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Bread and Circuses: Russian Sayings of Latin Origin Posted by on Jun 2, 2016 in language

sliced bread

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The influence of Latin on science, philosophy, medicine, and theology cannot be overstated. One part of its legacy consists of popular sayings we use to this day, albeit sometimes in translation. This is true for both English and Russian (and I imagine, many other languages), so in this post we will look at some phrases of Latin origin every Russian speaker is likely to recognize. Please note that I am not a specialist in Latin, but do visit our Latin blog for more information!

Bread and circuses

This famous saying comes from the Latin saying “panem et circenses” referring to the preference given by the masses to everyday needs and simple pleasures over long-term concerns. The Russian equivalent is хлеба и зрелищ.

The two components are хлеб (bread) and зрелища (spectacles, singular зрелище). As you notice, Russian does not translate the “circus” part as a literal цирк — the circus with animals and clowns — but captures the entertainment aspect of it.

Now, what’s the weird form used for хлеб and зрелища? The Latin uses the accusative/direct object case due to the fact that “(people demand) bread and circuses.” In the Russian, however, we have mass nouns, for which we must use the genitive partitive to say that they want “some bread and some spectacles.”

«Мерседес-бенц». Больше ничего человеку не надо, не предлагайте ему ничего больше. Без надобности. Только хлеба и зрелищ! (A Mercedes Benz. There’s nothing else a person needs; don’t offer them anything else. There’s no need. Bread and circuses only!) [Светлана Алексиевич. Время second-hand // «Дружба народов», 2013] – to learn more about the Nobel-prize-winning author, check out our previous blog post!

Vox populi vox Dei

This Latin phrase literally means, “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” As I found out, “vox pop” in English refers to the “man on the street” interview with a passer-by. Not so in Russian, where the translation of the phrase, глас народа — глас Божий is used to assert the opinion of the masses or majority as the one that should be followed.

Глас is the higher-register equivalent of голос, voice. As you may remember, these equivalents came from Old Church Slavonic and came to refer to the more noble things. Народ (singular) is people, and Божий is the posessive adjective for Бог, God.

А во-вторых, всякому сведущему и умному человеку, ежели он один, свойственно заблуждаться, тогда как десять, двадцать тысяч невежд или глупцов, сошедшихся вместе, ошибиться не могут, ибо глас народа ― глас Божий. (Secondly, any knowledgeable and intelligent person, if they are alone, is prone to errors, while ten or twenty thousand ignorant or foolish people gathered in one place are presumed to be immune to errors since the voice of the people is the voice of God.)  [Д. С. Мережковский. Воскресшие Боги. Леонардо да Винчи (1901)] 

Business with Pleasure

woman holding a phone and a cup of coffee

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“Utile dulci” is part of a larger quote by Horace, where he praises writers who “join the useful with the agreeable.” The closest idiomatic equivalent I can think of in English is “to combine business with pleasure.” In Russian, the phrase is совмещать приятное с полезным (literally, “to combine the pleasant with the useful”) and is used to talk about adding pleasant elements to a work activity, or vice versa. Think of that trip to see the Statue of Liberty while in New York for business.

Во Флориде можно прекрасно сочетать приятное с полезным ― комфортно отдыхать и совершенствовать свой английский язык. (You can easily combine business with pleasure in Florida — have a comfortable vacation and improve your English.) [Татьяна Буржинская. Америка ― ваш путь к успеху! (2001) // «Туризм и образование», 2001.03.15]

Naturally, there are many, many more phrases of Latin origin, so should we keep this going? What are some of your favorites?

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About the Author: Maria

Maria is a Russian-born translator from Western New York. She is excited to share her fascination with all things Russian on this blog. Maria's professional updates are available in English on her website and Twitter and in Russian on Telegram.


Comments:

  1. MaryAnn Rabalais:

    I like, “Fruit never fall far from the tree.” And, “water always finds its own level.” “Birds of a feather, stick together.”

  2. MaryAnn Rabalais:

    When I look at Russian letters, I have no idea how to even begin pronouncing the words. it all looks very foreign to me. How can I learn to read or write it if I don’t understand how to attempt pronunciation. With Latin, one can somehow pronounced the words.
    thanks
    mary ann rabalais

    • Maria:

      @MaryAnn Rabalais Hello Mary Ann, thank you for your comments! First of all, check out the alphabet courses by Transparent Language. There are also other resources, such as the RT alphabet tutorial.
      In the meantime, if you need to sound out any Russian phrase written in Cyrillic, you can drop it into Google Translate and click the small speaker icon under the text field to hear it pronounced. See this example for “bread and circuses.”

  3. Richard:

    Как обычно, очень интересный пост, Мария!

    I’d be interested to see how the following Latin phrases translate into Russian:

    1.) Carpe diem!

    2.) Ex nihilo nihil fit.

    3.) Veni, vidi, vici!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lczHvB3Y9s (Sorry, couldn’t resist! 🙂

    • Maria:

      @Richard Спасибо, Ричард!
      Latin grammar almost makes Russian look easy. 🙂
      Two of these are sort of easy:
      #1 is usually said in Latin, carpe diem, but the translation is лови день.
      #3 is “пришел, увидел, победил” — said not so much about Caesar as about anyone who got something done fast, “in and out.”
      I had to look up #2 — although I took a year of Latin in college, it left my mind a blank slate (tabula rasa?). So, Wikipedia tells me the Russian for it is Ничто из ничего не получается. A more idiomatic way of saying this would be ничто не берется ниоткуда (nothing is taken/appears from nowhere).

  4. Richard:

    Hi Maria,

    Thanks for the response. The list of Latin expressions you linked to is pretty exhaustive but (there’s always a “but”, isn’t there!) the expression “per se” didn’t seem to be listed.

    I ran it through MultiTran and came up with either “по существу” or “само по себе”. This leaves me with a question: Which Russian translation for “per se” would you use?

    Кто ищет, находит! 😉

    Richard

    • Maria:

      @Richard Richard, of course! I would probably use сам/само/сама/сами по себе (the pronoun has to agree with the noun it refers to). You could also say собственно (close to “proper,” as in “Moscow proper” — “собственно Москва”).