{"id":14528,"date":"2021-08-16T17:52:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T17:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=14528"},"modified":"2021-08-17T07:18:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T07:18:01","slug":"oaks-fins-and-hooves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/oaks-fins-and-hooves\/","title":{"rendered":"Oaks, fins, and hooves"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, this is not a Russian bar or a metal band name, though last I checked it\u2019s up for grabs. We are talking about more \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0441\u0442\u043e\u043d\u0430\u0440\u043e\u0301\u0434\u043d\u044b\u0435 \u0444\u0440\u0430\u0437\u0435\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0433\u0438\u0301\u0437\u043c\u044b \u043e \u0441\u043c\u0435\u0301\u0440\u0442\u0438<\/strong> (more informal idioms about death). So, today\u2019s blog is an add-on to the one about death euphemisms and to the one about verbs that mean \u201cto die\u201d. And while these five euphemisms do mean \u201cto die\u201d they are very<\/em> informal and should be reserved for humorous situations as opposed to actually talking about a loss of a loved one.<\/p>\n

Before we begin, here\u2019s a refresher on the rest in the series of \u201ctalking about death in Russian\u201d:<\/p>\n

How do you say \u2018to die\u2019 in Russian?<\/a><\/p>\n

Death in Russian, continued<\/a><\/p>\n

Russian euphemisms about death<\/a><\/p>\n

\"some

Photo by\u00a0Wade Gan<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pexels<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\u0414\u0430\u0301\u0442\u044c \u0434\u0443\u0301\u0431\u0430 <\/strong>(lit. to give oak*)<\/h4>\n

According to most sources<\/a>, \u0434\u0430\u0301\u0442\u044c \u0434\u0443\u0301\u0431\u0430<\/strong> either comes from:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. the verb \u0437\u0430\u0434\u0443\u0431\u0435\u0301\u0442\u044c<\/strong> which is \u2018to freeze to the bone\u2019<\/li>\n
  2. the old Russian tradition of burying people under the oak trees<\/li>\n
  3. the rituals connected to the Slavic God, Perun (\u041f\u0435\u0440\u0443\u0301\u043d<\/a>) who is often represented by a sacred oak tree.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When researching this idiom, I also saw that a new movie Breaking News in Yuba County (2021)<\/em> was translated as \u00ab\u0414\u0430\u0301\u0442\u044c \u0434\u0443\u0301\u0431\u0430 \u0432 \u043e\u0301\u043a\u0440\u0443\u0433\u0435 \u042e\u0301\u0431\u0430\u00bb.<\/em> I thought it was a very clever way to add a nice rhyme to the translated movie title and pay homage to another \u2018death-idiom\u2019 movie title \u2014 The Bucket List (2007), <\/em>known in Russia as \u00ab\u041f\u043e\u043a\u0430\u0301 \u043d\u0435 \u0441\u044b\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0301\u043b \u0432 \u044f\u0449\u0438\u043a\u00bb<\/em>).<\/p>\n

    *this euphemism makes no sense literally in both Russian and English<\/p>\n

    \"a

    Photo by\u00a0Tima Miroshnichenko<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pexels<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

    \u0421\u044b\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0301\u0442\u044c \u0432 \u044f\u0449\u0438\u043a<\/strong> (lit. to play in\/into the coffin)<\/h4>\n

    Speaking of \u00ab\u041f\u043e\u043a\u0430\u0301 \u043d\u0435 \u0441\u044b\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0301\u043b \u0432 \u044f\u0449\u0438\u043a\u00bb<\/em>, this way of saying \u201cto die\u201d also has a few speculative theories about its origins. The word \u2018\u044f\u0449\u0438\u043a<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong> usually means \u2018a crate\u2019, so it\u2019s clear why it would be a code word for \u2018a coffin\u2019, but what about the verb \u2018\u0441\u044b\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0301\u0442\u044c<\/strong>\u2019 <\/strong>(to play)? Based on this source<\/a>, it has likely come from musicians performing funeral songs and therefore playing for the person in the coffin (\u0438\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0301\u0442\u044c \u0432 \u044f\u0449\u0438\u043a) as opposed to the audience.<\/p>\n

    \u0412\u044b\u0301\u0442\u044f\u043d\u0443\u0442\u044c \u043d\u043e\u0301\u0433\u0438<\/strong> (lit. to stretch out the legs)<\/h4>\n

    This Russian phrase reminds me of the Greek myth about Procrustes (\u041f\u0440\u043e\u043a\u0440\u0443\u0301\u0441\u0442<\/a>) who was notorious for torturing and killing travelers by either cutting off their feet if they were too big for the bed or stretching them out if there were too short. Though I haven\u2019t found a definite answer on how this euphemism came to be, it remains a common way to say that someone died.<\/p>\n

    \"swim

    Photo by\u00a0Cassiano Psomas<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pexels<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

    \u0421\u043a\u043b\u0435\u0301\u0438\u0442\u044c \u043b\u0430\u0301\u0441\u0442\u044b<\/strong> (lit. to glue hands together, though it sounds like \u2018to glue swim fins together\u2019)<\/h4>\n

    This one is tricky because at first glance the literal translation might sound like \u201cto glue together swim fins\/flippers together\u201d \u2014 those things people put on their feet when swimming to aid their movement in the water. Funny (and sadly) enough<\/a>, the phrase has supposedly come from prison jargon in which \u2018\u043b\u0430\u0301\u0441\u0442\u044b<\/strong>\u2019 <\/strong>(swim fins) mean \u2018\u0440\u0443\u0301\u043a\u0438<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong> (arms). And when someone died, their hands would be crossed over their chest and remain like that, as if glued together.<\/p>\n

    \"a

    Photo by\u00a0Laura Stanley<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pexels<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

    \u041e\u0442\u043a\u0438\u0301\u043d\u0443\u0442\u044c<\/strong>\/<\/strong>\u043e\u0442\u0431\u0440\u043e\u0301\u0441\u0438\u0442\u044c \u043a\u043e\u043f\u044b\u0301\u0442\u0430\/\u043a\u043e\u043d\u044c\u043a\u0438\u0301<\/strong>\u00a0(lit. to take off or to throw off one\u2019s hooves or shoes)<\/h4>\n

    Once again, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence on how these two euphemisms came to be. And\u00a0 unlike the phrases above, they are very similar in the images that they convey when taken literally. \u2018\u041e\u0442\u043a\u0438\u043d\u0443\u0442\u044c \u043a\u043e\u043f\u044b\u0301\u0442\u0430<\/strong>\u2019<\/a> likely became popular because taking off a horse\u2019s hooves was closely associated with the animal\u2019s death. Similarly, \u2018\u043e\u0442\u0431\u0440\u043e\u0301\u0441\u0438\u0442\u044c \u043a\u043e\u043d\u044c\u043a\u0438\u0301<\/strong>\u2019 is supposedly<\/a> associated with a superstition that a person whose shoes get knocked off in a car accident is likely dead. And yes, ‘\u043a\u043e\u043d\u044c\u043a\u0438\u0301<\/strong>‘ here means ‘shoes’ and not ‘ice skates’.<\/p>\n

    Remember, these euphemisms should only be used informally and in situations where death-related humor is appropriate. These are absolutely not appropriate for expressing condolences.<\/p>\n

    On a lighter note, I have mentioned this in the comments as well, but when it comes to death euphemisms, I had two \u201coops, wrong language\u201d moments. Curiously, my Russian-speaking friends were more receptive of me saying \u201c<\/strong>\u0442\u043e\u043b\u043a\u0430\u0301\u0435\u0442 \u0440\u043e\u043c\u0430\u0301\u0448\u043a\u0438<\/strong>\u201d<\/strong> (pushing up daisies) than when I said \u201c<\/strong>\u043f\u043d\u0443\u0301\u043b \u0432\u0435\u0434\u0440\u043e\u0301<\/strong>\u201d<\/strong> (kicked the bucket). In my defense, mixing up idioms is a very common blunder among bilingual and multilingual people. What idioms have you mixed up before?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"some

    No, this is not a Russian bar or a metal band name, though last I checked it\u2019s up for grabs. We are talking about more \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0441\u0442\u043e\u043d\u0430\u0440\u043e\u0301\u0434\u043d\u044b\u0435 \u0444\u0440\u0430\u0437\u0435\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0433\u0438\u0301\u0437\u043c\u044b \u043e \u0441\u043c\u0435\u0301\u0440\u0442\u0438 (more informal idioms about death). So, today\u2019s blog is an add-on to the one about death euphemisms and to the one about verbs that mean \u201cto…<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":14532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,82,8],"tags":[557257,1227,56889,111747],"class_list":["post-14528","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-idioms","category-language","tag-idioms-about-death","tag-russian-culture","tag-russian-idioms","tag-useful-russian-phrases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14528","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=14528"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14557,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14528\/revisions\/14557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}