Russian catchphrases: secret meaning. Write with a pitchfork on the water

Live and learn! everyone seems to know the ending of the phrase: you will die a fool. Such a common saying.
No, the roots are completely different. and meaning. Actually the words "Live and learnhow to live"said by Seneca.
Like everything in our illusory world, and in the "spoken word" - evidence is far from the truth.
This is my humble addition to the wonderful text from the Internet about the roots of common phrases.
Enjoy!

slap This word, as well as the expression "Hey you, hat!", Has nothing to do with headdresses, soft-bodied intelligentsia and other standard images that arise in our heads with you. The word came to jargon straight from Yiddish and is a twisted form of the German verb "schlafen" - "to sleep". And the “hat”, respectively, is “sleepy, open”: “While you are hat here, your suitcase is drape.”

Not at ease
In French, “asiet” is both a plate, a mood, and a state. They say that at the beginning of the 19th century, a certain translator, while translating a French play, translated the phrase "buddy, you're out of sorts" as "you're out of your element."

Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov, who was an avid theater-goer, of course, could not pass by such a brilliant blunder and put an illiterate phrase into Famusov's mouth: "My dear! You are not at ease. Sleep is needed from the road."

With the light hand of Alexander Sergeevich, the crazy phrase found meaning and took root in the Russian language for a long time.

Pip on your tongue
A small horny tubercle on the tip of the tongue in birds, which helps them peck food, is called a pip. The growth of such a tubercle can be a sign of illness. Hard pimples on the human tongue are called pips by analogy with these bird tubercles. According to superstitious ideas, a pip usually appears in lying people. Hence the unkind wish "pip on your tongue."

Sarcastic expression "You already have sand pouring"We have long been using and hearing in our ordinary life, knowing full well that we are talking about old age. And this phrase has become so familiar that it doesn’t even occur to you to think about where it came from, or it comes, but very slowly and somehow, maybe even suddenly. But each such expression that has come into common use has its own, sometimes very interesting, background ...

The most dynamically developing areas of life around the world have always been considered two essential human needs: food and clothing. It was in these two directions that it was always possible to create your own unique style. When such a style became popular, and more and more people wanted to adhere to it, it was already Fashion. Unfortunately, fashion has always had a limited time period, interacting with other areas of culture and the identity of society, but it has always left its intricate imprint in the history of mankind, at least in such phrases.

The roots of this particular expression originate in Europe, in the 16th century. It was a time of severe reforms and the dominance of the Spanish Inquisition. Heretics and blasphemers were subjected to cruel torture and death. "Vices for the testicles" - even sounds very painful, and what the then heretics endured during these sophisticated tortures, I'm afraid to even imagine. The male sexual organ has always been great importance, and such treatment with him in those days concentrated on him the increased attention of society.
And in order to make up for his (organ's) humiliated dignity, in men's fashion, in France, such a clothing accessory as "codpiece" (from the Dutch word gulp - a trouser pocket or pouch where "manhood" was put) is being developed and decorated in every possible way. It was not just a new trend in fashion, it was a kind of challenge to the Pope himself, whose Inquisition dared to encroach on the most vulnerable part of a man's body. And the farther, the more the male organ was cultivated, making the hearts of court ladies beat faster when looking at this wonderful bag for the phallus.

The codpiece was sewn from such expensive fabrics as velvet and silk, embroidered with gold threads and decorated with pearls. The men of that time competed with each other, attracting and enticing admiring female attention. The old womanizers also did not want to miss this great opportunity, and in order to seem more, so to speak, "I have hoo" and "I'm still very much as I can," they put additional sandbags in their codpieces.

But, for example, in a dance or with another strong movement, and perhaps even after some time of use, such a bag could easily tear, leaving behind its owner a path of spilled sand. Following such a poor fellow, the phrase sounded: "sand is already pouring out of him, but he still cannot calm down," which has become fundamental to today's familiar expression.
And prove that you are not a camel ...
This phrase became very popular after the release of the next series of the zucchini “Thirteen Chairs”. There was a miniature where Mr. Director is talking with Mr. Himalayan about a camel recently brought to the circus.

In the accompanying documents it was written: “We are sending a two-humped camel and a Himalayan camel to your circus”, i.e. the surname of Pan Himalayan was written with a small letter. Fearing bureaucratic checks, Pan Director demands a certificate from Pan Himalayan that he is not really a camel.

This so vividly ridiculed the role of the bureaucratic machine in our country that the expression very quickly went to the people and became popular. Now we say that when we are asked to prove obvious things.

And a no brainer

The source of the expression “And a no-brainer” is a poem by Mayakovsky (“Even a no-brainer is clear - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). The use of this phrase in the Strugatsky story “The Land of Crimson Clouds” contributed to its widespread use, and it also became commonplace in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (grades A, B, C, D, E) or one year (grades E, F, I).

The students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs”. When they came to the boarding school, two-year students were already ahead of them in a non-standard program, so at the beginning of the school year the expression “no brainer” was very relevant.

Nonsense
Seminarians who studied Latin grammar had a serious score with it. Take, for example, the gerund - this respected member of the grammatical community, which simply does not exist in the Russian language. Gerund is something between a noun and a verb, and the use of this form in Latin requires the knowledge of so many rules and conditions that often seminarians were carried straight from class to the infirmary with a cerebral fever. Instead, seminarians began to call "nonsense" any tedious, tedious and completely incomprehensible nonsense.

Leave in English
When someone leaves without saying goodbye, we use the expression "left in English." Although in the original this idiom was invented by the British themselves, but it sounded like to take French leave ("leave in French"). It appeared during the Seven Years' War in the 18th century in mockery of French soldiers who arbitrarily left the location of the unit. At the same time, the French copied this expression, but in relation to the British (mutual accusations among the British and French were quite common), and in this form it was fixed in the Russian language.

Not scared idiot
Most people who are born idiotic have the fortunate feature that they are pretty hard to scare (as well as persuade to use a spoon and zip up their pants). Painfully staunchly they do not want to absorb any information from the outside. The expression went for a walk with light hand Ilf and Petrova, who in their Notebooks enriched the world with the aphorism “The land of unafraid idiots. It's time to scare." At the same time, the writers simply parodied the title of Prishvin’s then very popular book “In the Land of Fearless Birds”.

The moor has done his job, the moor can go
For some reason, most people (even those who actually read Shakespeare) believe that these words belong to Othello strangling his Desdemona. In fact, Shakespeare's hero was anything but a cynic: he would rather hang himself than blurt out such tactlessness over the corpse of his beloved. This phrase is spoken by another theatrical moor, the hero of Schiller's play The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa. That Moor helped the conspirators achieve power, and after the victory he realized that yesterday's comrades-in-arms did not care about him from the high Genoese bell tower.

Set the horns
The origin of this expression is very ancient. During the reign of the emperor Komnenos Andronicus (ancient Byzantium), the following rule was in use: those husbands with whose wives the emperor had a love affair were allowed to hunt in the emperor's menagerie, where he kept many exotic animals. And I must say, this privilege was then in great demand. So, the gates of the houses where such families lived were decorated with deer antlers - a sign of special honor.

Freeze stupidity
This expression appeared thanks to the gentlemen of the gymnasium. The fact is that the word “moros” in translation from Greek just means “stupidity”. Teachers said so to careless students when they, out of ignorance lesson, they began to carry nonsense: “You are carrying a frost.” Then the words were rearranged - and it turned out that out of ignorance, the gymnasium students "froze stupidity."

Cast pearls before swine
The process of throwing small pieces of glass in front of a pig is a truly ideal idea in its senselessness. But in the original text of the Bible, from where this phrase was scratched out, there is no question of any beads. There is something about people who throw precious pearls into the feeder of pigs. It's just that once the words "pearl", "beads" and "pearl" meant precisely pearls, its different varieties. It was only later that the industry got up to stamp penny glass balls and called them the beautiful word "beads".

give the go-ahead
In the pre-revolutionary alphabet, the letter D was called “good”. The flag corresponding to this letter in the code of signals navy means “yes, I agree, I allow”. This is what gave rise to the expression “give good”. The expression “Customs gives the go-ahead” derived from this first appeared in the film “ White sun desert."

Pound water in a mortar
This expression denotes doing a useless thing, has a very ancient origin- it was used by ancient authors, for example, Lucian. And in medieval monasteries, it had a literal character: the guilty monks were forced to crush the water as a punishment.

Fly like plywood over Paris
It would not be an exaggeration to say that everyone has heard the expression “Fly like plywood over Paris”. Meaning this phraseological unit can be conveyed as a missed opportunity to do or get something, to be out of work, to fail. But where did this proverb come from?

In 1908, the famous French aviator Auguste Fannier, making a demonstration flight over Paris, crashed into the Eiffel Tower and died. After that, the well-known Menshevik Martov wrote in Iskra that "the tsarist regime is flying to its doom as quickly as M. Fannier over Paris."

A Russian person took this maxim a little differently, changing the name of a foreign aviator to plywood. This is where the expression “fly like plywood over Paris” came from.

Now the bird will fly!
Previously, in order for all the children in a group photo to look into the lens, photographers said: “Look here! The bird is about to fly!" This bird was quite real at the beginning of the era of mass photography - though not alive, but brass. In those days, cameras were far from perfect, and in order to get a good picture, people had to freeze in one position for several seconds. To attract the attention of restless children, the photographer's assistant at the right time raised a brilliant "bird", which, moreover, already knew how to make trills.
Tutelka in tyutelka
Tyutelka is a diminutive of the dialectal tyutya ("hit, hit"): the name of an exact hit with an ax in the same place during carpentry work. This expression characterizes either the exceptional accuracy of the performance of an action, or a great similarity, identity between objects or phenomena.

With a twist
The image of a raisin - some small piquant detail that gives a sense of sharpness and unusualness - was personally given to us by Leo Tolstoy. It was he who first introduced the expression "a woman with a twist." In his drama The Living Corpse, one character says to another: "My wife ideal woman was... But what can I say? There was no raisin - you know, is there a raisin in kvass? “There was no game in our life.”

Latest Chinese Warning
If you were born before 1960, then you yourself perfectly remember the origin of this expression, because this is never forgotten. But subsequent generations were already deprived of the happiness of watching the confrontation between the United States and China at the turn of the 50-60s of the XX century. When, in 1958, China, outraged that the US air force and navy were supporting Taiwan, issued its angry note called "Last Warning", the world shuddered in horror and held its breath in anticipation of a third world war.

When, seven years later, China issued the 400th note under the same name, the world howled with delight. Since, apart from pieces of paper with threatening words, China had nothing to oppose to the States, Taiwan nevertheless retained its independence, which Beijing does not recognize to this day.

Get out of the ground
In ancient times in Russia, it was necessary to pay the master a quitrent. And the peasant wanted to save at least a little for life. Therefore, they buried some of the available money in the ground, i.e. made a hiding place. Only the one who hid knew about the place of this hiding place. But the master also knew that the peasants were hiding money. And when the peasant said “I don’t have money” to the demand to pay dues, the owner always answered “Get it from under the ground”, meaning a stash. This was clear to both the master and the peasant.

To be continued

Exaggerate - what is it? The word is certainly interesting, but so far its lexical meaning is not clear to everyone. Let's find out. To exaggerate means to focus on any particular moment, thereby distorting general idea about a phenomenon, event or object in general. Exaggerate individual facts to the detriment of objectivity. Try to pay attention to one of the facets of the described situation, distracting the interlocutor from the perception of the full picture. Exaggerated presentation of information or ...

Ambition is a wonderful thing. A person not burdened with ambition is doomed to a miserable existence in poverty, or even worse. By poverty, I mean the ordinary level of income of people living in the territory of the former USSR. What is this word and what does it mean? Ambition - the desire to achieve one's goal, increased requirements for the standard of living, the desire for success, the desire to fulfill oneself, to achieve what one has planned, no matter what. Here…

Russification of the English-language abbreviation (joking) Every more or less permanent inhabitant of the Internet has come across the word many times, or rather the abbreviation IMHO - on forums, blogs, online computer games, in contact and others social networks. Surprisingly, not everyone is familiar with the meaning of this phrase. What does she mean? As mentioned above, IMHO is an abbreviation. It has its roots in the depths of the foreign Internet, where a long time ago ...

Sometimes, we hear the word "context" or even the phrase "in context" in conversation. What does this mean? First, let's look at the definition. Context is a piece of speech that includes information that allows you to interpret further words and sentences, taking into account the reference to some information previously voiced (in the very initial fragment of speech). Complicated? Let's try to understand the meaning of this word with examples. Examples: Yesterday: - Sergey ...

COMMON EXPRESSIONS


Where did the expressions "reach the handle", "scapegoat", "pour on the first number" and others come from? We use such phrases every day in speech, not at all thinking about their original meaning and origin. Why is the last warning Chinese? Who is the quiet guy? And why should a successful business fail? Everything has a historical or linguistic explanation. Behind each turn there is either a significant event, or the realities of the past, or the meaning of the word that has gone out of use.
My home is my castle
From English: My house is my castle. The expression belongs to an English lawyer of the 17th century. Eduard Kok (1552-1634). It is found in his comments on British law, which were published (1628-1644) under the title "Establishment of English law." The meaning of the expression: my home is the place on earth where I can and should feel completely safe.
Get to the handle.
In ancient Russia, kalachi was baked in the shape of a castle with a round bow. Citizens often bought kalachi and ate them right on the street, holding this bow, or handle. For reasons of hygiene, the pen itself was not used for food, but was given to the poor or thrown to be eaten by dogs. According to one version, they said about those who did not disdain to eat it: it reached the handle. And today the expression “to reach the handle” means to completely sink, to lose human appearance.
Bosom friend.
The old expression "pour over the Adam's apple" meant "get drunk", "drink alcohol." Hence the phraseological unit “bosom friend” was formed, which today is used to refer to a very close friend. Pour in the first number. In the old days, schoolchildren were often flogged, often without any fault of the punished. If the mentor showed particular zeal, and the student got hit especially hard, he could be released from further vices in the current month, up to the first day of the next month. This is how the expression "pour on the first number" arose.
Goof.
Prosak used to be a special machine for weaving ropes and ropes. It had a complex structure and twisted strands so strongly that getting clothes, hair, beard into it could cost a person life. It was from such cases that the expression “get into a mess” came about, which today means to be in an awkward position.
Last Chinese warning.
In the 1950s and 1960s, American aircraft often violated Chinese airspace for the purpose of reconnaissance. The Chinese authorities recorded every violation and each time sent a “warning” to the United States through diplomatic channels, although no real action followed, and such warnings were counted by the hundreds. This policy has given rise to the expression "the last Chinese warning", meaning threats without consequences.
Hang dogs.
When a person is blamed, accused of something, you can hear the expression: "They hang dogs on him." At first glance, this phrase is absolutely illogical. However, it is not associated with an animal at all, but with a different meaning of the word "dog" - burdock, thorn - now almost never used.
Silent sap.
The word sape means "hoe" in French. In the 16-19 centuries, the term "sapa" meant a way to open a trench, ditch or tunnel to approach the fortifications. Gunpowder bombs were sometimes planted in the tunnels to the castle walls, and the specialists trained to do this were called sappers. And from the covert digging of tunnels came the expression "quiet glanders", which today is used to denote cautious and inconspicuous actions.
Big boss.
The most experienced and strong hauler, walking in the strap first, was called a bump. This has evolved into the expression "big shot" to refer to important person.
The case burned out.
Previously, if a court case disappeared, then a person could not be legally charged. Cases often burned down: either from a fire in the wooden buildings of the courts, or from deliberate arson for a bribe. In such cases, the defendants said: "The case burned out." Today, this expression is used when we talk about the successful completion of a major undertaking.
Leave in English.
When someone leaves without saying goodbye, we use the expression "left in English." Although in the original this idiom was invented by the British themselves, but it sounded like ‘to take French leave’ (“leave in French”). It appeared during the Seven Years' War in the 18th century as a mockery of French soldiers who arbitrarily left the location of the unit. Then the French copied this expression, but in relation to the British, and in this form it was fixed in the Russian language.
Blue blood.
The Spanish royal family and nobility prided themselves on the fact that, unlike the common people, they traced their ancestry to the West Goths and never mixed with the Moors who entered Spain from Africa. Unlike the dark-skinned commoners, blue veins stood out on the pale skin of the upper class, and therefore they called themselves sangre azul, which means "blue blood". Hence, this expression for the designation of the aristocracy penetrated into many European languages, including Russian.
And I understand.
The source of the expression “And it’s clear to a hedgehog” is Mayakovsky’s poem (“It’s clear even to a hedgehog - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). Wide use it received first in the story of the Strugatsky "Country of Crimson Clouds", and then in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (grades A, B, C, D, E) or one year (grades E, F, I). The students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs”. When they came to the boarding school, two-year students were already ahead of them in a non-standard program, so at the beginning of the school year the expression "no brainer" was very relevant.
The highlight of the program.
The opening of a nail-like eiffel tower which caused a sensation. Since then, the expression "highlight of the program" has entered the language.
Not by washing, so by skating.
In the old days, village women, after washing, “rolled” the laundry with the help of a special rolling pin. Well-rolled linen turned out to be wrung out, ironed and clean, even if the washing was not of very high quality.
Newspaper duck.
“One scientist, having bought 20 ducks, immediately ordered to cut one of them into small pieces, with which he fed the rest of the birds. A few minutes later, he did the same with the other duck, and so on, until there was one left, which, in this way, devoured 19 of her friends. This note was published in the newspaper by the Belgian humorist Cornelissen to mock the gullibility of the public. Since then, according to one version, false news is called "newspaper ducks."
Seven Fridays in a week.
Previously, Friday was a free day from work, and, as a result, a market day. On Friday, when they received the goods, they promised to give back the money due for it on the next market day. Since then, to refer to people who do not keep their promises, they say: "He has seven Fridays in the week."
Scapegoat.
According to the Hebrew rite, on the day of the absolution of sins, the high priest put his hands on the goat's head and thereby laid on him the sins of the whole people. Then the goat was taken to the Judean desert and released. This is where the expression “scapegoat” comes from.
FIFTH COLUMN
Here is an example of another "creeping" word that arose and went around the whole world literally before the eyes of your older contemporaries. If someone had said these words in 1935, everyone would have understood them as "column number five", and nothing more. And a year later, in any country, they already meant: "enemy agents behind enemy lines", "spy organizations in a country fighting for freedom." How did it happen? In 1936, a deadly struggle was going on in Spain between the people and counter-revolutionary generals led by Franco. The "Francoists" advanced on the defending Madrid in four columns. But at the same time they boasted: the "fifth column" - many of their agents, traitors who sympathize with them work for the Republicans in the rear, in the capital itself. Since then, the words "fifth column" have received in all languages ​​of the world a new, hated by everyone honest man meaning.
HAND OF NEMESIS
The Greeks called Nemesis the goddess of revenge and punishing, punishing harsh justice. She was depicted as a winged woman with a bridle and a sword in her hands, as an omnipresent deity and punishing, executing. In modern languages, the word "Nemesis" replaces the words "just retribution"; by "the hand of Nemesis" is meant the power and authority of the state court.
MAKE A HAND
Why sign different papers? Or rather, why are they "signed", and not put on them any badge? Because the handwriting and signature of each person is very peculiar: no two people have exactly the same handwriting. It is always possible to find out whether a signature on a document is genuine or a fake. Oddly enough, but the fingerprints of people are also completely different. You will not find two people who have a pattern fine lines on the fingers would be repeated exactly. That is why a fingerprint on wax or just on paper has long been considered an equivalent replacement for a signature: it is impossible to fake it. In the old days, when an illiterate person left a fingerprint on a document instead of a signature, it was called "to put a hand on it." The fragments of the clerical language so strongly influenced the people's speech that there are still statements ending with the words: "To this" (further signature). This is a clear remnant of the obligatory formula of the old clerical work: "I put my hand to this petition." Little by little, the meaning of these words expanded even more: "to put a hand" began to mean, in general, participation in some business, work. They began to ironically call "assault" even a fight, beatings: it seems like one "signed" on the body and face of the other. All these different meanings mingled and created our expression "to lend a hand"; it means: to be an accomplice of some event.
HANDS OFF!
When in 1878 the Austro-Hungarian Empire by force, contrary to all justice, seized the Serbian regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this "daytime robbery" did not please other European powers, including England, despite the fact that England itself was just preparing in exactly the same way. what to do with the Transvaal, a small republic in southern Africa. But she did not want to allow the strengthening of Austria-Hungary. And now the British Prime Minister Gladstone, speaking in Parliament, uttered for the first time in history the harsh words that sounded like an order: "Hands off Bosnia and Herzegovina!" The words sounded stern, but Austria paid no attention to them: the governments of the two capitalist countries quickly came to an agreement. However, Gladstone's phrase survived him. When in 1918 the rulers of England led a crusade against Soviet Russia, they heard an angry "Hands off!" already from their own English workers. These words were addressed more than once to the imperialists. In the mouths of the peoples, they sound like a stern warning: you have to reckon with them, whether you like it or not, to all predators. modern world.
CORNUCOPIA
Again a phrase bequeathed to us by the ancient world. The father of the gods Zeus, after his birth, was hidden in a secret place, in a grotto, where the sacred goat Amalfeya fed him with her milk. It was not in vain: the father of Zeus, the titan Kronos, wanted to destroy his son and heir, to devour him, as he had already devoured his other children. Grateful Zeus, becoming the main god, raised Amalthea to heaven; there and now everyone can see it between the constellations. And to his tutors, the nymphs, he gave one of the goat's horns: from this horn everything that the nymphs needed arose poured and poured. This very horn, having become a symbol of an inexhaustible source of treasures, was nicknamed the cornucopia. The expression "as from a cornucopia" means: with extraordinary generosity, in huge number.
DISASSEMBLE BY BONES
The fate of some well-known phrases is truly amazing and unexpected! "Disassemble the bones" or "wash the bones" means: evil gossip about someone, list the shortcomings of a person. But once in the ancient countries Central Asia"dismantled" human bones 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, according to custom, praising the good deeds of the deceased and best features his character. That was the custom. Like all customs, probably, it was often performed formally, only for show: then the reverence of "dismantling" and "washing the bones" turned into something directly opposite. This is how the ironic expression used today has developed. Among the Orthodox Greeks, as well as some Slavic peoples there was a custom of secondary burial - the bones of the deceased were removed, washed with water and wine and put back. If the corpse was found undecayed and swollen, this meant that during his lifetime this person was a sinner and a curse lies on him - to come out of the grave at night in the form of a ghoul, vampire, ghoul and destroy people. Thus, the rite of washing the bones was needed to make sure that there was no such spell.
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 are drawn from the forgotten newspapers of the times of Ochakov 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.
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): Rock gives kingdoms to slaves, delivers triumphs to captives. However, such a lucky man is rarer than 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).
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 there a boy, maybe there was no 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.
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 opposite sides: 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."
Draconian measures
That's what they call it out of proportion 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 seemed to be occupied by the death penalty, which was punished, for example, such an offense as stealing vegetables. There was a legend that these laws were written in blood (Plutarch, Solon). AT 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.
There is life in the old dog yet.
Quote from N. V. Gogol's story "Taras Bulba" (1842), ch. 9: "There is still gunpowder in the powder flasks? Hasn't the Cossack strength weakened? Are the Cossacks bending?" - "There is still, father, gunpowder in the powder flasks. The Cossack strength has not yet weakened; the Cossacks are not bending yet!"
Life is a struggle
The expression goes back to ancient authors. Euripides in the tragedy "The Petitioners": "Our life is a struggle." In the letters of Seneca: "To live is to fight." Voltaire in the tragedy "Fanaticism, or the Prophet Mohammed" puts into the mouth of Mohammed the phrase: "Life is a struggle"

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 a lot 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.). originated from 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
AT 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 comes from a fable ancient Greek fabulist Aesop's "Lion, Fox and Donkey", the plot of which - the division of prey among animals - was used after him 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
An expression meaning the highest degree joy, happiness, goes back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC), who in his essay "On Heaven" explains the device vault of heaven. 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
Expression from the poem by A. S. Pushkin " 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
Not really exact quote from a song by an unknown author "The Gray Goat", which appeared in songbooks 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!
Quote from the tragedy of A. S. Pushkin "Boris Godunov", scene " Royal chambers"(1831), Boris's monologue (Monomakh in Greek is a combatant; a nickname that was added 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 whom the Muscovite tsars originated. Monomakh's cap is the crown with which 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 poems English poet John Wilson "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 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 defeat. 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
Big bells in ancient Russia 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 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 and 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 not watching
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
Expression belongs to 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), the 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.