And the meaning of phraseology is a no-brainer. “No brainer!” and a few more expressions whose origin you might not know

“It’s a no brainer” - this expression became famous thanks to Mayakovsky’s poem (“It’s even a no brainer - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). It appeared in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (classes A, B, C, D, D) or one year (classes E, F, I). Students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs”. When they came to the boarding school, the two-year students were already ahead of them in the non-standard program, so at the beginning school year The expression “no brainer” was very relevant.

Rub glasses

In the 19th century, gamblers resorted to a trick: during the game, using a special adhesive composition, they applied additional points (red or black marks) from powder to the cards, and if necessary, they could erase these points. This is where the expression “to rub glasses” comes from, meaning to present something in a favorable light.

Whipping boy

Whipping boys in England and others European countries XV - XVIII centuries called boys who were brought up with princes and received corporal punishment for the prince's offenses. The effectiveness of this method was no worse than direct flogging of the culprit, since the prince did not have the opportunity to play with other children except the boy with whom he established a strong emotional connection.

Tight to tucked

Tyutelka is a diminutive of the dialect tyutya (“blow, hit”), the name for an accurate hit with an ax in the same place during carpentry work. Today, to denote high accuracy, the expression “tail to neck” is used.

Nick down

Previously, the nose was called not only a part of the face, but also a tag that was worn with oneself and on which notches were placed to record work, debts, etc. Thanks to this, the expression “hack on the nose” arose.

In another meaning, the nose was a bribe, an offering. The expression “to stay with the nose” meant to leave with an unaccepted offering without reaching an agreement.

Play on your nerves

After ancient doctors discovered nerves in the human body, they named them by their resemblance to strings musical instruments the same word - nervus. This is where the expression for annoying actions came from - “playing on your nerves.”

Not at ease

In French, assiette is both a plate and a mood, a state. Presumably, an erroneous translation of the French expression caused the appearance of the phraseological unit “out of place.”

Add the first number

In the old days, schoolchildren were often flogged, often without any fault of the person being punished. If the mentor showed special zeal, and the student suffered especially hard, he could be freed from further vices in the current month, until the first day of the next month.

Orphan Kazan

After the capture of Kazan, Ivan the Terrible, wanting to bind the local aristocracy to himself, rewarded high-ranking Tatars who voluntarily came to him. Many of them, in order to receive rich gifts, pretended to be severely affected by the war. This is where the expression “orphan of Kazan” came from.

Run like a red thread

By order of the English Admiralty, since 1776, when producing ropes for the navy, red thread must be woven into them so that it cannot be removed even from a small piece of rope. Apparently, this measure was intended to reduce rope theft. This is where the expression “to run like a red thread” comes from main idea the author throughout literary work, and Goethe was the first to use it in the novel “Selective Affinity.”

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 the go-ahead.”

Beluga roar

The silent beluga fish has nothing to do with the expression “beluga roar,” which means to scream or cry loudly and strongly. Previously, beluga was the name given not only to fish, but also to the toothed whale, which today is known to us as beluga whale and is distinguished by its loud roar.

Blue blood

The Spanish royal family and nobility prided themselves on the fact that, unlike common people, they trace their ancestry back 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 denoting the aristocracy penetrated into many European languages, including in Russian.

Reach the handle

IN Ancient Rus' The rolls were baked in the shape of a castle with a round bow. Townspeople often bought rolls and ate them right on the street, holding them by this bow or handle. For reasons of hygiene, the pen itself was not eaten, but was given to the poor or thrown to be eaten by dogs. According to one version, about those who did not disdain to eat it, they said: they got to the point. And today the expression “reach the pen” means to completely descend, to lose human appearance.

Spread your thoughts across the tree

In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” you can find the lines: “The prophetic Boyan, if someone wanted to compose a song, his thoughts spread across the tree, gray wolf on the ground, like a gray eagle under the clouds.” Translated from Old Russian, “mouse” is a squirrel. And due to an incorrect translation, in some editions of the Lay a humorous expression appeared, “spreading thoughts through the tree,” which means going into unnecessary details, distracting from the main idea.

Skeleton in the closet

“Skeleton in the closet” is an English expression meaning a certain hidden biographical fact (personal, family, corporate, etc.), which, if made public, can cause significant damage to one’s reputation.

The appearance of the expression is associated with medicine. Doctors in Britain were not allowed to work with dead bodies until 1832. And the only bodies available for dissection for medical purposes were those of executed criminals. Although the execution of criminals was by no means uncommon in 18th-century Britain, it was unlikely that a particular doctor would have had many corpses in his possession during his working history. For this reason, it was common practice for a doctor who had the good fortune to dissect the corpse of an executed criminal to preserve the skeleton for scientific research purposes. Public opinion did not allow doctors to keep the skeletons in sight, so they were forced to keep them away from prying eyes. For this reason, many suspected that doctors kept skeletons somewhere, and one of such places could be a closet.

Quietly

The word sape means "hoe" in French. In the 16th-19th centuries, this term denoted a method of digging a trench or tunnel to approach enemy fortifications. Nowadays the expression “slyly” means “quietly, unnoticed to penetrate somewhere.” Initially, this meant “secretly undermining, digging a secret tunnel.”

Often the purpose of digging such trenches was to place explosives under the fortification, so the word “sapper” also comes from these times.

Suffer from bullshit

And here is the promised obscenity. Information about how recently the word “dick” has acquired an obscene connotation definitely sets one up for philosophical reflections about the conditionality of prohibitions.

In Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” we read: “And the milk mushrooms? - Ferapont suddenly asked, pronouncing the letter “g” aspiratedly, almost like a dick.” Of course, the classic didn’t mean anything bad - a century and a half ago, that’s what the aspirated letter “x” was called in the Church Slavonic alphabet, that’s all.

After the reform of 1918, the name of the letter disappeared from primers, but the word itself remained in spoken language. Since there was no object, but the word was, it quickly found a use - they began to replace it famous word of three letters. Yes, with such success that after a couple of decades obscene meaning finally became a harmless word.

The most ironic thing is that the origin of the name of the disgraced letter was initially quite divine - from the word “cherub”.

At the same time, the word “garbage,” which is not even a derivative of dick, began to sound indecent. This is just the name of a common hernia that occurs Latin term hernia. In the 19th century, such a diagnosis was often given to rich bourgeois children who wanted to “get away” from military service- peasants usually didn’t have enough money for “garbage.” So then half of Russia suffered from bullshit. Not like now.

Latest Chinese warning

Those born in the 60s of the last century remember how this expression arose. But subsequent generations were already deprived of the pleasure of following the confrontation between the United States and China at the turn of the 50s and 60s of the 20th century. When China, outraged by the US air and naval support of Taiwan, issued its angry note called "The Final Warning" in 1958, the world shuddered in horror and held its breath in anticipation of a third world war.

When, seven years later, China already published the four hundredth note under the same name, the world was no longer shaking with horror, but with laughter. Fortunately, China did not go beyond threatening words; Taiwan retained its independence, which Beijing still does not recognize. Those who know about the origin of the expression use it correctly: in fact, we are not talking about a final warning, but about empty threats that will not be followed by action.

Slap

This word, as well as the expression “Hey, hat!”, has nothing to do with hats. It came into slang from Yiddish and is a distorted form of the German verb “schlafen” - “to sleep.” “Hat,” accordingly, means “sleepyhead, gape.” While you are here, your suitcase is draped.

bosom friend

Everything is obvious here: a bosom friend is someone with whom you can “pour the Adam’s apple” together, that is, have a soulful drink.

A woman with a twist

And this image was given to us personally by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. It was he who first coined 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 tell you? There was no zest - you know, there is zest in kvass? “There was no game in our lives.”

Cast pearls before swine

These are the words from the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.” “Bible Matt. 7:6" / synodal translation, 1816–1862

With pearls, the phrase sounds somewhat more logical, and the ideal in its meaninglessness expression about beads is explained simply - that’s what pearls used to be called in Rus'. So the word “beads” became fixed in the expression and came into colloquial speech from the Church Slavonic text of the Bible.

Filka's certificate

Unlike Trishka with his caftan or Kuzka with his mysterious mother, Filka is a completely historical person. This is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Philip II of Moscow. He was a short-sighted man and apparently forgot that main responsibility The Moscow high priest is diligently giving to Caesar what is Caesar's. I decided, imagine, to describe in detail the bloody atrocities of the regime of the then ruler, Ivan the Terrible - to write true stories about how many people the king tortured, tortured, burned and poisoned. The tsar called the metropolitan's writing "Filka's letter", explained that all this was not true and imprisoned Filka in a distant monastery, where the metropolitan was quickly finished off by assassins sent.

Places not so remote

In the “Code of Punishments” of 1845, places of exile were divided into “remote” and “not so remote”. By “remote” we meant the Siberian provinces and subsequently Sakhalin, by “not so distant” we meant Karelia, Vologda, Arkhangelsk regions and some other places located just a few days’ journey from St. Petersburg. This phrase has firmly entered the language of the second writers. half of the 19th century century to indicate reference.

Not at ease

The expression comes from French phrase n'être pas dans son assiette. French word assiette means not only “plate” but also “position; state; mood".

A well-known story says that in early XIX century, a would-be translator, translated the phrase “buddy, you’re out of sorts” from some French play as “you’re out of your element.”

Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov could not ignore such a brilliant blunder and put an illiterate phrase into Famusov’s mouth: “My dear! You're out of your element. I need sleep from the road." WITH light hand The poet's crazy phrase has taken root in the Russian language.

Unfrightened idiot

The authorship of the expression is attributed to Ilya Ilf. IN " Notebooks”, which the writer has been writing since 1925, there is a phrase: “The land of unafraid idiots. It's time to scare." The expression parodied the title of Prishvin’s then popular book “In the Land of Unfrightened Birds.”

In the 80s of the last century, the phrase had a continuation: “The country of unafraid idiots and evergreen tomatoes.” The authorship of the second part belongs to Mikhail Zhvanetsky - “evergreen tomatoes” first appeared in his miniature “You didn’t bury it in Odessa in August?”

Sharpen the laces

Lyasy (balusters) are turned figured posts of railings at the porch. At first, “sharpening balusters” meant conducting an elegant, fancy, ornate (like balusters) conversation. However, there were few skilled people to conduct such a conversation, and over time the expression began to mean empty chatter.

Where did the expressions “reach the handle”, “scapegoat”, “pour in the first number” and others come from?

There is a historical or linguistic explanation for everything. Behind each revolution there is either significant event, either the realities of the past, or the obsolete meaning of the word. So.

Reach the handle

In Ancient Rus', rolls were baked in the shape of a castle with a round bow. Townspeople often bought rolls and ate them right on the street, holding them by this bow or handle. For reasons of hygiene, the pen itself was not eaten, but was given to the poor or thrown to be eaten by dogs. According to one version, about those who did not disdain to eat it, they said: they got to the point. And today the expression “reach the pen” means to completely descend, to lose human appearance.

bosom friend

The ancient expression “to pour on the Adam’s apple” meant “to get drunk”, “to drink alcohol.” From here the phraseological unit “bosom friend” was formed, which today is used to denote a very close friend.

Add the first number

Goof

Prosak used to be called a special machine for weaving ropes and ropes. He had complex design and twisted the strands so tightly that clothes, hair, or beard getting caught in it could cost a person his life. It was from such cases that the expression “get into trouble” came about, which today means to be in an awkward position.

Latest Chinese warning

In the 1950s and 1960s, American aircraft often violated Chinese airspace for reconnaissance purposes. The Chinese authorities recorded every violation and each time sent a “warning” to the United States through diplomatic channels, although no real action followed them, and such warnings were counted in the hundreds. This policy has given rise to the expression “China's final warning,” meaning threats without consequences.

Hanging dogs

When a person is reproached or accused of something, you can hear the expression: “They hang dogs on him.” At first glance, this phrase is completely illogical. However, it is not associated with an animal at all, but with another meaning of the word “dog” - burdock, thorn - now almost not used.

Quietly

The word sape means "hoe" in French. In the 16th-19th centuries, the term “sapa” was used to denote a method of digging a trench, ditch or tunnel to approach fortifications. Gunpowder bombs were sometimes placed in tunnels to castle walls, and specialists trained to do this were called sappers. And from secretive digging of mines came the expression “slyly,” which today is used to denote careful and unnoticed actions.

Big boss

The most experienced and strong barge hauler, walking first in the strap, was called a cone. This evolved into the expression "big shot" to refer to an important person.

The case burned out

Previously, if a court case disappeared, the person could not be legally charged. Cases often burned down: either from fire in wooden court buildings, or from deliberate arson for a bribe. In such cases, the accused said: “The case has 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, and it sounded like ‘to take French leave’ (“to leave in French”). It appeared during the Seven Years' War in the 18th century as a mockery of French soldiers who left their unit without permission. At the same time, the French copied this expression, but in relation to the British, and in this form it became entrenched in the Russian language.

Blue blood

The Spanish royal family and nobility were proud 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, the upper class had blue veins on their pale skin, and so they called themselves sangre azul, which means “blue blood.” From here this expression for denoting aristocracy penetrated into many European languages, including Russian.

And it's a no brainer

The source of the expression “It’s a no brainer” is a poem by Mayakovsky (“It’s even a no brainer - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). It became widespread first in the Strugatskys’ story “The Country of Crimson Clouds”, and then in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (classes A, B, C, D, D) or one year (classes E, F, I). The students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs.” When they arrived at the boarding school, the two-year students were already ahead of them in the non-standard program, so at the beginning of the school year the expression “no brainer” was very relevant.

Washing the bones

Among 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 life this person was a sinner and he was cursed to come out of his grave at night in the form of a ghoul, a vampire, a ghoul and destroy people. Thus, the ritual of washing the bones was necessary to ensure that there was no such spell.

The highlight of the program

Co. world exhibition In 1889, the opening of a nail-like Eiffel Tower, which created a sensation. Since then, the expression “highlight of the program” has entered the language.

If we don't wash, we'll just ride

In the old days, village women used a special rolling pin to “roll” their laundry after washing. Well-rolled laundry turned out to be wrung out, ironed and clean, even if the wash was not of very high quality.

Newspaper duck

“One scientist, having bought 20 ducks, immediately ordered one of them to be cut into small pieces, which he fed to the rest of the birds. A few minutes later he did the same with another duck, and so on, until one remained, which thus devoured 19 of its 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 has been called “newspaper ducks.”

Seven Fridays a week

Previously, Friday was a day off from work, and, as a result, a market day. On Friday, when they received the goods, they promised to give the money due for it on the next market day. Since then, to refer to people who do not fulfill their promises, they say: “He has seven Fridays in a week.”

Scapegoat

According to the ancient Jewish rite, on the day of remission of sins, the high priest placed his hands on the head of the goat and thereby laid the sins of the entire people on it. The goat was then taken into the Judean desert and released. This is where the expression “scapegoat” comes from.

Where does it come from? funny expression“no brainer”? Surely all of you understand the meaning of this expression. In simple words, it means something simple, clear, not requiring unnecessary explanations, elementary. However, few people know the history of the origin of the expression. Who came up with and first said this phrase?

It’s clear even to a hedgehog -

This Petya was a bourgeois.

It is assumed that Mayakovsky only needed the comparison with a hedgehog in this poem for rhyme. The poem was published in 1925, but initially the expression remained only part of the poem. It became popular among the people after it appeared in the work of the Strugatsky brothers “The Country of Crimson Clouds.” The book turned out to be very successful, and the expression from Mayakovsky’s poem went among the people and became popular in colloquial speech"catchphrase".

However, not everyone agrees with this version of the origin of the expression. There is another version.

According to the second version, it appeared during the USSR in boarding schools. In such schools there were groups to which letters were assigned depending on the complexity of the program. So, for example, letters from “A” to “D” were assigned to classes with a complex curriculum, but letters such as “E”, “F” and “I” were assigned to classes with a standard curriculum. Such classes began to be called simply “Hedgehogs,” that is, classes that study the most simple programs. This is where the expression “no brainer” comes from.

It is not known for certain where exactly the “no brainer” came from, however most of researchers agree that the source of this funny expression is the first option.

These expressions are familiar to us from childhood, but where did they come from?

No brainer!

“It’s a no brainer” - this expression became famous thanks to Mayakovsky’s poem (“It’s even a no brainer - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). It appeared in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (classes A, B, C, D, D) or one year (classes E, F, I). The students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs.” When they arrived at the boarding school, the two-year students were already ahead of them in the non-standard program, so at the beginning of the school year the expression “no brainer” was very relevant.

Rub glasses

Whipping boy

Whipping boys in England and other European countries of the 15th - 18th centuries were boys who were brought up with princes and received corporal punishment for the prince’s offenses. The effectiveness of this method was no worse than direct flogging of the culprit, since the prince did not have the opportunity to play with other children except the boy with whom he established a strong emotional connection.

Tight to tucked

Tyutelka is a diminutive of the dialect tyutya (“blow, hit”), the name for an exact hit with an ax in the same place during carpentry work. Today, to denote high accuracy, the expression “tail to neck” is used.

Nick down

In another meaning, the nose was a bribe, an offering. The expression “to stay with the nose” meant to leave with an unaccepted offering without reaching an agreement.

Play on your nerves

After ancient doctors discovered nerves in the human body, they named them by their similarity to the strings of musical instruments with the same word - nervus. This is where the expression for annoying actions came from - “playing on your nerves.”

Not at ease

Today in French V Everyday life the word assiette means "plate". However, earlier, no later than the 14th century, it meant “the seating of guests, their position at the table, that is, near the plates.” Then, with the expansion of the circle of connections, the assiette became the “location of a military camp” and then the city. In the 17th century the word absorbed all the “specifics” of possible “positions” and began to mean any “position” in general... In the same century, assiette also appeared figurative sense- “state of mind.”

Russian Bare, who spoke and even thought in French, apparently did not particularly care about the accuracy of the Russian language even in the 18th century. they “translated” the French phrase in their own way: instead of “position”, “not at ease” got into the Russian phraseological unit from the original language. It was thanks to their negligence that such a beautiful figurative expression appeared in the Russian language!

Add the first number

Orphan Kazan

Run like a red thread

By order of the English Admiralty, since 1776, when producing ropes for the navy, red thread must be woven into them so that it cannot be removed even from a small piece of rope. Apparently, this measure was intended to reduce rope theft. This is where the expression “run like a red thread” comes from about the main idea of the author throughout the entire literary work, and Goethe was the first to use it in the novel “Selective Affinity.”

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 of the navy means “yes, I agree, I authorize.” This is what gave rise to the expression “give the go-ahead.”

Beluga roar

Belukha

Blue blood

Reach the handle

Spread your thoughts across the tree

In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” you can find the lines: “The prophetic Boyan, if someone wanted to compose a song, his thoughts spread across the tree, like a gray wolf on the ground, a gray eagle under the clouds.” Translated from Old Russian, “mouse” is a squirrel. And due to an incorrect translation, in some editions of the Lay a humorous expression appeared, “spreading thoughts through the tree,” which means going into unnecessary details, distracting from the main idea.

Skeleton in the closet

Why is the last warning from China, who is the silent sap, and why a successful business should burn out.

We use such phrases every day in speech, without thinking at all about their original meaning and origin. Why is the latest warning from China? Who is this silent sap? And why should a successful business burn out?
There is a historical or linguistic explanation for everything. Behind each phrase is either a significant event, or realities of the past, or an obsolete meaning of the word. So

Pull the gimp

Gold or silver thread, which in the old days was used to embroider decorations on clothes, is called gimp. To get it, you had to pull out the metal wire with pliers for a long time. This is where the expressions “to drag on” and “to procrastinate” came from in the sense of doing boring, monotonous work or delaying the completion of some task.

“Don’t drag your feet!” - they say to a person when they want to quickly hear the end of a story or see the result of something that a person is talking about or imagining. This is especially true for all sorts of boring speakers.

Alive smoking room

In the old days in Rus', among other things, children played “smoking room”. A burning splinter was passed around in a circle, and the one in whose hands it went out was considered the loser. During the game you had to chant: “The Smoking Room is alive, alive, alive, alive, not dead!” It is from here that the expression “The smoking room is alive” arose, which can be used in relation to a person who is in good health and continues to do his business, although they thought about him that he had already disappeared somewhere or died.

Where does the expression “places not so distant” come from?

In pre-revolutionary Russian legislation there were two categories of links: “in remote places Siberia" and "to not so remote places in Siberia." The second phrase has turned from an official term into an allegorical phrase. Now, when talking about prison, we often use the expression “places not so remote.”

And it's a no brainer

Why do they say about a lucky man that he was born wearing a shirt?

When a person is lucky, they say that he was born in a shirt. The word “shirt” in this expression appeared not so long ago, but before it was pronounced as “to be born in a shirt,” and it had a purely practical meaning. The fact is that a shirt was called not only clothing, but also the amniotic sac in which the child is located during pregnancy. Sometimes during childbirth this bubble does not burst, and the child is born in it, which, according to superstitious beliefs, promises him happiness and luck in life.

Washing the bones

The Orthodox Greeks, as well as some Slavic peoples, had 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 life this person was a sinner and he was under a curse - to emerge from the grave at night in the form of a ghoul, vampire, ghoul and destroy people. Thus, the ritual of washing the bones was necessary to ensure that there was no such spell.

Where did the expression "China's final warning" come from?

The highlight of the program

The opening of the nail-like Eiffel Tower was timed to coincide with the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris, which created a sensation. Since then, the expression “highlight of the program” has entered the language.

If we don't wash, we'll just ride

Where does the expression "hang dogs" come from?

Where did the expressions “casual acquaintance” and “come to a casual analysis” come from?

According to tradition, men in Rus', when entering a church, took off their hats and folded them at the entrance, and at the end of the service they took them back. Anyone who was late came to the head, and since then this expression has been entrenched in the meaning of “arriving somewhere too late, when everything is already over.”

And the expression “casual acquaintance,” meaning a superficial and cursory acquaintance with someone, is also associated with an old custom. When acquaintances or friends met, they raised their hats in greeting, and only friends shook hands.

Quietly

Big boss

The most experienced and strong barge hauler, walking first in the strap, was called a cone. This evolved into the expression "big shot" to refer to an important person.

Where did the expression “get to the point” come from?