13 familiar words that come from prison jargon

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Lawlessness, jamb, screw up - many of the words that we use every day have a "criminal" origin.

Criminal (prison) jargon, which is often called fenei, is a special dialect of people serving sentences in correctional institutions.

The criminal environment back in the 19th century (and possibly even earlier) adopted the argo, which was originally used by wandering traders - ofeni (hence the word "fenya"). Russian thieves' jargon also includes elements from Yiddish, Ukrainian and other languages.

Consider what words from our everyday speech came to us from the prison vocabulary.

1. Pontus

In the Argo language, this term had several meanings: distraction, benefit, action performed for show, demonstrative luxury. They began to use the word even in pre-revolutionary times: "This show-off will not be thrown out in front of the lads." In the 2000s, it was often used mainly by young people to describe pretentiousness or feigned importance ("guy on show-off", "cheap show-off").

2. Party

Initially, a community of criminals was called a get-together. Subsequently, the word acquired a more neutral meaning - a group of people united by common interests, or a party.

3. Kent

If now we jokingly call our friend or comrade a Kent, then in the criminal world a Kent is an accomplice in a crime or a person who adheres to criminal concepts: “You still need to look for such Kents”.

4. Lawlessness

Any departure from thieves' laws used to be called lawlessness ("He did not want to endure such lawlessness in the zone"), but now the word is widely used in the meaning of "arbitrariness, lack of rules."

5. Jamb

We call a jamb a mistake - significant or not. And in the criminal world, a jamb is one prisoner or a group of prisoners, as well as a sidelong glance or an oversight: "For this jamb he will have to answer to the lads."

6. Fuck

This is more serious than a jamb. To screw up means to completely fail the case and fail to cope with the task: "I could not imagine that we would screw up like this." And on the hair dryer, they call it a shame: "For me personally, it's a mess."

7. Take a lead

Let yourself be deceived, believe false promises. For newcomers to the zones, checks are often arranged, and the main thing in them is not to get involved.

8. Brotherhood

In the criminal sphere, lads are a collection of members of a certain criminal group, a gang. In ordinary life, we call the lads our friends, friends.

9. Mower

They began to call 1,000 rubles a mower in argo, and after that this term penetrated into peaceful life and successfully entrenched itself in it - especially in the slang of young people. Although, according to Zaur Zugumov's Historical and Etymological Explanatory Dictionary of the Underworld, in Stalin's time the word had a different meaning: a mower is a prisoner who tried to avoid punishment by causing harm to his health.

10. Kipezh

Despite the fact that the variant "kipish" is more common, the "Dictionary of the Russian Argo" edited by Vladimir Elistratov notes only the form "kipezh" and in the same form the word is indicated on the orthographic academic resource "Academos" of the Institute of the Russian Language. V. V. Vinogradov. In the zone, boil denotes a fight, and outside the prison, any noise, confusion or commotion.

11. Snitch

Snitchers in places of deprivation of liberty are any informers who cooperate with the administration. In ordinary life, we can call a snitch a sneak or a person who complained - for example, to the authorities.

12. Six

In the zone, the six is a person who serves the thieves: "He had a personal six." The word has received much wider use, and a six is called a person of low rank or someone's henchman.

13. Run over

According to Vladimir Elistratov's Dictionary of Russian Argo, running into someone means going into conflict, looking for quarrels. The lexeme successfully went beyond the criminal world and began to be used everywhere.

Share the words we missed in the comments. We will make a new selection of the most interesting options.