Russian Phrase of the Day – Bells and Whistles Posted by yelena on Aug 16, 2013 in language
Let’s try to switch gears a bit. Some of you have recently asked for advice on moving to the next level of fluency in Russian as well as for tips on building словарный запас (vocabulary). So I decided to experiment a bit here, on the blog.
Yes, we do have the Word of the Day feature which runs on our Facebook page here, as well as on our Twitter feed here. The Russian Word of the Day is a great resource even if you are an advanced speaker of Russian. But this post is going to be different. How so? Well, to begin with, it won’t be a daily feature. After all, who’s got time to memorize an entire new phrase or several each day? Another key difference is that I’ll give you quite a few examples of usage from a variety of sources, from желтая пресса (yellow press) to попса (pop songs) to бородатые анекдоты (old jokes). Also, the words and phrases I plan on choosing will be the ones used relatively infrequently. No 1000 most used Russian words here. This way, you will not feel as pressured to memorize them, yet if you do so, they will really spice up your Russian (in the good way, no obscenities).
I’m also open to suggestions. Do you like the idea of posts like this? How often would you like to see them? Are there any particular features you want included in these posts (i.e. declension tables)? The idea is a bit bare bones right now and it’s up to you to decide on what bells and whistles to add to it. Speaking of bells and whistles, today’s Russian word is the masculine noun прибамбас.
Прибамбас (singular) or прибамбасы (plural) is an accessory or a feature we can just as well get by without. It’s an extra button on your TV remote control. You know, the one that you never use, but for which you paid extra.
As you can imagine, you might come across this word most often in unofficial product reviews. But sometimes you encounter it in unexpected settings. For example, back in May, President V. Putin re-introduced a Герой труда (Hero of Labor) award. One of the journalists criticized the idea as unnecessary by saying:
“Это всё советские прибамбасы.” (These are all Soviet-era bells and whistles.)
Still it’s hard to resist some прибамбасы, especially if they are in гаджеты (gadgets). Who wouldn’t want to outfit his car with a super-duper awesome hidden bar like in the video?! So we aren’t always dismissive of them, but instead might describe them with a touch of pride or envy as:
Классный прибамбас
Суперский прибамбас
Крутой прибамбас
Убойный прибамбас
Прикольный прибамбас
All these phrases mean essentially a “cool gadget” or a “great feature” and are used in informal conversations. Don’t expect to come across this word in official news releases or literary works. Unless, of course, you are a fan of the prolific Дарья Донцова (Daria Dontzova) and her detective novels. It seems like every detective story she ever wrote has today’s word of the day in it, including
Эти блузки не распространены в Москве, может, потому, что они очень простые, без… прибамбасов (These tops are not popular in Moscow, perhaps because they are very simple, without any frills)
Мне подобные прибамбасы не по карману (I can’t afford such extras)
Кирюша нам на Новый год эти прибамбасы подарил. (Kiryusha gave us these gadgets for the New Year)
and on and on. You can dig up your own examples by searching for “Донцова прибамбасы” in Google Books. If you do, share them in the comments and, for extra practice, try to translate the phrase.
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Comments:
Sara:
Yelena, this is a fantastic idea. Please keep it up! Great post.
yelena:
@Sara Thank you, Sara! I’m glad you liked the idea.
Delia:
Lena! Great post. How about навороты? Машина со всеми наворотами. I think it’s usually used in a technical context – about cars, equipment, tools. I wouldn’t say блузка с наворотами.
yelena:
@Delia Hello Delia! It’s terrific to know that you continue reading the blog. Yes, I agree, навороты is definitely a synonym of прибамбасы although, as you point out, it’s a bit more limited how it can be applied. Same as примочки.
Steppenwolf:
WHAT a RIDICULOUS FUSS about all this PSEUDO-“SEMANTIC” CRAP!!! Just outright LUDICROUS. You’d better get to something WORTHWHILE your “faithful” FOLLOWERS’ attention instead of WASTING their time (as well as yours) on MISLEADING all those raving IGNORAMUSES and feeding them with your USELESS ERSATZ “VOCABULARY”. And STOP REHASHING all that FREAKING GIBBERISH you’ve been referring to: that bunch of gobbledygook has NOTHING to DO with the REAL LANGUAGE!!! KEEP YOUR NONSENSICAL PSEUDO-LINGUISTIC SHIT for YOURSELF and GO GET instead SOME GOOD READING DONE!!! Russian LITERATURE – GENUINE LITERATURE, NOT your brainless “yellow press” or tasteless “попса” – has SO MUCH to OFFER for EVERYONE!!! YOU are both aesthetically HOLLOW and linguistically IGNORANT: GO EDUCATE YOURSELF and MOST IMMEDIATELY!!! Perhaps that will HELP YOU UNDERSTAND the CORE AUTHENTIC VALUES of your GREAT MOTHER TONGUE and acquire (at least some of) its VALUABLE THESAURUS: GOOD LUCK with that!!!
yelena:
@Steppenwolf Hi there, Steppenwolf. I’m glad you took the time to read the post and felt strongly enough about it to comment. I wish your comment was a bit more clear. What it is exactly you suggest I write about? What do you mean by “genuine literature”? Also, what part of the post did you find “misleading”? And what part of it was “gibberish”? Could you explain bit more about what Russian language values do you consider “core and authentic” and about literature you consider “good reading”? As you can see, your comment raises more questions than answers. I bet you have a lot of great suggestions for future blog posts and, as long as they are expressed clearly and in a civilized way, I am very willing to implement them. In fact, maybe you’d be interested in a guest post? If you are, do let me know in the comments here and I’ll send you a private e-mail.
Delia:
Lena:
every time I leave a comment, I get a message that it will posted some time later AFTER a blog manager or .. whoever it is, reviews it. Why wasn’t the previous comment reviewed, stopped and the author blocked from leaving any comments and even blocked from the blog? I don’t understand the point of the previous comment: why spend so much time writing about something you don’t like? Just DO NOT READ and be calm.
Lena: Can I send a message to the manager?
yelena:
@Delia Delia, thank you for your support. Actually, I was the one who approved the comment. I think anyone who takes the time to express his/her opinion about my post should have their comments approved. I really don’t mind the criticism, just wish it was constructive. And thank you for the phrases you sent me for a future post!
Delia:
On another note:
Yes! Of course I am still here reading and enjoying your posts. They usually cover the topic and I have NOTHING 🙂 to add! Thanks for doing a great job!
Cheryl in TX:
I call steppenwolf a troll…and a literary snob.
Reading great literature is fine…wonderful even, but most of us want to speak,and spoken language changes constantly.
I loved today’s post. I’m a Russian major from 40 years ago…my colloquialisms are dated now; I am interested in everything you post.