{"id":12655,"date":"2020-07-14T10:30:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T10:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=12655"},"modified":"2020-07-14T06:14:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-14T06:14:00","slug":"working-hard-or-hardly-working-russian-sayings-about-laziness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/working-hard-or-hardly-working-russian-sayings-about-laziness\/","title":{"rendered":"Working hard or hardly working: Russian sayings about laziness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not sure if it\u2019s July heat in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan that\u2019s making any effort to do anything<\/em> three times more exhausting, or the fact that I consumed triple the recommended amount of chocolate fudge cake for my birthday (you only turn 25 once, right?) \u2014 either way, I\u2019m feeling like the biggest sloth. So, why not take this leisurely summer vibe and turn it into an opportunity to talk about Russian idioms about being lazy and idle.<\/p>\n

\u0411\u0438\u0442\u044c \u0431\u0430\u043a\u043b\u0443\u0301\u0448\u0438 \u2013 to lounge around <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"lazy_cat\"

Image by photosforyou<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\u0411\u0430\u043a\u043b\u0443\u0301\u0448\u0430 is a Russian word for a simple wooden block roughly carved out for making wooden toys, spoons, and other crafts. Since making these blocks was considered a rudimentary skill attainable by even the most inexperienced woodworkers, the task itself slowly became associated with lounging around.<\/p>\n

\u0413\u043e\u043d\u044f\u0301\u0442\u044c \u043b\u043e\u0301\u0434\u044b\u0440\u044f \u2013 to be idle, lazy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"silly_walk\"

Image by Aline Dassel<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

It is believed that a number of private medical centers in the 19th century Moscow were big on working with patients suffering from obesity. One of these clinics was owned by a German professor Justus Christian Loder whose main method of fighting obesity was taking regular walks. For the majority of Muscovites who were struggling to make their ends meet, Loder\u2019s clients and their idleness seemed extravagantly wasteful. They would refer to Loder\u2019s rich patients as \u201c\u043b\u043e\u0434\u044b\u0440\u0438\u201d, and, with time, the expression \u201c\u0433\u043e\u043d\u044f\u0442\u044c \u043b\u043e\u0434\u044b\u0440\u044f\u201d established itself as a reference to idlers.<\/p>\n

\u0418\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0301\u0442\u044c \u0432 \u0431\u0438\u0440\u044e\u0301\u043b\u044c\u043a\u0438 \u2013 to do nothing, wander around<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u0411\u0438\u0440\u044e\u043b\u044c\u043a\u0438 is a type of traditional Russian game and a word for knick-knacks. In the game, the players used little hooks attached to a string on a stick to pick up various items of the floor. Gradually, the game became an idiomatic expression to mean that one is spending their time doing nothing particularly useful.<\/p>\n

\u041f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u043b\u0438\u0432\u0430\u0301\u0442\u044c \u0438\u0437 \u043f\u0443\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0301\u0433\u043e \u0432 \u043f\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0301\u0436\u043d\u0435\u0435 \u2013 to waste time idly<\/strong><\/p>\n

The literal translation of this idiom is very straight forward, meaning \u201cpouring something from an empty vessel into another empty container\u201d. The expression is believed to originate from a culture of Hellenistic philosophers that would lounge around pondering about life\u2019s unanswerable questions. When the Greek philosopher Demonax encountered such a \u201clounge party\u201d he compared the situation to milking a goat into a strainer. Another equally amusing phrase in Russian used to describe those wasting time idly is \u201c\u0442\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0301\u0447\u044c \u0432\u043e\u0301\u0434\u0443 \u0432 \u0441\u0442\u0443\u0301\u043f\u0435\u201d (literally: \u201cto mash water in a mortar\u201d). While idiomatic expressions may seem absurd when translated literally, the ones about idleness appear to be particularly vivid with imagery.<\/p>\n

\u041f\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0436\u0438\u0442\u044c \u0432 \u0434\u043e\u043b\u0433\u0438\u0439 \u044f\u0449\u0438\u043a \u2013 to put something off for a long time<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"desk_drawer\"

Image by Bonsoni.com<\/a> from Flickr <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

This one might a bit of an outlier among the aforementioned expressions on idleness, but it still conveys the notion of being lazy and not getting the important things done. The part about \u201c\u0434\u043e\u043b\u0433\u0438\u0439 \u044f\u0449\u0438\u043a\u201d is especially worthy of attention here. \u201c\u042f\u0449\u0438\u043a\u201d meaning \u201ca box\u201d or \u201ca crate\u201d is not generally used with the adjective \u201c\u0434\u043e\u043b\u0433\u0438\u0439\u201d, which means \u201clong\u201d in reference to time, as in \u201c\u0434\u043e\u043b\u0433\u0438\u0439 \u0441\u0440\u043e\u043a\u201d. Most likely, \u201c\u044f\u0449\u0438\u043a\u201d was described as \u201c\u0434\u043e\u043b\u0433\u0438\u0439\u201d for the very reason that bureaucratic requests and complaints were being put away in desk drawers for a long time without getting addressed.<\/p>\n

\u0414\u0435\u0301\u043b\u0430\u0442\u044c \u0447\u0442\u043e\u0301-\u043b\u0438\u0431\u043e \u0441\u043f\u0443\u0441\u0442\u044f\u0301 \u0440\u0443\u043a\u0430\u0432\u0430\u0301 \u2013 to work on something half-heartedly, lazily<\/strong><\/p>\n

This expression is a fun linguistic throwback in time to seventeenth-century Russia. The fashion of the time dictated that \u0431\u043e\u044f\u0440\u044b (noblemen) wore coats with really long sleeves that highlighted their status above all work physical and manual. \u201c\u0421\u043f\u0443\u0441\u0442\u044f \u0440\u0443\u043a\u0430\u0432\u0430\u201d means to have your sleeves hanging down, as opposed to another common idiomatic expression \u201c\u0437\u0430\u0441\u0443\u0447\u0438\u0432 \u0440\u0443\u043a\u0430\u0432\u0430\u201d (\u201chaving your sleeves rolled up\u201d) when talking about getting ready to work.<\/p>\n

\u0422\u044f\u043d\u0443\u0301\u0442\u044c \u0432\u043e\u043b\u044b\u0301\u043d\u043a\u0443 \u2013 to work on something lazily; purposefully drag out a task<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"bagpipes\"

Image by PublicDomainArchive<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\u0412\u043e\u043b\u044b\u043d\u043a\u0430 is the Russian word for \u201cbagpipes\u201d, a Scottish musical instrument capable of making long-lasting sounds. The signature bagpipe sound became associated with sluggishness, leisure, and an overall unhurried manner of doing things. The Russian expression \u201c\u0442\u044f\u043d\u0443\u0442\u044c \u0432\u043e\u043b\u044b\u043d\u043a\u0443\u201d is used to refer to people who always put away tasks and deliberately slug around before getting started on something.<\/p>\n

Some of these sayings have more than one origin story. Have you heard of other theories on how these idioms came to express \u201cidleness\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"silly_walk\"

Not sure if it\u2019s July heat in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan that\u2019s making any effort to do anything three times more exhausting, or the fact that I consumed triple the recommended amount of chocolate fudge cake for my birthday (you only turn 25 once, right?) \u2014 either way, I\u2019m feeling like the biggest sloth. So, why not…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":12659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,82,8,1],"tags":[1237,1248,60723,13008],"class_list":["post-12655","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-idioms","category-language","category-uncategorized","tag-russian-grammar","tag-russian-language","tag-russian-phrases","tag-russian-sayings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12655"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12689,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12655\/revisions\/12689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}