Russian Language Blog

Remember this movie (Armageddon)? Conspicuously absent of bad Russian guys or beautiful, but deadly Russian femme fatale, it had this guy instead.  American components, Russian components, all made in Taiwan! 

As promised, it’s time to talk fruits and berries. Of course, since this is not a gardening blog, but a blog about Russian language and culture, instead of growing advice there will be lots of useful phrases and expressions. Ready?

First, the word фрукт itself is interesting. Its main meaning is “fruit”, but when applied to a person, it means “a piece of work” as in

Её бывший оказался ещё тот фрукт – ей сказал, что поехал в командировку, а сам – к любовнице. (Turns out, her ex was some piece of work like when he said he was going on a business trip, but instead went to his lover.)

Клубника (strawberry) – the diminutive клубничка also means pretty much anything X-rated or erotic. As one woman complained about her husband who spent much of his retirement flipping through lingerie ads:

Старый чёрт, а туда же, на клубничку потянуло (The old devil is heading straight for the tasty morsels).

Малина (raspberry) – if you have all you want, if the toast пусть наши мечты обалдеют от наших возможностей (may our dreams be in awe from our (financial) capabilities) describes your life, then for you жизнь – малина (life is sweet). On the other hand, if someone “moved your cheese” or “took a jelly out of your doughnut”, you can complain that they испортили всю малину.

Яблоко (apple) – the phrase яблоко от яблони не далеко падает means exactly the same as “an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. Remember one of the meanings of редиска from an earlier post? There is also a saying - яблоко румяное, да внутри – червоточина (lit: a pretty apple, but with a worm inside; appearance can be deceiving).

Груша (pear) – all Russian children know the answer to this загадка (riddle) – висит груша, нельзя скушать (a pear is hanging, but you can’t eat it). Do you know what it is?

Не растут на вербе груши (lit. pears do not grow on willows) – this is an expression used to say that two things just don’t go together or their combination is nonsensical as in

Работа у меня любимая, но малооплачиваемая, в общем, не растут на вербе груши. (I love my job even though it pays very little; the two just don’t go together).

Клюква (cranberry) – the most famous expression is развесистая клюква (a tall tale). The origin of this expression is quite interesting, but unfortunately the relevant Wiki page is only available in Russian. In short, the expression was used in a 1910 play that poked fun at Western stereotypical portrayal of Russian culture. Sadly, not much has changed in over 100 years. Most times I watch a Hollywood movie or a show on Fox that has some (usually evil) Russians in the plot, I keep thinking нда, это просто развесистая клюква (well, what a bunch of nonsense).

Бузина (elderberry) – admittedly, this is not a very well-known berry, but the expression в огороде бузина, а в Киеве дядька is. Literally it means “elderberry is in the garden and the uncle is in Kiev”. Figuratively, the meaning is “mixing apples and oranges”.

Have I missed anything? What other Russian sayings with fruits and vegetables in them do you know? And don’t forget, post your answers to the “pear” riddle in the comments.

Ok, so the entire phrase reads “Eat carrots, onion and horseradish and you’ll look like Sophia Loren!”  I really believe it too! Now I know why this phrase was made into a demotivator.

Continuing with our exploration of огородная лингвистика (vegetable garden linguistics), let’s take a look at other vegetables that made their way into Russian proverbs, sayings and literature.

Лук (onion) – everyone knows that лук – от семи недуг (onion helps fight seven illnesses) and in fact so many Russian folk remedies use onion to fight just about any illness. In fact, given onion’s many кулинарные, медицинские и хозяйственные применения (culinary, medicinal and household uses), the phrase горе луковое (lit: onion grief!) seems out of place. Yet it is used a lot, especially when talking to or about незадачливый (unlucky, hapless) person as in

Что случилось, горе моё луковое, опять споткнулся и упал что-ли? (What happened, my hapless one, did you trip and fall again?)

Помидор (tomato) – another relative newcomer to Russian cuisine. The word that is so frequently associated with помидор is, strangely, синьор (signor). Why синьор помидор (signor tomato), you wonder? It is a character briefly mentioned in a popular children’s story by Gianni Rodari about a little walking and talking onion, Чиполино (Cipollino). Both Cipollino and Signor Tomato were popular and easily recognizable characters and even had a stamp issued in their honor.

Other than the Cipollino story, помидор is a star of the phrase прошла любовь, завяли помидоры (love’s gone and tomatoes have wilted). This is a light-hearted way of talking about a not-too-serious romantic involvement, but also about any sudden and unpleasant change in relationships. For example, в первые месяцы после выборов, президент был в зените популярности. Но прошла любовь, завяли помидоры и эйфория электората сошла на нет (in the first months after his election, the president was in the zenith of popularity. Yet love is gone, tomatoes have wilted and voters’ euphoria died down).

Огурец (cucumber) – have you ever tried a simple tomato and cucumber salad that is a mainstay of the Russian table in summer? Oh, that brings back not just memories, but аппетит (appetite). What’s the most important quality of a good огурец? Its свежесть (freshness), of course! No wonder that the most frequently used cucumber phrase is свежий, как огурчик (lit: fresh as a little cucumber; although in English we say “fresh as a daisy”).

Горох (peas) and бобы (beans) – first, some important grammar note. The singular горошина (a pea) is used much the same as in English – принцесса на горошине (princess and a pea), размером с горошину (the size of a pea), etc. The plural горошины (peas) is used only if there is an exact number of peas, such as королеве так не понравилась эта принцесса, что королева подложила ей не одну, а пять горошин (the queen disliked this princess so much, that the queen put not one, but five peas under her bed). Innumerable горох is used whenever we speak of more than one горошина, but the exact number is unknown or doesn’t matter, as in в этом магазине горох очень дорогой (peas are very expensive at this store).

The most popular phrase that uses either of these two vegetables in it is probably остаться на бобах, meaning to be left high and dry and back to square one. The other two, about peas, are шут гороховый (motley fool) and the phrase при царе Горохе (in the days of yore) which is a way to say that something happened a long time ago.

Им повезло, квартиру в центре купили по дешёвке ещё при царе Горохе, лет двадцать назад (They were lucky, bought an apartment in the city center cheaply way back when, about twenty years ago)

And that’s that for the огород (vegetable garden). Speaking of which, the phrase пугало огородное (a scarecrow) is used to describe someone who doesn’t look all that hot for whatever reason, such as in this phrase from a novel by one of my favorite writers, Иоанна Хмелевская (Ioanna Khmelevskaya):

К остановке я неслась сломя голову и чувствовала, как парик съехал набок, а на лоб выбилась идиотская чёлка, макияж размазался, и вообще я напоминала пугало огородное.

(I was running for dear life to the bus stop and felt that my wig slipped sideways, stupid bangs got from under it on my forehead, makeup ran and overall I looked like a scarecrow).

Next post, it’s time to talk about fruits and berries (can’t leave them out, can we?). By the way, who else loves or likes or is familiar with Ioanna Khmelevskaya?

There is a wonderful Russian saying всякому овощу своё время (there’s time for everything). But as it turns out, всякому овощу, фрукту и ягоде – своё красное словцо (to each vegetable, fruit or berry its own witticism).

Картофель (potato) is a relative newcomer to Russia, appearing only in Peter the Great’s reign. Much like in other European countries, it took potato a while to overcome initial fear and accusations of being дьявольский фрукт (devil’s fruit). Yet less than 300 years later potatoes are firmly associated with Russia and have become a staple воспеваемый (rhapsodized) in songs and poems and remembered in many пословицы (proverbs) and поговорки (sayings), including

Любовь не картошка, не выкинешь в окошко – literally, love is not a potato, can’t be thrown out of the window
Картошку копать, не руками махать – literally, to dig potatoes is not the same as to wave arms – this is said when something is easier said, than done.

Let me just say that картошка – это просто, вкусно и архетипно (potato is a simple, delicious and archetypal food). If you are invited to a simple жареная картошка (fried potatoes), you know you’ve reached a new level of friendship, where conversation will be especially open and задушевный (heart-felt, intimate).

Капуста (cabbage) – ah, so many delicious Russian dishes use this simple vegetable, from голубцы (stuffed cabbage leaves) to капустный пирог (cabbage pie). The later is not to be confused with капустник (an informal performance of, typically, amateur actors) that is such a great Russian tradition. Капуста is also slang for “money”.

В чужом огороде капусту садит (lit. planting cabbage in someone else’s garden) was said about a nosy person who liked minding others’ business.
Back when I was in school, teachers would sometimes shame нерадивый ученик (neglectful pupil) by saying that their answers sounded as if they had не голова, а кочан капусты на плечах (not a head, but a head of cabbage on the shoulders).

Репа (turnip) – if картошка is straightforward and earthy, репа is elusive and mysterious. Consider this, все поголовно (all without exception) Russian children know, с младых ногтей (from the youngest age) that репа exists. Репка (Turnip), the classic fairy tale, is drilled so deep into our heads, that even as adults we can recite it to our children дословно (word for word) and without any need to refresh our memory. Yet it is fairly hard to find an adult (or a child) who actually saw репа, much less tasted one. This means a lot of confusion in such a seemingly проще пареной репы (a no brainer) task as identifying this veg at an American grocery store.

Редис (radish) – also known as редиска and редька (winter radish such as daikon) - is not exactly a vegetable that we can’t live without (it’s used mostly in salads), but has some of the most widely used catch phrases of all the veggies.

The first one is the expression хрен редьки не слаще (lit. horseradish is no sweeter than garden radish) meaning “six of one and half a dozen of the other”.

Now, if you are talking about someone or something mind-numbingly dull, you can say that it is хуже горькой редьки (lit. worse than a bitter radish).

Finally, thanks to a wonderful comedy Джентельмены удачи (Gentlemen of Fortune), нехороший ты человек, редиска (you are not a nice person, but a radish) became a popular way of gently rebuking someone.

Свёкла (beetroot) – its вклад (contribution) to the Russian language is a lot more modest than its contribution to the Russian cuisine (i.e. борщ (borsch) or свёкольник (cold beet soup) or салат Винегрет (Russian beet salad), to name a few). It is used a lot as a measure of how red can one’s face get, i.e. на морозе щёки раскраснелись, будто их свёклой натёрли (cheeks got so red in the frosty air, as if they were rubbed with beets).

Хрен (horseradish) – just the opposite of свёкла, as far as its contributions go. While its culinary applications are mostly as приправа (condiment) and something used in pickling, this fast-spreading vegetable is present in so many key phrases (all mildly ненормативные (obscene)) , such as

хрен с тобой! (to the devil with you!)
ни хрена (a nothing) as in тут бесплатно наливали, но пока моя очередь дошла, ни хрена не осталось (they were giving away free drinks here, but by the time it was my turn, there was nothing left)
хреновина (thingamaging, watchamacallit) – подай-ка вон ту хреновину (pass me that watchamacallit)

To be continued…

What’s your favorite or most puzzling Russian expression with fruits or vegetables in it?