10 mysterious phraseological units, the origin of which explains everything

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

We figure out why there is only one finger, where the problem is actually located and whether the Slavs had the god Rozhon.

Many catchphrases seem rather strange, but the history of their origin helps to understand the connection between the meanings of words and the meaning of the entire expression.

1. One teaspoon per hour

It seems that this phraseological unit is associated with a very slow eating of something. But no, the food has nothing to do with it. Once upon a time, pharmacists wrote this phrase on bottles: it was according to this scheme that the patient had to take medicine.

An hour is a lot, and a teaspoon is something very small, so the expression has come to be associated with a long and rather tedious task.

Now, doing something per hour for a teaspoon means "a very long time, with long breaks":

• He reads this book an hour by a teaspoon.
• The street trade in Turkish shorts advanced a teaspoon per hour.

2. The snake is subcloud

With a snake, everything is clear: this unfortunate animal has long been considered a symbol of deceit and anger. But what she does under the deck may not be clear to a modern Russian speaker.

A deck is a stump of a log with a hollowed out middle, from which cattle were fed. When the cold came, poisonous snakes could hide under it in order to hibernate there. Naturally, such a surprise under the feeder was a threat to both pets and people: if you disturb a reptile, it could bite, and during hibernation, the poison is especially dangerous.

Now a vile snake is called a vile and insidious person who hides and does not immediately show himself from the bad side:

• She took all my soul out of me, a snake under the skin!
• This is not a friend - this is a snake!

3. On the thief, the hat is on

The origin of this phraseological unit is associated with an old anecdote. People were looking for and could not find the thief. Then they decided to turn to the sorcerer. He shouted into the crowd: “Look! The hat is on fire on the thief! One man grabbed his head and exposed himself.

Now they say this about someone who did something bad and gave himself away:

• What are you fussing about? Is the hat on the thief on fire?
• As they say, the hat is on fire on the thief. You revealed yourself.

4. Get screwed

Today, few people will immediately answer where this "problem" is and why it is so bad there.

Once upon a time this word was called a machine for twisting ropes and ropes. To get into it with the end of clothes or hair was, to put it mildly, unsafe and threatened with serious injury. This is how V. I. Dal explains the origin of the proverb.

An alternative version of the origin, which is popular among the people, became popular thanks to the movie "Hide and seek". Someone's fantasy has come to the conclusion that the gap is in the female crotch. However, this hypothesis is not based on any sources, so it should not be taken seriously.

Nowadays, "getting into a mess" means "being in a difficult, awkward or ridiculous position":

• Many times he got into trouble.
• I would not want to be trapped.

5. Get on the rampage

A mysterious rampage is found in other expressions: "What the hell do you want?"

This is a pointed stake used to hunt bears. The beast, in a rage, climbed on him, and wounded himself. Also in the dictionaries there are references to the fact that the rampage could be strengthened in an inclined position.

In the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, there is a funny fact: “On the basis of the misunderstood proverb“against the pricks,”the ancient lovers of mythology, when searching for the ancient deities of the Slavs, did not fail to interpret this expression in favor of the existence of the“god”Rozhn and included the latter among the same invented "Gods" ".

"To be on the rampage" means "to do something risky, promising failure":

• Better not be on the rampage.
• Himself climbed on the rampage - that's got it.

6. Learn all the ins and outs

It would be logical to assume that the ins and outs of the truth about a person has something in common with the dirt under the nails, because what else could be there, besides, both of them are rather unpleasant. But this expression has a different, more terrifying origin story.

In ancient Russia, torture was used, and one of them was to drive needles, nails or wooden wedges under the nails to force them to give out information. This way of extracting the truth "from under the nails" gave us a phraseological unit.

Now this expression means "to find out the truth, the true essence of something":

• I learned all the ins and outs about her.
• To the question "How are you?" he gave away all the ins and outs.

7. Come to the nodding analysis

Previously, when visiting church, men left their hats at the entrance, and when they went home, they took apart their hats. Then to come to the temple for a hat analysis was the same as now to appear in the theater, when everyone is already dressing in the wardrobe after the performance.

Hence the meaning of the expression - "come too late."

• If you are going to get ready for a long time, you will come to a nodding analysis.
• He, as always, only had time for a nodding analysis.

8. One as a finger

A finger is a finger. But why is he suddenly alone when there are 10 fingers on his hands and 10 on his feet?

The fact is that counting on the fingers began with a thumb, and it is located separately from the rest. His "loneliness" gave rise to the well-known phraseological unit.

"One as a finger" speaks of a completely lonely person:

• There are many spectators, and I am alone in front of them as a finger.
• He became a recluse and spent the whole day at home alone as a finger.

9. Kazan orphan

The specific connection of the unfortunate sufferer to Kazan is puzzling to many. But if you know the history of the emergence of this phraseological unit, then everything becomes clearer.

The expression appeared during the time of Ivan the Terrible. After the conquest of Kazan, some Tatar princes adopted Orthodoxy, recognized the Russian tsar, begged for honors at court, and called themselves orphans in petitions.

There is another version: after the conquest of Kazan, many beggars pretended to be victims of the war and said that their parents died during the siege of the city.

Now this is the name for those who pretend to be unhappy in order to cause someone else's pity:

• She pretends to be a deprived saint, an orphan of Kazan!
• Oh, Kazan orphan, I've already begged everyone for money.

10. Tunnel in tunic

Mysterious tyutelka is a diminutive of the dialect word "tyutya", which means "hit, hit." And in phraseological units we are talking about aiming an ax hit in the same place during carpentry work.

The modern meaning of this expression is “absolutely exactly, exactly”.

• The shoes fit into my tunic.
• Tutelka caught the train in the tunic.