kachenovsky, which began with the words: “How! Is Kurilka a journalist still alive? It ended with wise advice: “... How to extinguish a stinking splinter? How to kill my Smoking room? Give me advice. - "Yes ... spit on him."

Meaning. An exclamation at the mention of the ongoing activity of someone, his existence, despite difficult conditions.

Origin. There was an old Russian game: a lit splinter was passed from hand to hand, singing: “The Smoking Room is alive, alive, alive, not dead! ..” The one whose splinter went out, began to smoke, smoke, lost.

Gradually, the words “Kurilka is alive” began to be applied to various figures and to various phenomena that, logically, should have disappeared long ago, but, despite everything, continued to exist.

Behind seven seals

Well, of course, because this is a secret for you with seven seals!

Meaning. Something beyond understanding.

Origin. It goes back to the biblical turnover “a book with seven seals” - a symbol of secret knowledge that is inaccessible to the uninitiated until seven seals are removed from it, III from the prophetic New Testament book “Revelations of St. John the Evangelist". “And I saw in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne a book written inside and out, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to open this book and break its seals?” And no one in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth, could open this book and look into it. The Lamb, who “was slain and redeemed us to God with his blood, opened the seals from the book. After the removal of six seals, the seal of God was placed on the inhabitants of Israel, according to which they were accepted as true followers of the Lord. After the opening of the seventh seal, the Lamb told John to eat the book: "... it will be bitter in your womb, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey" in order to tell about the future renewal of the whole world and dispel the fears of believers about the future of Christianity, on which Jews, Gentiles and false teachers are on all sides.

Nick down

And cut it on your nose: you will not be able to deceive me!

Meaning. Remember firmly, firmly, once and for all.

Origin. The word "nose" here does not mean the organ of smell. Oddly enough, it means "commemorative plaque", "record tag". In ancient times, illiterate people carried such sticks and tablets with them everywhere and made all kinds of notes and notches on them. These tags were called noses.

Truth in wine

And next to the neighboring tables Sleepy lackeys stick out, And drunkards with rabbit eyes shout "In vino Veritas".

Alexander Blok

Meaning. If you want to know exactly what a person thinks, treat him to wine.

Origin. This is the famous Latin expression: In vino Veritas (in wine veritas). It is taken from the work "Natural History" by the Roman scientist Pliny the Elder (1st century AD). where it is used in the sense: what is on the sober mind, then the drunk on the tongue.

It is not worth it

You shouldn't do it. The game is clearly not worth the candle.

Meaning. The effort you put in is not worth it.

Origin. The phraseological expression is based on a card term, which means that the stakes in the game are so insignificant that even the winnings will be less than the funds spent on candles to illuminate the card table.

To the hat analysis

Well, brother, you came late, to the most hat analysis!

Meaning. Be late, show up when it's all over.

Origin. The saying arose in those days when in our frosty country people, coming to church in warm clothes and knowing that it was impossible to go inside in a hat, folded their three-pieces and caps at the very entrance. At the end of the church service, leaving, everyone took them apart. “To the hat analysis” came only those who were clearly in no hurry to go to church.

Like chickens in cabbage soup (get in)

And he got with this case, like chickens in cabbage soup.

Meaning. Bad luck, unexpected misfortune.

Origin. A very common saying that we repeat all the time, sometimes having no idea about its true meaning. Let's start with the word chicken. This word in old Russian means "rooster". And there was no “schey” in this proverb before, and it was pronounced correctly: “I got into a pluck like chickens,” that is, I was plucked, “bad luck.” The word "pluck" was forgotten, and then people willy-nilly changed the expression "pluck" into cabbage soup. When she was born is not entirely clear: some think that even under Dimitry the Pretender, when “to pluck”; hit the Polish conquerors; others - that in the Patriotic War of 1812, when the Russian people forced Napoleon's hordes to flee.

King for a day

I would not trust their generous promises, which they distribute right and left: caliphs for an hour.

Meaning. About a man who happened to be endowed with power for a short time.

Origin. In the Arabic tale “A dream, or Caliph for an hour” (collection “A Thousand and One Nights”), it is told how the young Baghdadian Abu-Shssan, not knowing that Caliph Grun-al-Rashid is in front of him, shares with him his cherished dream - at least for a day to become caliph. Wanting to have some fun, Haroun al-Rashid puts sleeping pills in Abu-Ghassan's wine, orders the servants to take the young man to the palace and treat him like a caliph.

The joke succeeds. Waking up, Abu-1kssan believes that he is a caliph, enjoys luxury and begins to give orders. In the evening, he again drinks wine with sleeping pills and wakes up already at home.

Scapegoat

I fear you will forever be their scapegoat.

Meaning. The defendant for someone else's guilt, for the mistakes of others, because the true culprit cannot be found or wants to evade responsibility.

Origin. The turnover goes back to the text of the Bible, to the description of the Hebrew rite of laying the sins of the people (community) on a live goat. Such a rite was performed in case of desecration by the Jews of the sanctuary where the ark of revelation was located. In atonement for sins, a ram was burned and one goat was slaughtered "as a sin offering." All the sins and iniquities of the Jewish people were transferred to the second goat: the clergyman laid his hands on him as a sign that all the sins of the community were transferred to him, after which the goat was expelled into the wilderness. All those present at the ceremony were considered cleansed.

Lazarus sing

Stop singing Lazarus, stop being ashamed.

Meaning. Begging, whining, exaggeratedly complaining about fate, trying to arouse the sympathy of others.

Origin. In tsarist Russia, crowds of beggars, cripples, blind men with guides gathered everywhere in crowded places, begging, with all sorts of miserable lamentations, alms from passers-by. At the same time, the blind especially often sang the song “About the Rich and Lazarus”, composed according to one gospel story. Lazarus was poor, but his brother was rich. Lazarus ate the remnants of the rich man's food along with the dogs, but after death he went to heaven, while the rich man ended up in hell. This song was supposed to frighten and conscience those from whom the beggars begged for money. Since not all beggars were actually so unfortunate, their plaintive moans were often feigned.

Climb on the rampage

He promised to be careful, but he deliberately climbs on the rampage!

Meaning. Do something risky, run into trouble, do something dangerous, doomed to failure in advance.

Origin. Rozhon - a pointed stake that was used when hunting a bear. Hunting with a goad, the daredevils put this sharp stake in front of them. The enraged beast climbed on the rampage and died.

Disservice

The incessant praise from your lips is a real disservice.

Meaning. Unsolicited help, a service that does more harm than good.

Origin. The primary source is the fable of I. A. Krylov “The Hermit and the Bear”. It tells how the Bear, wanting to help his friend the Hermit to swat a fly that sat on his forehead, killed the Hermit himself along with it. But this expression is not in the fable: it took shape and entered folklore later.

Cast pearls before swine

In a letter to A. A. Bestuzhev (end of January 1825), A. S. Pushkin writes: “The first sign of an intelligent person is to know at a glance who you are dealing with, and not throw pearls in front of the Repetilovs and the like.”

Meaning. Wasting words talking to people who can't understand you.

Origin. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ says: “Do not give anything holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample it under their feet and, turning, tear you to pieces” (Gospel of Matthew, 7: b). In the Church Slavonic translation, the word "pearl" sounds like "beads". It was in this version that this biblical expression entered the Russian language.

You can't ride a goat

He looks down on everyone, you can’t drive up to him even on a crooked goat.

Meaning. He is completely unapproachable, it is not clear how to address him.

Origin. Amusing their high patrons, using both the harp and bells for their fun, dressing up in goat and bear skins, in the plumage of a crane, these “spies” sometimes knew how to do good deeds.

It is possible that their repertoire included riding goats or pigs. Obviously, it was the buffoons who sometimes met with such a bad mood of a high-ranking person that "even a goat did not act on him."

unlucky person

Nothing went right with him, and in general he was a good-for-nothing person.

Meaning. Frivolous, careless, dissolute.

Origin. In the old days in Russia, not only the road was called the way, 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 to those who did not succeed, they spoke of those with disdain: an unlucky person.

Shelving

Now put it aside in a long box, and then completely forget.

Meaning. Give the case a long delay, delay its decision for a long time.

Origin. Perhaps this expression originated in Muscovite Russia, three hundred years ago. Tsar Alexei, father of Peter I, ordered in the village of Kolomenskoye in front of his palace to install a long box where anyone could put their complaint. Complaints fell, but it was very difficult to wait for a decision: months and years passed. The people renamed this "long" box to "long".

It is possible that the expression, if not born, was fixed in speech later, in “presences” - institutions of the 19th century. The then officials, accepting various petitions, complaints and petitions, undoubtedly sorted them, putting them in different boxes. "Long" could be called the one where the most unhurried things were put off. It is clear that the applicants were afraid of such a box.

Retired goat drummer

I am now out of office - a retired goat drummer.

Meaning. No one needs, no one respected person.

Origin. 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”?

Bring under the monastery

What have you done, what am I to do now, led me to the monastery, and nothing more.

Meaning. Put in a difficult, unpleasant situation, bring under punishment.

Origin. There are several versions of the origin of the turnover. Perhaps the turnover arose because people who had big troubles in life usually left for the monastery. According to another version, the expression is connected with the fact that Russian guides brought enemies under the walls of monasteries, which during the war turned into fortresses (bring a blind man under a monastery). Some believe that the expression is associated with the hard life of women in Tsarist Russia. Only strong relatives could save a woman from her husband's beatings, having achieved protection from the patriarch and the authorities. In this case, the wife "brought her husband to the monastery" - he was exiled to the monastery "in humility" for six months or a year.

put a pig

Well, he has a vile character: he planted a pig and is satisfied!

Meaning. Secretly set up some filth, play a dirty trick.

Origin. 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.

Get into a bind

The small one got into such a bind that even the guards shout.

Meaning. Get into a difficult, dangerous or unpleasant situation.

Origin. In dialects, BINDING is a fish trap woven from branches. And, as in any trap, being in it is an unpleasant business.

Professor of sour cabbage soup

He is always teaching everyone. Me too, professor of sour cabbage soup!

Meaning. Unlucky, bad master.

Origin. Sour cabbage soup is a simple peasant food: some 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.

Beluga roar

For three days in a row she roared like a beluga.

Meaning. Shout or cry loudly.

Origin. "Mute like a fish" - this has been known for a long time. And suddenly "roar beluga"? It turns out that we are not talking about a beluga here, but about a beluga whale, as the polar dolphin is called. He really roars very loudly.

Breed antimony

All conversation is over. I have no time to raise antimony here with you.

Meaning. To chat, to carry on empty talk. Observe unnecessary ceremonies in a relationship.

Origin. From the Latin name of antimony (antimonium), which was used as a medicinal and cosmetic agent, after grinding it and then dissolving it. Antimony is poorly soluble, so the process was very long and laborious. And while it was dissolving, the pharmacists had endless conversations.

The side of the bake

Why would I go to them? Nobody called me. It's called came - on the side of the bake!

Meaning. Everything accidental, extraneous, adhering to something from the outside; superfluous, unnecessary

Origin. This expression is often distorted by pronouncing "side-baked". In fact, it could also be conveyed by the words: “side baking”. Baking, or baking, bakers have burnt pieces of dough that stick to the outside of bread products, that is, something unnecessary, superfluous.

Orphan Kazan

Why are you standing, rooted to the threshold, like an orphan from Kazan.

Meaning. So they say about a person who pretends to be unhappy, offended, helpless in order to pity someone.

Origin. 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.

Grated roll

As a grated kalach, I can give you good advice.

Meaning. This is the name of an experienced person who is difficult to deceive.

Origin. There used to be 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 lush. 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.

Pip on your tongue

What are you saying, pip on your tongue!

Meaning. An expression of dissatisfaction with what was said, an unkind wish to someone who says something that is not what should be said.

Origin. It is clear that this is a wish, and not a very friendly one at that. But what is its meaning? A pip is a small, horny bump on the tip of a bird's tongue that helps them peck at food. The growth of such a tubercle can be a sign of illness. Hard pimples on the tongue of a person are called pips by analogy with these bird tubercles. According to superstitious ideas, a pip usually appears in deceitful people. Hence the unkind wish, designed to punish liars and deceivers. From these observations and superstitions, the incantation formula was born: “Pip on your tongue!” Its main meaning was: "You are a liar: let a pip appear on your tongue!" Now the meaning of this spell has changed somewhat. "Pip on your tongue!" - an ironic wish to someone who expressed an unkind thought, predicted an unpleasant one.

Sharpen laces

Why are you sitting idle and whetting your hair?

Meaning. To idle talk, engage in useless chatter, gossip.

Origin. Lasy (balusters) are chiseled curly posts of railings at the porch; only a real master could make such beauty. Probably, at first, “sharpening balusters” meant having an elegant, bizarre, ornate (like balusters) conversation. And the craftsmen to conduct such a conversation by our time became less and less. So this expression began to denote empty chatter. Another version raises the expression to the meaning of the Russian word balyas - stories, Ukrainian balyas - noise, which go directly to the common Slavic "tell".

pull the gimp

Now they are gone, he will pull the rigmarole until we give up this idea ourselves.

Meaning. To procrastinate, to drag out any business, to speak monotonously and tediously.

Origin. Gimp - the thinnest gold, silver or copper thread, which was used to embroider galloons, aiguillettes and other decorations of officer uniforms, as well as chasubles of priests and simply rich costumes. It was made in a handicraft way, heating the metal and carefully pulling out a thin wire with tongs. This process was extremely long, slow and painstaking, so that over time the expression "pull the gimp" began to refer to any protracted and monotonous business or conversation.

Hit the face in the dirt

You don’t let me down, don’t lose face in front of the guests.

Meaning. Embarrass, shame.

Origin. To hit the face in the dirt originally meant "to fall on the dirty ground." Such a fall was considered by the people to be especially shameful in fisticuffs - competitions of wrestlers, when a weak opponent was knocked over prone to the ground.

In the middle of nowhere

What, go to him? Yes, this is in the middle of nowhere.

Meaning. Very far, somewhere in the wilderness.

Origin. Kulichiki is a distorted Finnish word "kuligi", "kulizhki", which has long been included in Russian speech. So in the north were called forest clearings, meadows, swamps. Here, in the wooded part of the country, the settlers of the distant past were always cutting down “kulizhki” in the forest - areas for plowing and mowing. In old letters, the following formula is constantly found: "And all that land, as long as the ax walked and the scythe walked." The farmer often had to go to his field in the wilderness, to the farthest "sandbags", developed worse than the neighbors, where, according to the then ideas, goblin, and devils, and all kinds of forest evil spirits were found in swamps and windbreaks. So ordinary words got their second, figurative meaning: very far, at the end of the world.

fig leaf

She is a terrible pretender and lazy, hiding behind her imaginary illness, like a fig leaf.

Meaning. A plausible cover for unseemly deeds.

Origin. The expression goes back to the Old Testament myth about Adam and Eve, who, after the fall, knew shame and girded themselves with fig tree (fig tree) leaves: “And their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves belts » (Genesis, 3:7). From the 16th to the end of the 18th century, European artists and sculptors had to cover the most revealing parts of the human body with a fig leaf in their works. This convention was a concession to the Christian church, which considered the depiction of naked flesh sinful and obscene.

Filkin's letter

What kind of filkin's letter is this, can't you really state your thoughts?

Meaning. Ignorant, illiterate document.

Metropolitan Philip could not come to terms with the revelry of the guardsmen. In his numerous letters to the tsar - letters - he sought to convince Grozny to abandon his policy of terror, to dissolve the oprichnina. The disobedient Metropolitan Tsyuzny contemptuously called Filka, and his letters - Filkin's letters.

For the bold denunciations of Grozny and his guardsmen, Metropolitan Philip was imprisoned in the Tver Monastery, where Malyuta Skuratov strangled him.

Grab the stars from the sky

He is a man not without abilities, but there are not enough stars from heaven.

Meaning. Do not differ in talents and outstanding abilities.

Origin. Phraseological expression, apparently associated by association with the award stars of the military and officials as insignia.

Enough kondrashka

He was a heroic health, and suddenly kondrashka was enough.

Meaning. Someone suddenly died, was suddenly paralyzed.

Origin. According to the assumption of the historian S. M. Solovyov, the expression is associated with the name of the leader of the Bulavinsky uprising on the Don in 1707, ataman Kondraty Afanasyevich Bulavin (Kondrashka), who exterminated the entire royal detachment led by the voivode Prince Dolgoruky with a sudden raid.

Apple of discord

This trip is a real bone of contention, can't you give in, let him go.

Meaning. That which gives rise to conflict, serious contradictions.

Origin. Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War, forgot to invite the goddess of discord, Eris, to their wedding. Eris was very offended and secretly threw a golden apple on the table, at which the gods and mortals were feasting; on it was written: "To the most beautiful." A dispute arose between the three goddesses: the wife of Zeus Hera, Athena - the maiden, the goddess of wisdom, and the beautiful goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite.

The young man Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, was chosen as a judge between them. Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite who bribed him; For this, Aphrodite forced the wife of King Menelaus, the beautiful Helen, to fall in love with the young man. Leaving her husband, Elena went to Troy, and in order to avenge such an insult, the Greeks began a long-term war with the Trojans. As you can see, the apple of Eris actually led to discord.

Pandora's Box

Well, now hold on, Pandora's box has opened.

Meaning. All that can serve as a source of disaster if not careful.

Origin. When the great titan Prometheus stole the fire of the gods from Olympus and gave people the fire of the gods, Zeus terribly punished the daredevil, but it was too late. Possessing the divine flame, people ceased to obey the celestials, learned various sciences, and got out of their miserable state. A little more - and they would have won complete happiness for themselves.

Then Zeus decided to send punishment on them. The blacksmith god Hephaestus fashioned the beautiful woman Pandora from earth and water. The rest of the gods gave her: who is cunning, who is courage, who is extraordinary beauty. Then, handing her a mysterious box, Zeus sent her to earth, forbidding her to open the box. Curious Pandora, barely having come into the world, slightly opened the lid. Immediately all human disasters flew out from there and scattered throughout the universe. Pandora, in fear, tried to close the lid again, but in the box of all misfortunes, only a deceptive hope remained.

We use old sayings and various catch phrases in everyday life, sometimes without even knowing the history of the emergence of such catch phrases. We all know the meanings of many of these phrases from childhood and use these expressions appropriately, they came to us imperceptibly and became entrenched in our culture for centuries. Where did these phrases and expressions come from?

But every folk wisdom has its own story, nothing comes out of nowhere. Well, it will be very interesting for you to find out where these catchphrases and expressions, proverbs and sayings came from!

Read more of our material Russian folk superstitions, about the history of the origin of popular signs and superstitions - very interesting!

Where did expressions come from?

bosom friend

“Pour over the Adam's apple” is a rather old expression, it meant in ancient times literally “get drunk”, “drink a lot of alcohol”. The phraseologism “bosom friend” that has been formed since then is used to this day and it denotes the closest friend.

Money doesn't smell

The roots of this expression should be sought in ancient Rome. The son of the Roman emperor Vespasian once reproached his father for imposing a tax on public toilets. Vespasian showed his son the money that came into the treasury from this tax and asked him if the money smelled. The son sniffed and gave a negative answer.

Wash the bones

The expression has been around since ancient times. Some peoples believed that an unrepentant damned sinner, after his death, comes out of the grave and turns into a ghoul or vampire and destroys everyone who gets in his way. And in order to remove the spell, it is necessary to dig up the remains of the dead man from the grave and rinse the bones of the deceased with clean water. Now the expression "wash the bones" means nothing more than dirty gossip about a person, a pseudo-analysis of his character and behavior.

Breathe incense

Christian custom required that the dying before death were confessed by priests, as well as communed them and censed them with incense. The expression stuck. Now they say about sickly people or poorly working devices and equipment: “breathes its last”.

play on nerves

In ancient times, after doctors discovered the existence of nervous tissue (nerves) in the body, by resemblance to the strings of musical instruments, they called the nervous tissue in Latin the word strings: nervus. From that moment on, the expression went, which means annoying actions - "play on the nerves."

vulgarity

The word "vulgarity" is originally Russian, the root of which is formed from the verb "let's go." Until the 17th century, this word was used in a good, decent sense. It meant traditional, habitual in the daily life of people, that is, what is done according to custom and happened, that is, WENT from time immemorial. However, the ensuing reforms of the Russian Tsar Peter I with their innovations twisted this word, it lost its former respect and began to mean: “uncivilized, backward, rustic”, etc.

Augean stables

There is a legend according to which King Augius was an avid horse breeder; there were 3,000 horses in the king's stables. For some reason, no one cleaned the stables for 30 years. Hercules was charged with cleaning these stables. He directed the course of the river Alfea to the stables, all the dirt from the stables was washed with a stream of water. Since then, this expression has been applied to the contamination of something to the last limit.

scum

The remains of the liquid that remained at the bottom along with the sediment used to be called scum. All sorts of rabble often wandered around the taverns and taverns, who finished drinking the muddy remnants of alcohol in glasses after other visitors, very soon the term scum passed to them.

Blue blood

The royal family, as well as the nobility of Spain, were proud that they were leading their
ancestry from the West Goths, unlike the common people, and they never mixed with the Moors who entered Spain from Africa. Blue veins clearly stood out on the pale skin of the native Spaniards, which is why they proudly called themselves "blue blood". This expression eventually began to denote a sign of the aristocracy and passed into many nations, including ours.

Get to the handle

In Russia, kalachi was always baked with a handle, so that it was convenient to carry kalachi. Then the handle was broken off and thrown away for hygiene purposes. The broken handles were picked up and eaten by beggars and dogs. The expression means - to become impoverished, to go down, to impoverish.

Scapegoat

The ancient Jewish rite consisted in the fact that on the day of the remission of sins, the high priest laid his hands on the head of a goat, as if laying all the sins of the people on it. Hence the expression "scapegoat".

It is not worth it

In the old days, before the invention of electricity, gamblers used to gather to play in the evenings by candlelight. Sometimes the bets made and the winnings of the winner were negligible, so much so that even the candles that burned during the game did not pay off. This is how the expression came about.

Pour in the first number

In the old days, at school, students were often flogged, sometimes even without misconduct on their part, just for prevention. The mentor could show diligence in educational work and sometimes the students got it very hard. Such disciples could be freed from vice, up to the first day of the next month.

Beat the thumbs

In the old days, chocks, chopped off from a log, were called baclushes. These were blanks for wooden utensils. For the manufacture of wooden utensils, special skills and efforts were not needed. This was considered very easy. Since that time, it has become customary to “beat the buckets” (to mess around).

Not by washing, so by skating

In the old days, women in the villages, after washing, literally “rolled” the laundry with the help of a special rolling pin. Thus, well-rolled linen turned out to be wrung out, ironed and, moreover, clean (even in cases of poor-quality washing). In our time, we say “not by washing, so by rolling,” which means achieving the cherished goal in any way.

In the bag

In the old days, messengers who delivered mail to recipients sewed very valuable important papers, or “cases” under the lining of their caps or hats, in order to hide important documents from prying eyes and not attract the attention of robbers. This is where the popular to this day expression “it's in the bag” comes from.

Let's go back to our sheep

In a French comedy from the Middle Ages, a rich clothier sued a shepherd who stole his sheep. During the court session, the clothier forgot about the shepherd and switched to his lawyer, who, as it turned out, did not pay him for six cubits of cloth. The judge, seeing that the cloth maker had drifted in the wrong direction, interrupted him with the words: "Let's return to our rams." Since that time, the expression has become catchy.

To contribute

In ancient Greece, a mite (small coin) was in circulation. In the gospel parable, the poor widow donated the last two mites for the construction of the temple. Hence the expression - "do your bit."

Versta Kolomna

In the 17th century, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who was ruling at that time, the distance between Moscow and the royal summer residence in the village of Kolomenskoye was measured, as a result of which very high milestones were installed. Since then, it has become customary to call very tall and thin people "Kolomenskaya Verst".

Chasing a long ruble

In the XIII century in Russia, the hryvnia was the monetary and weight unit, which was divided into 4 parts (“ruble”). More weighty than others, the rest of the ingot was called the "long ruble". The expression "chasing a long ruble" means easy and good earnings.

Newspaper ducks

The Belgian humorist Cornelissen published a note in the newspaper about how one scientist bought 20 ducks, chopped one of them and fed it to the other 19 ducks. A little later, he did exactly the same with the other, third, fourth, etc. As a result, he was left with one and only duck, which ate all of its 19 girlfriends. The note was posted to mock the gullibility of readers. Since then, it has become customary to call false news nothing but "newspaper ducks."

Money laundering

The origins of the expression go to America, at the beginning of the 20th century. It was difficult for Al Capone to spend money obtained by dishonest means, because he was constantly under the scrutiny of the special services. In order to be able to safely spend this money and not get caught by the police, Capone created a huge network of laundries, which had very low prices. Therefore, it was difficult for the police to track the real number of customers, it became possible to write absolutely any income of laundries. This is where the now popular expression “money laundering” comes from. Since that time, the number of laundries has remained huge, the prices for their services are still low, so in the USA it is customary to wash clothes not at home, but in laundries.

Orphan Kazan

As soon as Ivan the Terrible took Kazan, he decided to bind the local aristocracy to himself. To do this, he rewarded high-ranking officials of Kazan who voluntarily came to him. Many of the Tatars, wishing to receive good rich gifts, pretended to be hard hit by the war.

Inside out

Where did this popular expression come from, which is used when a person dressed or did something wrong? During the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in Russia, an embroidered collar was a sign of the dignity of one or another nobleman, and this collar was called "shivoro". If such a worthy boyar or nobleman angers the king in any way or was subjected to royal disgrace, as usual, he was put on a skinny nag with his back forward, having previously turned his clothes inside out. Since then, the expression “topsy-turvy”, which meant “on the contrary, is wrong”, has been fixed.

From under the stick

The expression "under the stick" takes its roots from circus acts in which trainers make animals jump over a stick. This phraseological turnover has been used since the 19th century. It means that a person is forced to work, forced to do some action or behavior, which he really does not want to do. This phraseological image is associated with the opposition "will - captivity". This metaphor likens a person to an animal or a slave who is forced to do something or work under pain of physical punishment.

A teaspoon per hour

This popular expression appeared in quite distant times for us thanks to pharmacists. Pharmacists in those difficult times themselves made potions, medicinal ointments and infusions for many diseases. According to the rules that existed since those times, each bottle of the medicinal mixture should have an instruction (prescription) for the use of this medicine. Then it was still measured not in drops, as mostly now, but in teaspoons. For example, 1 teaspoon per glass of water. Such medicines in those days had to be taken strictly by the hour, and the treatment usually lasted quite a long time. Hence the meaning of this catchphrase. Now the expression "a teaspoon per hour" means a long and slow process of any action with time intervals, on a very small scale.

Goof

To get into trouble means to be in an awkward position. Prosak is an ancient medieval special rope loom for weaving ropes and twisting ropes. He had a very complex design and twisted the strands so much that getting into his mechanism of clothes, hair or beard could even cost a person his life. This expression originally even had a once specific meaning, literally - "accidentally fall into twisted ropes."

Usually this expression means to be embarrassed, goof off, get into an unpleasant situation, disgrace yourself in some way, sit in a puddle, screw up as they say these days, hit your face in the dirt.

Free and for free

Where did the word "freebie" come from?

Our ancestors called the top of the boot a freebie. Usually the lower part of the boot (head) wore out much faster than the top of the freebie. Therefore, to save money, enterprising "cold shoemakers" sewed a new head to the bootleg. Such updated boots can be said - sewn "for free" - were much cheaper than their new counterparts.

Nick down

The expression "hack on the nose" came to us from ancient times. Previously, our ancestors used the term “nose” to mean writing boards that were used as old notebooks - they made all kinds of notes on them, or it would be more correct to even say notches as a keepsake. Since then, the expression "hack on the nose" has appeared. If they borrowed money, then they wrote the debt on such tablets and gave it to the creditor as debt obligations. And if the debt was not returned, the creditor "was left with a nose", that is, with a simple tablet instead of the borrowed money.

Prince on a white horse

The expression of modern princesses about the expectations of a "prince on a white horse" originated in medieval Europe. At that time, royal persons rode beautiful white horses in honor of special holidays, and the most highly revered knights participated in tournaments on horses of the same suit. Since that time, the expression about princes on white horses has gone, because a stately white horse was considered a symbol of greatness, as well as beauty and glory.

For distant lands

Where is it located? In ancient Slavic tales, this expression of the distance "to distant lands" is very common. It means that the object is very far away. The roots of the expression go back to the time of Kievan Rus. Then there was a decimal and nine-decimal system of calculus. So, according to the nine-decimal system, which was based on the number 9, the maximum scale for the standards of a fairy tale, which increases everything by a factor of three, the number was taken far away, that is, three times nine. That's where the expression comes from...

I'm going to you

What does the phrase "I'm coming for you" mean? This expression has been known since the time of Kievan Rus. Before a military campaign, the Grand Duke and Bright Warrior Svyatoslav always sent a warning message “I’m coming at you!” to enemy lands, which meant an attack, an attack - I’m coming at you. In the days of Kievan Rus, our ancestors called “you” precisely enemies, and not to honor unfamiliar and older people.

It was a matter of honor to warn the enemy about the attack. The code of military honor, the ancient traditions of the Slavic-Aryans also included a ban on shooting or attacking with a weapon an unarmed or unequal enemy. The code of military honor was strictly adhered to by those who respected themselves and their ancestors, including Grand Duke Svyatoslav.

There is nothing behind the soul

In the old days, our ancestors believed that the soul of a person is located in a dimple on the neck between the collarbones.
In the same place on the chest, according to custom, money was kept. Therefore, it was said and is still being said about a poor person that he "has nothing behind his soul."

Sewn with white thread

This phraseological unit comes from tailoring roots. In order to see when sewing how to sew the details, first they are hastily sewn with white threads, so to speak, a draft or trial version, so that later all the details are carefully sewn together. Hence the meaning of the expression: a hastily assembled case or work, that is, “for a rough job”, may imply negligence and deceit in the case. Often used in legal folk terms when an investigator is working on a case.

Seven spans in the forehead

By the way, this expression does not speak of a very high intelligence of a person, as we usually think. This expression is about age. Yes Yes. A span is an ancient Russian measure of length, which is equal to 17.78 cm in terms of centimeters (an international unit of measurement of length). 7 spans in the forehead is a person’s height, it is 124 cm, usually children grew up to this mark by 7 years. At this time, children were given names and began to be taught (boys - the male craft, girls - the female). Until this age, children were usually not distinguished by gender and they wore the same clothes. By the way, until the age of 7 they usually didn’t have names, they simply called them a child.

Looking for Eldorado

Eldorado (in Spanish, El Dorado means "golden") is a mythical country in South America that is rich in gold and precious stones. The conquistadors of the 16th century were looking for her. In a figurative sense, "Eldorado" is often called the place where you can quickly get rich.

Karachun came

There are such folk expressions that not everyone can understand: “Karachun came”, “Karachun grabbed”. Meaning: someone, someone suddenly died, died or died ... Karachun (or Chernobog) in the ancient Slavic mythology of pagan times is the underground god of death and frost, besides, he is not at all a good spirit, but on the contrary - evil. By the way, his celebration falls on the day of the winter solstice (December 21-22).

About dead or good or nothing

The implication is that the dead are spoken of either well or not at all. This expression has come down in a rather serious modified form to our days from the depths of centuries. In ancient times, this expression sounded like this: “About the dead is either good or nothing but the truth”. This is a fairly well-known saying of the ancient Greek politician and poet Chilo from Sparta (VI century BC), and the historian Diogenes Laertes (III century AD) tells about him in his essay “The Life, Teachings and Opinions of Illustrious Philosophers” . Thus, the clipped expression has lost its original meaning over time and is now perceived in a completely different way.

Exasperate

You can often hear in colloquial speech how someone brings someone to white heat. The meaning of the expression: inflame to strong emotions, bring someone into a state of extreme irritation or even complete loss of self-control. Where and how did this turn of speech come about? Everything is simple. When the metal is gradually heated, it turns red, but when it is further heated to a very high temperature, the metal turns white. To heat up, that is, to warm up. Incandescence is essentially very strong heating, hence the expression.

All roads lead to Rome

During the Roman Empire (27 BC - 476 AD) Rome tried to expand its territory through military conquest. Cities, bridges, roads were actively built for better interconnection between the provinces of the empire and the capital (for collecting taxes, for the arrival of couriers and ambassadors, for the quick arrival of legions to suppress riots). The Romans were the first to build roads and naturally the construction was carried out from Rome, from the capital of the Empire. Modern scientists say that the main routes are built precisely on the ancient ancient Roman roads, which are already thousands of years old.

Balzac woman

How old are women of Balzac age? Honoré de Balzac, a famous French writer of the 19th century, wrote the novel "The Thirty-Year-Old Woman", which became quite popular. Therefore, the “Balzac age”, “Balzac woman” or “Balzac heroine” is a woman of 30-40 years old who has already learned life wisdom and worldly experience. By the way, the novel is very interesting, like other novels by Honore de Balzac.

Achilles' heel

The mythology of Ancient Greece tells us about the legendary and greatest hero Achilles, the son of the sea goddess Thetis and the mere mortal Peleus. In order for Achilles to become invulnerable and strong like the gods, his mother bathed him in the waters of the sacred river Styx, but since she held her son by the heel so as not to drop, it was this part of the body that Achilles remained vulnerable to. The Trojan Paris hit Achilles in the heel with an arrow, causing the hero to die...

Modern anatomy refers to the tendon over the calcaneus in humans as "Achilles". The very expression "Achilles' heel" since ancient times denotes a weak and vulnerable place of a person.

Dot all I

Where did this rather popular expression come from? Probably from the Middle Ages, from book scribes in those days.

Around the 11th century, a dot appeared above the letter i in the texts of Western European manuscripts (before that, the letter was written without a dot). When writing letters in words in italics (without separating letters from each other), the dash could get lost among other letters and the text became difficult to read. In order to more clearly designate this letter and make it easier to read texts, a dot was introduced above the letter i. And the points were set after the text on the page had already been written. Now the expression means: to clarify, to bring the matter to the end.

By the way, this saying has a continuation and completely sounds like this: “Dot all i and cross out t”. But the second part didn't work for us.

Top most famous catchphrases

And who are the judges?
Quote from A. S. Griboedov's comedy "Woe from Wit" (1824), d.2, yavl.5, Chatsky's words:
And who are the judges? - For the antiquity of years
To a free life their enmity is irreconcilable,
Judgments draw from forgotten newspapers
Ochakov times and the conquest of the Crimea.

Balzac age
The expression arose after the publication of the novel by the French writer Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) "The Thirty-Year-Old Woman" (1831); used as a characteristic of women aged 30-40 years.

No rudder and no sails
Quote from M. Yu. Lermnotov's poem "Demon" (1842), part 1:
On the ocean of air
No rudder and no sails
Quietly floating in the fog -
Choirs of slender luminaries.

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.

Borzoi puppies to take
Originated from a comedy by N.V. Gogol "The Inspector General", d.1, yavl.1, the words of Lyapin-Tyapkin: "Sins are different. I tell everyone openly that I take bribes, but why bribes? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter."

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 are embarrassed to express orally.

To be or not to be - that is the question
The beginning of Hamlet's monologue in Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, translated by N.A. Field (1837).

You can’t harness a horse and a quivering doe into one cart
Quote from the poem by A.S. Pushkin "Poltava" (1829).

Great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language
Quote from a poem in prose by I.S. Turgenev "Russian language" (1882).

Back to our sheep
With these words, in the farce "Lawyer Pierre Patlen" (c. 1470), the first of a cycle of anonymous farces about the lawyer Patlen, the judge interrupts the speech of a rich clothier. Having initiated a case against the shepherd who stole the sheep from him, the clothier, forgetting about his lawsuit, showers reproaches on the shepherd's defender, Patlen's lawyer, who did not pay him for six cubits of cloth.

Wolf in sheep's clothing
The expression originated from the Gospel: "Take care 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).

Time is money
Aphorism from the work of the American scientist and politician Franklin (1706-1790) "Advice to a young merchant" (1748).

I carry everything with me
The expression originated from ancient Greek tradition. When the 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)

Was it a boy?
In one of the episodes of M. Gorky's novel "The Life of Klim Samgin" tells about the boy Klim skating with other children. Boris Varavka and Varya Somova fall into a hole. Klim gives Boris the end of his gymnasium belt, but, feeling that he is being pulled into the water, he releases the belt from his hands. Children are drowning. When the search for the drowned begins, Klima is struck by "someone's serious incredulous question: - Was there a boy, maybe there wasn't a boy." The last phrase has become winged as a figurative expression of extreme doubt about anything.

twenty two misfortunes
So in the play by A.P. Chekhov "The Cherry Orchard" (1903) they call the clerk Epikhodov, with whom some kind of comic trouble happens every day. The expression is applied to people with whom some kind of misfortune constantly happens.

Twenty-three years and nothing done for immortality
The words of Don Carlos from the drama by F. Schiller "Don Carlos, Infante of Spain" (1782), d.2, yavl. 2.

Two-faced Janus
In Roman mythology, Janus - the god of time, as well as every beginning and end, entrances and exits (janua - door) - was depicted with two faces facing in opposite directions: young - forward, into the future, old - back, into the past. The expression "two-faced Janus" or simply "Janus", which arose from here, means: a two-faced person.

The work of helping the drowning is the work of the drowning themselves
In the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov "The Twelve Chairs" (1927), in chapter 34, a poster with such a slogan is mentioned, posted in the club at the evening of the Water Rescue Society.

Money doesn't smell
The expression arose from the words of the Roman emperor (69 - 79 AD) Vespasian, said by him, as Suetonius reports in his biography, on the following occasion. When Vespasian's son Titus reproached his father for imposing a tax on public latrines, Vespasian brought the first money received from this tax to his nose and asked if they smelled. To the negative answer of Titus, Vespasian said: "And yet they are from urine."

Domostroy
"Domostroy" is a monument of Russian literature of the 16th century, which is a set of everyday rules and morals. The husband, according to "Domostroy", is the head of the family, the master of the wife, and "Domostroy" indicates in detail in which cases he should beat his wife, etc. Hence the word "domostroy" means: a conservative way of family life, a morality that affirms the slavish position of a woman.

Draconian measures
This is the name given to exorbitantly harsh laws named after the Dragon, the first legislator of the Athenian Republic (VII century BC). Among the punishments determined by its laws, a prominent place was allegedly occupied by the death penalty, which punished, for example, such an offense as stealing vegetables. There was a legend that these laws were written in blood (Plutarch, Solon). In literary speech, the expression "draconian laws", "draconian measures, punishments" became stronger in the meaning of harsh, cruel laws.

Eat to live, not live to eat
The aphorism belongs to Socrates (469-399 BC), and was often quoted by ancient writers.

Yellow press
In 1895, the American graphic artist Richard Outcault placed a series of frivolous drawings with humorous text in a number of issues of the New York newspaper "The World"; among the drawings was a child in a yellow shirt, to whom various amusing statements were attributed. Soon another newspaper - "New York Journal" - began to print a series of similar drawings. A dispute arose between the two papers over the title to the "yellow boy". In 1896, Erwin Wardman, editor of the New York Press, published an article in his magazine in which he contemptuously called the two competing newspapers "yellow press". Since then, the expression has become catchy.

finest hour
An expression by Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) from the preface to his collection of historical short stories "Humanity's Star Clock" (1927). Zweig explains that he called historical moments star hours "because, like eternal stars, they always shine in the night of oblivion and decay."

Knowledge is power
An expression of the English philosopher Francis Bacon in Moral and Political Essays (1597).

Golden mean
An expression from the 2nd book of the odes of the Roman poet Horace: "aurea mediocritas".

And boring, and sad, and there is no one to give a hand
Quote from M. Yu. Lermontov's poem "Both boring and sad" (1840).

And you Brute?
In Shakespeare's tragedy "Julius Caesar" (d.3, yavl.1), with these words, the dying Caesar addresses Brutus, who was among the conspirators who attacked him in the Senate. Historians consider this phrase legendary. Mark Junius Brutus, whom Caesar considered his supporter, became the head of a conspiracy against him and was one of the participants in his assassination in 44 BC.

Choose the lesser of two evils
An expression found in the writings of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle "Nicomachean ethics" in the form: "The lesser of evils must be chosen." Cicero (in his essay "On Duties") says: "It is necessary not only to choose the least of the evils, but also to extract from them that which can be good in them."

Make an elephant out of a fly
The expression is ancient. It is cited by the Greek writer Lucian (3rd century AD), who ends his satirical "Praise of the Fly" as follows: "But I interrupt my word - although I could say much more - so that someone would not think that I , according to the proverb, I make an elephant out of a fly.

Zest
The expression is used in the meaning: something that gives a special taste, attractiveness to something (dish, story, person, etc.). It arose from a folk proverb: "Kvass is not expensive, the zest in kvass is expensive"; became winged after the appearance of Leo Tolstoy's drama "The Living Corpse" (1912). The hero of the drama Protasov, talking about his family life, says: “My wife was an ideal woman ... But what can I say? And without the game you won't forget..."

Capital to acquire and innocence to keep
An expression popularized by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin ("Letters to Auntie", letter 10, 1882; "Children of Moscow", "Little Things in Life", 1877, "Mon Repos Shelter").

Scapegoat
A biblical expression that arose from the description of a special rite among the ancient Jews of laying the sins of the whole people on a live goat; on the day of the absolution, the high priest laid both hands on the head of a living goat as a sign of laying on him the sins of the Jewish people, after which the goat was driven into the wilderness. The expression is used in the sense: a person who is constantly blamed on someone else's fault, who is responsible for others.

a swan song
The expression is used in the meaning: the last manifestation of talent. Based on the belief that swans sing before death, it arose in antiquity. Evidence of this is found in one of Aesop's fables (6th century BC): "They say that swans sing before they die."

Summer. Sink into oblivion
In Greek mythology, Leta is the river of oblivion in Hades, the underworld; the souls of the dead, upon arrival in the underworld, drank water from it and forgot their entire past life.

Flying Dutchman
Dutch legend has preserved the story of a sailor who swore in a strong storm to go around the cape that blocked his path, even if it took him an eternity. For his pride, he was doomed to forever rush on a ship on a raging sea, never touching the shore. This legend, obviously, arose in the age of great discoveries. It is possible that its historical basis was the expedition of Vasco da Gama (1469-1524), who rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1497. In the 17th century this legend was dated to several Dutch captains, which is reflected in its name.

seize the moment
The expression, apparently, goes back to Horace ("carpe diem" - "seize the day", "take advantage of the day").

Lion's share
The expression goes back to the fable of the ancient Greek fabulist Aesop "The Lion, the Fox and the Donkey", the plot of which - the division of prey among the animals - was later used by Phaedrus, La Fontaine and other fabulists.

The moor has done his job, the moor can go
Quote from the drama by F. Schiller (1759 - 1805) "The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa" (1783). This phrase (d.3, yavl.4) is spoken by the Moor, who turned out to be unnecessary after he helped Count Fisco organize an uprising of the Republicans against the tyrant of Genoa, Doge Doria. This phrase has become a saying that characterizes a cynical attitude towards a person whose services are no longer needed.

Manna from heaven
According to the Bible, manna is the food that God sent to the Jews every morning from heaven when they went through the desert to the promised land (Exodus, 16, 14-16 and 31).

Disservice
The expression arose from the fable by I. A. Krylov "The Hermit and the Bear" (1808).

Honeymoon
The idea that the happiness of the first period of marriage is quickly replaced by the bitterness of disappointment, figuratively expressed in Eastern folklore, was used by Voltaire for his philosophical novel Zadig, or Fate (1747), in the 3rd chapter of which he writes: the first month of marriage, as described in the book of Zend, is the honeymoon, and the second is the sagebrush month.

Between the hammer and the anvil
The title of a novel (1868) by Friedrich Spielhagen (1829-1911). It is used as a characteristic of the plight of someone, when dangers and troubles threaten from two sides.

Maecenas
The wealthy Roman patrician Gaius Tsilny Maecenas (between 74 and 64 - 8 BC) patronized artists and poets widely. Horace, Virgil, Propertius glorified him in their poems. Martial (40 - 102 AD) in one of his epigrams says: "There would be, Flaccus, Patrons, there would be no shortage of Maroons", that is, Virgils (Vergilius Maro). Thanks to the poems of these poets, his name became a household name for a wealthy patron of the arts and sciences.

Your gift is not dear to me, your love is dear
An expression from the Russian folk song "On the pavement street":
Ah, my dear is good,
Chernobrov soul, handsome,
Brought me a present
Dear gift,
Gold ring from hand.
I don't care about your gift,
The road is your love.
I don't want to wear a ring
I want to love my friend.

We have a road for young people everywhere
Quote from "Song of the Motherland" in the film "Circus" (1936), text by V.I. Lebedev-Kumach, music by I.O. Dunaevsky.

Milk rivers, kissel banks
An expression from a Russian folk tale.

Silent means consent
The expression of the Pope (1294-1303) Boniface VIII in one of his messages included in canon law (a set of decrees of church authority). This expression goes back to Sophocles (496-406 BC), in whose tragedy "The Trachinian Women" it is said: "Don't you understand that by silence you agree with the accuser?"

Flour Tantalum
In Greek mythology, Tantalus, the king of Phrygia (also called the king of Lydia), was a favorite of the gods, who often invited him to their feasts. But, proud of his position, he offended the gods, for which he was severely punished. According to Homer ("Odyssey"), his punishment was that, thrown into Tartarus (hell), he always experiences unbearable pangs of thirst and hunger; he stands up to his neck in water, but the water recedes from him as soon as he bows his head to drink; branches with luxurious fruits hang over him, but as soon as he stretches out his hands to them, the branches deviate. Hence the expression "Tantal's torment" arose, which means: unbearable torment due to the inability to achieve the desired goal, despite its proximity.

We are lazy and not curious
Quote from "Journey to Arzrum" (1836) by A. S. Pushkin, ch. 2.

We cannot wait for favors from nature, it is our task to take them from her
The expression belongs to the biologist-genetic breeder I. V. Michurin (1855-1935), in practice, on a large scale, who showed the ability to change the hereditary forms of organisms, adapting them to human needs.

On the seventh sky
The expression, meaning the highest degree of joy, happiness, goes back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC), who in his essay "On the Sky" explains the structure of the firmament. He believed that the sky consists of seven motionless crystal spheres, on which the stars and planets are fixed. The seven heavens are mentioned in various places in the Qur'an: for example, it is said that the Qur'an itself was brought by an angel from the seventh heaven.

Our shelf has arrived
An expression from the ancient "game" song "And we sowed millet"; used in the sense: there are more people like us (in some respect).

Don't throw pearls before swine
An expression from the Gospel: “Do not give holy things to dogs and do not throw your pearls (church-glory. beads) before swine, so that they do not trample it under their feet and, turning, do not tear you to pieces” (Matt., 7, 6). Used in the meaning: do not waste words with people who cannot understand them, appreciate them.

Don't be foolish
An expression from the tragedy of A. S. Pushkin "Boris Godunov" (1831), the scene "Night. A cell in the Miracle Monastery", the words of the chronicler Pimen:
Describe, without further ado,
All that you will witness in life.


I don't want to study, I want to get married
Mitrofanushka's words from D. I. Fonvizin's comedy "Undergrowth" (1783), d.3, yavl. 7.

Sky in diamonds
An expression from A.P. Chekhov's play "Uncle Vanya" (1897). In the 4th act, Sonya, comforting the tired Uncle Vanya, exhausted by life, says: “We will rest! the whole world, and our life will become quiet, gentle, sweet, like a caress.

Despite the faces
Bible expression. The idea of ​​actions without partiality, without obsequiousness to superiors is expressed in many places of the Old and New Testaments (Deuteronomy, 1, 17; Matt., 22, 16; Mark, 12, 14, etc.), although in somewhat different words. It is possible that the expression "regardless of faces" is a translation of the phrase "Ohne Ansehen der Person" common in German speech, which is a quotation from Luther's translation of the Gospel (1 Peter, 1, 17).

No one will embrace the immensity
Aphorism from "The Fruits of Thoughts" by Kozma Prutkov (1854).

Nothing is new [not forever] under the moon
Quote from N. M. Karamzin's poem "Experienced Solomon's Wisdom, or Selected Thoughts from Ecclesiastes" (1797):
Nothing new under the sun
What is, was, will be forever.
And before the blood flowed like a river,
And before the man cried...
This poem is an imitation of Ecclesiastes, one of the books that make up the Bible.

New is well forgotten old
In 1824, the memoirs of the milliner Marie Antoinette, Mademoiselle Bertin, were published in France, in which she said these words about the queen's old dress she had renovated (in fact, her memoirs are fake, their author is Jacques Pesche). This thought was perceived as new, too, only because it was well forgotten. Already Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) said that "there is no new custom that is not old." This quote from Chaucer was popularized by Walter Scott's Folk Songs of Southern Scotland.

O times! oh manners!
An expression that Cicero (106-43 BC) often used in his speeches, for example, in his first speech against Catiline. It is also quoted in Latin: "O tempora! o mores!".

About dead or good or nothing
An expression often quoted in Latin: "De mortuis nil nisi bene" or "De mortuis aut bene aut nihil", apparently, goes back to the work of Diogenes Laertes (3rd century AD): "Life, Doctrine and Opinions famous philosophers", which contains the saying of one of the "seven wise men" - Chilo (VI century BC): "Do not slander about the dead."

O holy simplicity!
This expression is attributed to the leader of the Czech national movement Jan Hus (1369-1415). Sentenced by a church council as a heretic to be burned, he allegedly uttered these words at the stake when he saw that some old woman (according to another version - a peasant woman) in ingenuous religious zeal threw the brushwood she brought into the fire of the fire. However, Hus's biographers, based on eyewitness accounts of his death, deny the fact that he uttered this phrase. The ecclesiastical writer Turanius Rufinus (c. 345-410) in his continuation of Eusebius' History of the Church reports that the expression "holy simplicity" was uttered at the First Council of Nicaea (325) by one of the theologians. This expression is often used in Latin: "O sancta simplicitas!".

Formed
In L. N. Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina", part 1, ch. 2 (1875), the valet encourages his master, Stepan Arkadevich, upset by a quarrel with his wife, with this word. This word, used in the sense of "everything will be settled", which became winged after the appearance of Tolstoy's novel, was probably heard by him somewhere. He used it in one of his letters to his wife back in 1866, urging her not to worry about various everyday troubles. His wife, in a reply letter, repeated his words: "Probably, all this will work out."

Window to Europe
An expression from A. S. Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman", Introduction (1834):
On the shore of desert waves
He stood, full of great thoughts,
And looked into the distance...
And he thought:
From here we will threaten the Swede.
Here the city will be founded
To spite an arrogant neighbor.
Nature here is destined for us
Cut a window to Europe...
This expression, as Pushkin himself pointed out in the notes to the poem, goes back to the Italian writer Algarotti (1712-1764), who in his "Letters about Russia" said: "Petersburg is a window through which Russia looks to Europe."

An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth
An expression from the Bible, the formula of the law of retribution: "A fracture for a fracture, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth: as he did damage to the human body, so it must be done to him" (Leviticus, 24, 20; about the same - Exodus, 21, 24; Deuteronomy 19:21).

Left horns and legs
A not entirely accurate quote from a song by an unknown author "The Gray Goat", which appeared in song books since 1855.

From great to funny one step
This phrase was often repeated by Napoleon during his flight from Russia in December 1812 to his ambassador in Warsaw de Pradt, who told about it in the book "History of the Embassy to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw" (1816). Its primary source is the expression of the French writer Jean-Francois Marmontel (1723-1799) in the fifth volume of his works (1787): "In general, the funny comes into contact with the great."

Oh, you are heavy, Monomakh's hat!
A quote from A. S. Pushkin's tragedy "Boris Godunov", the scene "The Tsar's Chambers" (1831), Boris's monologue (Monomakh in Greek is a wrestler; a nickname that was attached to the names of some Byzantine emperors. In ancient Russia, this nickname was assigned to the Grand Duke Vladimir (beginning of the 12th century), from which the Moscow tsars originated. Monomakh's cap is the crown with which the Moscow tsars were crowned to the kingdom, a symbol of royal power). The above quotation characterizes some difficult situation.

panic fear
Originated from Greek myths about Pan, the god of forests and fields. According to the myths, Pan brings sudden and unaccountable terror to people, especially travelers in remote and lonely places, as well as to the troops who rush to flee from this. This is where the word "panic" comes from.

Feast in Time of Plague
The name of the dramatic scenes of A. S. Pushkin (1832), the basis for which was a scene from the poems of the English poet John Wilson "The Plague City" (1816). Used in the meaning: a feast, a cheerful, carefree life during a public disaster.

Plato is my friend but the truth is dearer
The Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BC) in his work "Phaedo" attributes to Socrates the words "Following me, think less about Socrates, and more about the truth." Aristotle in his work "Nicomachean Ethics", arguing with Plato and having in mind him, writes: "Let friends and truth be dear to me, but duty commands me to give preference to truth." Luther (1483-1546) says: "Plato is my friend, Socrates is my friend, but the truth should be preferred" ("On the Enslaved Will", 1525). The expression "Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas" - "Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer", formulated by Cervantes in the 2nd part, ch. 51 novels "Don Quixote" (1615).

The Fruits of Enlightenment
The title of a comedy by L. N. Tolstoy (1891).

Dancing to someone else's tune
The expression is used in the sense: to act not according to one's own will, but according to the arbitrariness of another. It goes back to the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC), who in the 1st book of his "History" tells: when the Persian king Cyrus conquered the Medes, the Greeks of Asia Minor, whom he had previously tried in vain to win over to his side, expressed their readiness obey him, but under certain conditions. Then Cyrus told them the following fable: “One flutist, seeing the fish in the sea, began to play the flute, expecting that they would come to him on land. Deceived in hope, he took the net, threw it and pulled out a lot of fish. tangled in nets, he said to them: "Stop dancing; when I played the flute, you didn't want to go out and dance." This fable is attributed to Aesop (6th century BC).

Success is never blamed
These words are attributed to Catherine II, who allegedly put it this way when A.V. Suvorov was brought to court martial for the assault on Turtukai in 1773, undertaken by him contrary to the orders of Field Marshal Rumyantsev. However, the story of Suvorov's arbitrary actions and his being put on trial is refuted by serious researchers.

Know yourself
According to the legend reported by Plato in the dialogue "Protagoras", the seven wise men of ancient Greece (Thales, Pittacus, Byant, Solon, Cleobulus, Mison and Chilo), having come together in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, wrote: "Know thyself." The idea of ​​self-knowledge was explained and spread by Socrates. This expression is often used in the Latin form: nosce te ipsum.

After us at least a flood
This phrase is attributed to the French king Louis XV, but memoirists claim that it belongs to the favorite of this king, the Marquise of Pompadour (1721-1764). She said it in 1757 to console the king, dejected by the defeat of the French troops at Rosbach. It is possible that this phrase is an echo of a verse by an unknown Greek poet, who was often quoted by Cicero and Seneca: "After my death, let the world perish in fire."

Potemkin villages
In 1783, on the initiative of the statesman of the time of Catherine II, Prince G. A. Potemkin (1739-1791), Crimea was annexed to Russia, which was included in Novorossia. Contemporaries said that Potemkin, in order to show Catherine the prosperity of the new territory (during her trip to the south in 1787), erected villages on the way of the empress, which were entirely decorations, put up to meet her festively dressed people, driven from afar, but posing as local residents, showed grain warehouses in which bags instead of flour were stuffed with sand, drove the same herd of cattle from one place to another at night, planted parks in Kremenchug and other cities, and the planting was carried out for several days, so that the plantations died after Ekaterina's passage, etc.

The delay of death is like
In 1711, before the Prussian campaign, Peter I sent a letter to the newly established Senate. Thanks to the senators for their activities, he demanded that they continue not to delay the necessary orders, "before the passage of time is like death irrevocably." Winged words of Peter received in a shorter form: "Procrastination is like death."

Indulge in all the hard
Large bells in ancient Russia were called "heavy". The nature of the bell ringing, i.e. when and which bells to ring was determined by the "Typicon" - a church charter, in which the expression "strike with all seriousness" meant: strike all the bells at once. From here arose the expression "to go all out", which is used in the meaning: to go astray from the right path of life, to begin to indulge uncontrollably in revelry, debauchery, extravagance, etc.

spreading cranberry
The expression is used as a playful designation of absurd reports about Russia and Russians, belonging to ill-informed foreigners, in general - anything implausible, revealing a complete unfamiliarity with the subject. The oral tradition considers the description of the journey through Russia by Alexandre Dumas-father (1803-1870) to be the source of this expression. Meanwhile, in the books describing his journey through Russia, there are no gross distortions in the depiction of Russian nature, Russian customs and customs. In the "Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language" ed. D. N. Ushakov, it is reported that the expression "came from a description of Russia, in which a superficial French author sat under the shade of a majestic cranberry." It can be assumed that the expression "spreading cranberry" of parodic origin arose from a Russian author who ridicules the really anecdotal descriptions of Russian life that are found in some poorly informed French authors.

Cheer up, shoulder! Wave your hand!
Quote from A. V. Koltsov's poem "Mower" (1835).

rare bird
This expression (lat. rara avis) in the meaning of "rare creature" is first found in the satires of Roman poets, for example, in Juvenal (mid. I century - after 127 AD): "A rare bird on earth, sort of like black Swan".

Born to crawl cannot fly
Quote from "The Song of the Falcon" by M. Gorky.

Hands off!
Expresses the requirement not to intervene in the affairs of someone or something, to preserve the integrity of something. This expression as a political slogan was first used by the English Minister William Gladstone (1809-1898) in reference to Austria, which occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in the autumn of 1878.

Snout in fluff
An expression from the fable of I. A. Krylov "The Fox and the Marmot" (1813). The fox complains to the Groundhog that she suffers in vain and, slandered, was expelled for bribes:
- You know, I was a chicken coop judge,
Lost health and peace in business,
I didn’t eat a piece in the labors,
Nights did not sleep:
And I fell under anger for that;
And all by slander. Well, think for yourself:
Who in the world will be right if you listen to slander?
Should I take bribes? yes, I'm pissed off!
Well, have you seen, I will send for you,
That I was involved in this sin?
Think, remember well...
- No, gossip; I often saw
That your stigma is down.
This expression is used in the meaning: to be involved in something criminal, unseemly.

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.

With a sweet paradise and in a hut
Quote from the poem by N. M. Ibragimov (1778-1818) "Russian Song" ("In the evening, the girl is beautiful ..."):
Do not look for me, rich:
You are not dear to my soul.
What do I, what are your chambers?
With a sweet paradise and in a hut!
First published in 1815, this poem gained great popularity and became a folk song.

With feeling, with sense, with arrangement
Quote from A. S. Griboyedov's comedy "Woe from Wit" (1824), d.2, yavl.1.

blue stocking
The expression denoting the contemptuous name of women who are completely absorbed in bookish, scientific interests arose in England in the 80s of the 18th century. and did not have the disparaging meaning that it received later. Initially, it meant a circle of people of both sexes who gathered at Lady Montagu's for discussions on literary and scientific topics. The soul of the conversations was the scientist Benjamin Stellingfleet (1702-1771), who, neglecting fashion, wore blue stockings with dark clothes. When for some reason he did not appear in the circle, they repeated: "We cannot live without blue stockings, today the conversation is going badly - there are no blue stockings!" Thus, this nickname was first given to a man and not a woman. The expression especially spread when Byron used it in his satire on Lady Montague's circle "The Blues" - "Blue".

Blue bird
A play by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), staged at the Moscow Art Theater on September 30, 1908. The plot of this play is the adventures of a poor woodcutter's children in search of the Blue Bird. According to Oak in the play, the Blue Bird is "the secret of things and happiness". "If a person finds the Blue Bird, he will know everything, see everything" (the words of the Cat).

Mixing French with Nizhny Novgorod
Quote from A. S. Griboedov's comedy "Woe from Wit".

Combine pleasant with useful
An expression from the "Art of Poetry" by Horace, who says about the poet: "The one who combines pleasant with useful is worthy of all approval."

Happy hours don't watch
Quote from A. S. Griboyedov's comedy "Woe from Wit", d.1, yavl. 4, Sophia's words.

Wash your hands
Used in the meaning: to be removed from responsibility for something. Arose from the Gospel: Pilate washed his hands in front of the crowd, giving Jesus to her for execution, and said: "I am not guilty of the blood of this righteous man" (Matt., 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: the weak side of a person, deeds.

Fortune. Wheel of Fortune
Fortune - in Roman mythology, the goddess of blind chance, happiness and misfortune. She was 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.

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).

Man to man wolf
An expression from the "Donkey Comedy" by the ancient Roman writer Plautus (c. 254-184 BC).

Q.E.D
This formula ends every mathematical reasoning of the great Greek mathematician Euclid (III century BC).

What we have, we do not store, having lost, crying
The name of the vaudeville (1844) S. Solovyov

The language of native aspens
An expression from an epigram (1884) by I. S. Turgenev to N. Kh. Ketcher (1809-1886), a translator of Shakespeare; his translations are distinguished by their exceptional closeness to the original, which often harms poetry:
Here is another light of the world!
Ketcher, friend of sparkling wines;
He pereper to us Shakespeare
In the language of native aspens.
This expression is used ironically about rough translations from foreign languages ​​into Russian.

Apple of discord— Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War, forgot to invite the goddess of discord, Eris, to their wedding. Eris was very offended and secretly threw a golden apple on the table, at which the gods and mortals were feasting; it was written on it: "To the most beautiful." A terrible dispute arose between the three goddesses: the wife of Zeus - Hera, Athena - the maiden, the goddess of wisdom, and the beautiful goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite.

"The young man Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, was elected as a judge between them. Paris awarded the apple to the goddess of beauty. The grateful Aphrodite helped Paris kidnap the wife of the Greek king Menelaus, the beautiful Helen. To avenge such an insult, the Greeks went to war against Troy. As you can see, the apple of Eris and actually led to discord.

The expression "apple of discord", meaning any cause of disputes and strife, remained in memory of this. They also sometimes say "the apple of Eris", "the apple of Paris". You can often hear the words "throw an apple of discord between several people." The meaning of this is perfectly clear.

Throwing hats- Now we use this expression to characterize cheeky, self-satisfied boasting in relation to the enemy, unjustified bravado. The expression acquired such a meaning quite recently.

At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, the Russian Black-Hundred-nationalist press made fun of the Japanese troops, assuring the people that the Russian army would easily defeat its enemy. The complete unpreparedness for the war of the tsarist generals, their inability to use the military prowess of Russian soldiers and sailors, and most importantly, the political and economic backwardness of Russia led her to defeat. And it was then that the words “we throw our hats on” became an ironic definition of stupid arrogance.

And until then, this expression, which has long been known in Russia, was taken quite seriously to denote numerical superiority over the enemy. In Turgenev’s story “Three Portraits”, a serf woman says: “Yes, just order us, order, we will throw hats on him, such a mischievous one ...” We also find this expression in Shchedrin (“History of a City” and “Letters to Auntie” ), and Ostrovsky ("Dmitry the Pretender"), and many other Russian writers ...

By the way, why hats (not bast shoes, not sashes, not anything else)? Probably because throwing a hat on the ground was a kind of national custom in Russia, expressing both annoyance and reckless fun (for example, before starting to dance).

pure water— This means: the best quality, without any flaws. The words "pure water" are a technical term for jewelers. Transparent gems, primarily diamonds, are divided into completely colorless stones of pure water and those with incomplete transparency, and therefore cheaper.

Again we see how the professional expression has acquired a broader meaning, a more general meaning, and lives in the language of the whole society already almost without connection with the original term.

Chain reaction- This term was introduced by scientists more than half a century ago to denote a sequential series of alternating chemical reactions. And a little later, with the birth and development of a new science - nuclear physics - another term appeared: a nuclear chain reaction. They began to call them the "self-sustaining process of fission" of atomic nuclei.

For many years, this combination of words remained only in the arsenal of chemists and was always used in the literal sense. Since the explosion of the first atomic bomb, however, the whole world has been talking about a nuclear chain reaction: it has become a direct threat to humanity. And, as often happens in the language, these words, quickly becoming fashionable, well-known to everyone, turned into phraseological fusion, acquiring a figurative meaning, began to play the role of a figurative expression. For us now the words “chain reaction” mean any process over which a person has lost power and control, everything that, once started, develops wider and wider, stronger and stronger, like a fire or an avalanche.

The newspapers write about incomparably more significant things: “Yesterday's fall in the price of securities on the New York Stock Exchange spread like a chain reaction to the stock exchanges of other capitals of the world.”

In a word, a common phenomenon in the language took place before our eyes: a combination of words, almost unknown to anyone, suddenly became necessary and familiar to everyone, became a sudden fashion, and ... a kind of “chain reaction” of its use began.

Break it down to the bone- Truly amazing and unexpected is the fate of some well-known phrases! “Disassemble the bones” or “wash the bones” means: evil gossip about someone, list the shortcomings of a person.

But once in the ancient countries of Central Asia, human bones were “disassembled” after the solemn burning of the body of the deceased on a funeral pyre. This was done reverently, with great care. The collected bones were washed with wine and milk or fragrant oils, carefully put into urns and buried, all the time, as usual, praising the good deeds of the deceased and the best features of his character.

That was the custom.

Like all customs, probably, it was often performed formally, only for show: then the reverence of “taking apart” and “washing the bones” turned into something directly opposite. This is how the ironic expression commonly used today came about.

The center of the world- The ancients considered the navel to be the center of the human body, its middle. According to their myths, the father of the gods, Zeus, wished to know where, in this case, lies the navel of the earth. He launched eagles from two "ends of the world". Flying at the same speed, the birds collided in the sky over the place where the Greek city of Delphi later arose. It was he who began to be considered the center of the world.

In our time, the words "navel of the earth" have a derisive, ironic meaning. “He considers himself the navel of the earth,” they say about a presumptuous person, inclined to exaggerate his own significance.

Shelving- There is an assumption that this phrase, meaning "to give the case a long delay", "to delay its decision for a long time", arose in Muscovite Russia, three hundred years ago. Tsar Alexei, the father of Peter I, ordered in the village of Kolomenskoye in front of his palace to set up a long box where anyone could drop their complaint. Complaints fell, but it was very difficult to wait for a decision; often months and years passed before that. The people renamed this "long" box into "long".

It is difficult, however, to vouch for the accuracy of this explanation: after all, we do not say "lower" or not "put"; and "put it on the back burner." One might think that the expression, if not born, was fixed in speech later, in “presences” - institutions of the 19th century. The then officials, accepting various petitions, complaints and petitions, no doubt sorted them, putting them in different boxes. “Long” could be called the one where the most unhurried things were put off. It is clear that the petitioners were afraid of such a box.

By the way, there is no need to assume that someone once specifically renamed the “long” box into “long”: in many places in our country, in the national language, “long” exactly means “long”. The expression “put under the cloth” that was born later has the same meaning. Cloth covered tables in Russian offices.

In a big way (live)- Let's make a reservation right away: it is difficult to vouch for the authenticity of the history of the origin of this saying. But she's entertaining.

The birth of this combination of words, as they say, is to blame for the fashion that arose in England back in the 12th century. An ugly growth appeared on the big toe of the right foot of the English king Henry II Plantagenet. The king could not change the shape of the disfigured leg in any way. Therefore, he ordered shoes with long, sharp, turned-up toes.

The effect turned out to be amazing. The very next day shoemakers were inundated with orders for "nosed" shoes; each new customer sought to outdo the previous one. The king considered it good to limit the length of socks by law: ordinary citizens were allowed to wear shoes with a toe no longer than half a foot (15 centimeters), knights and barons - one foot (about 30 centimeters), and earls - two feet. Shoe sizes have thus become evidence of wealth and nobility. They started talking about rich people: “Ish, he lives in a big way (or on a big foot)!”

To prevent huge shoes from falling off, fashionistas had to stuff them with hay. Therefore, in France, which this fashion also did not pass, another expression was born: “to have hay in shoes”; it also means: "to live in contentment."

Why do you still have to doubt the veracity of this story? Yes, because the father of Henry II, Gottfried Plantagenet, is also called the trendsetter of this fashion. Others attribute the appearance of long shoes to the 14th century. The Spaniards believe that the idiom "to live in a big way" is Spanish, the Germans - German, etc.

Only one thing is certain: this expression - an exact translation from German - became widely used in Russia some more than a hundred years ago, after in 1841 the Literaturnaya Gazeta published a note about its origin.

The story about the royal callus, about the fashion associated with it and about the proverb that arose thanks to it, interested the reading public. All this led to the fact that the foreign phrase took root on Russian soil.

Teeth to speak- The doctor treats teeth, and the healer or grandmother-sorcerer "talks" them. They will whisper, whisper near the patient, sprinkle him "from the coals" with slanderous water, and the toothache should go away ...

Not so long ago there were people who believed more in such conspiracies than in medicine. But not everyone believed them; otherwise it could not have happened that already centuries ago, noticing that they were trying to deceive him, a Russian man angrily interrupted: “Give me your teeth to speak! I still don't believe it!"

“Talk your teeth” in a figurative sense means: to flatter someone with verbose evidence, to force them to agree with undeniable nonsense.

Lion's share- In Krylov's fable "Lion on the hunt" the animals together organize a round-up and get a deer. There are four participants: a dog, a wolf, a fox and a lion. But when dividing the booty, the lion distributes the four parts in this way:

"That part of me
Under contract;
This one belongs to me, as a Leo, without a dispute;
This one is for me because I am the strongest of all;
And to this little of you, only a paw who will stretch,
He will not get up from his place alive.
From this fable it is clear what the "lion's share" is.
Well, this expression arose in the work of I. A. Krylov?

It turns out not quite so. We meet similar fables literally in every major fabulist of all peoples.

Aesop's Lion, Fox and Ass opens this series, followed by La Fontaine's Heifer, Goat and Sheep in Partnership with a Lion, Tredyakovsky's Lion, Heifer, Goat and Sheep, Sumarokov's two fables and Chemnitzer's Lion's Divide.

What does it mean? Apparently, the theme of the injustice of powerful and powerful people has occupied the world for so long and firmly that it never ceases to be new. "Lion's share" is a very ancient and deeply popular expression.