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Quietly. The meaning of the expression "silent sap"

For the study, let’s take an expression that we quite often use in speech, we understand its meaning, but hardly anyone knows where it came from. Unless the person specifically asked such a question or he is a specialist in the field of linguistics.

"Silently." The meaning of phraseological units in Russian

When we want to say about someone that he acts stealthily, sneaks in somewhere unnoticed, does work slowly but persistently, then we use the expression “acts on the sly.”

Most often, a stable combination is used when a person is given a negative characteristic, his tendency to actions that are undesirable for others is indicated. But, despite this, he commits them on the sly, against the will of other people.

So what kind of glanders are we talking about in the phraseological unit? And why is she quiet? Let's try to find answers to the questions posed by turning to information available in different sources.

Meanings of the word "sapa"

In Russian there are several meanings of the word “sapa”.

Firstly, this is the name of a fish of the genus chebak. IN German a similar word means a type of carp.

Secondly, in French“sapa” means a hoe, a pickaxe means a tool for performing earthworks.

The third meaning of the word came from Italian language into French, and then into Russian. And it is closely related to the second meaning. Sapa is called a trench or trench. The word has taken root in military terminology. And this is not at all accidental. The word owes its birth to the warriors who besieged medieval castles. It was they who were the first to use the sly to get into the enemy fortress.

In some areas, a snake is called a sapa. This is the fourth meaning of the word.

Which explanation should I choose?

Of the four proposed meanings of the word “sapa”, you need to choose the one that most closely matches the meaning of the stable combination “silent glander”.

At first glance, it may seem that the name fish or snake fits very well. After all, they are able to move silently and lead a lifestyle hidden from human eyes.

But research carried out by linguists has proven that the expression “slowly” has nothing to do with these meanings, but is directly related to the second and third.

Historical reference

In military practice of the 16th-19th centuries, a special method of laying tunnels, trenches, and mines was used. It was called "the quiet sapa". Reversible glanders is another name for the same type of engineering structures. It must be said that the reversible (quiet) glanders were also used during the Great Patriotic War.

The work was carried out quietly from the enemy, without going to the surface. The work was very hard, but its result was a won battle due to the fact that through the constructed tunnel it was possible to secretly penetrate behind enemy lines or destroy his fortifications.

After the invention of gunpowder, silent glanders were used to plant bombs under the foundations of buildings or some other structures. Special people, who were called sappers, began to engage in silent sapping.

In addition to silent glanders, military engineers used flying glanders. A trench was dug on the surface, but under cover from the enemy. It was installed in advance and was constructed from bags of earth, barrels and other improvised means.

If used for digging tunnels a large number of soldier, the work, although painstaking, was not so exhausting. The final result could be obtained quite quickly.

A small group did the quiet or flying glanders slowly, passing the same area several times.

The decision to use silent fire was rarely made by military commanders due to the labor-intensive nature of the work. It was used only in cases where there was no other way to break the enemy’s resistance.

Use of the expression in modern language

So, initially, only the military knew who the silent sap was. The expression was used only in direct meaning. That is, if they said “doing it on the sly,” it meant that the person was digging a tunnel, making a secret dig. There was no other meaning.

It so happened that while traveling around different languages and countries, the expression came into use among the civilian population. This is where it acquired a figurative meaning, and its direct meaning was gradually forgotten.

The expression is most often used in a reprehensible sense. He acts on the sly - this means he weaves intrigues, builds intrigues, prepares a “undermining”. For the time being, people around him have no idea about this person’s behavior and are unaware of his true intentions.

In the Russian language, phraseological units are used as stable indivisible lexical units. Their meaning does not consist of the meaning of the words that make them up. But studying the history of the emergence of a stable combination can be very useful. In this way we get acquainted with the history of peoples and reveal the secret of the appearance of words.

0 To impress girls, you need to not only flex your muscles and show off your golden hair fix, but also show off your intellect. Therefore, if you are a retarded person, and your whole life position is to fill “frags” and fap on your “stats”, then you will not see girls like your ears. I recommend adding our website to your bookmarks so that you can join our wisdom at your leisure. Today we will talk about an interesting expression, this Quietly, which means you can read a little lower.
However, before you continue, I would like to recommend you a couple of other articles on the topic of phraseological units. For example, what does Seven Fridays in a week mean? how to understand Without a king in your head; the meaning of the expression Put in a long box; what does the Prodigal Son mean, etc.
So let's continue What does Quietly mean?? There are several meanings of this expression, but we will analyze only the most popular of them.

Quietly- means to move stealthily, unnoticed; slowly and gradually achieve your goal; penetrate somewhere, etc.


Synonym for the expression Quietly: quietly, quietly, secretly, from under the hand, on the sly, quietly, quietly, on the sly.

Today it’s finally time to talk about this ironic phrase. First let's figure it out What does Sapa mean?, and only then we’ll see why she’s so quiet. It turns out that in our language there are as many as five meanings of this concept. For example:

First value. It is believed that this word comes from Sanskrit - “sarpa”, which can be translated as “snake”.

Second meaning. Previously, the word “Sap” (not to be confused with “sap dvach”) was quite common, which meant a disease similar to a runny nose; it mainly affected horses.

Third meaning. This rare word was used to refer to a trench or trench.

Fourth meaning. This term was borrowed from the French "sape". They called it a pick or hoe, which was used to dig trenches and trenches.

Fifth value. Perhaps this term came from the German language "zope", the name given to fish from the family of chebaks (a type of roach, ray-finned fish from the carp family, common in the Urals and Siberia).

Well, here we have given the meaning of five saps, but the question is which one is the quietest. What do we have, a snake crawling quietly and gliding through the grass very unnoticed, or a fish hiding in the water column?
Oddly enough, these creatures have nothing to do with the word discussed here at all. In fact, the version with trenches is closer, or rather with underground passages that were laid underground to the rear of the enemy. Military engineers, quieter than snakes and deeper than fish, paved a path through which a stream of soldiers would soon pour in, sweeping away the enemy camp and slaughtering everyone in their path. Since then, people who laid silent saps began to be called that way, sappers.
After some time, this popular expression fell into everyday speech, where it began to mean, " to do something on the sly, unnoticed, sneaking, not to allow oneself to be detected, to go unnoticed" and so on.

After reading this article, you learned what does it mean quietly, and now you can explain the meaning of this

Quietly or silently?

We Russians say that there are devils in still waters. A Jewish proverb says, “Fear the still water, the still dog, and the quiet enemy.” And the Udmurts will add to this dangerous “quiet” list: “A quiet cat scratches more.”

In general, it is clear that nothing good can be expected from the “silent sap”. They “slowly” gain our trust, and then shamelessly deceive us. “Silently” they weave intrigues and build intrigues. Obviously, this expression means secretly, stealthily, on the sly, doing some nasty things.

Some, however, are sure that all these outrages are happening not “on the sly,” but “on the sly.” The imagination pictures an unattractive married couple of mischievous, harmful animals. It would be interesting to look at them, but such individuals are not described in any encyclopedia of animals. So let's go the proven route and turn to dictionaries.

It immediately becomes clear that the expression “slowly” is unconditionally rejected by all dictionaries. Although those who use it have their own logic. “Quietly snuffling” means “quietly snuffling,” they say. - Watch the children! As soon as the kids calm down, expect trouble. Surely, quietly snoring in the corner, they are smearing mom’s cosmetics on the walls or trying to take apart dad’s expensive watch.”

And yet you have to leave the kids, wheezing with pleasure, alone. They are not to blame for the emergence of the idiom “the quiet one.”

I decided to find out what “glanders” is and why it is “quiet” in an older child - already school age. The boy, without thinking for a second, answered: “Sapa” is a system for buying and selling links for website promotion, allowing you to make money on the Internet. You come in and quietly register.”

Here it is, the clouded consciousness of one entangled in the World Wide Web!

No, this version does not suit us either!

The path of knowledge is more interesting and exciting than the final result. So I ask you to put forward new hypotheses about the origin of the word “sapa”!

Do you think it's related to the word "boots"? If you wear boots made of thin leather with silent soles, you can approach a person quietly and unnoticed. No, it's cold! Boots have nothing to do with it!

What about the sapper? Now it's "hot"! This word, of course, is “from our opera” about “the silent sap”.

“Sapa” comes from the French sape – “hoe, pick.” And the French apparently borrowed this word from the Italians. Zappa - "hoe". This is perhaps where our verb “to claw” comes from.

In the wars of the 16th–19th centuries, “silent saps” were the name given to trenches that were laid underground in secret from the enemy. The military engineers involved in this work were called sappers. “Sapper” is literally translated from French and means “to lead a mine.”

Two methods of digging a trench were used: flying glanders and switch-over, which is also quiet. The flying glanders worked from the surface of the earth under the cover of a protective embankment, and the quiet glanders - from the bottom of the original ditch or trench, without the workers going to the surface.

However, in Russian there are other meanings of the word “sapa”. Fishermen, of course, know such fish. I guarantee that glanders are excellently caught in the lower reaches of the Volga. We also call a snake sapa. Apparently, the word comes from the Sanskrit “sarpa”.

But neither a fish nor even a snake poses such a danger as those who like to act “on the sly.” So avoid communicating with them.

For the study, let’s take an expression that we quite often use in speech, we understand its meaning, but hardly anyone knows where it came from. Unless the person specifically asked such a question or he is a specialist in the field of linguistics.

"Silently." The meaning of phraseological units in Russian

When we want to say about someone that he acts stealthily, sneaks in somewhere unnoticed, does work slowly but persistently, then we use the expression “acts on the sly.”

Most often, a stable combination is used when a person is given a negative characteristic, his tendency to actions that are undesirable for others is indicated. But, despite this, he commits them on the sly, against the will of other people.

So what kind of glanders are we talking about in the phraseological unit? And why is she quiet? Let's try to find answers to the questions posed by turning to information available in different sources.


Meanings of the word "sapa"

In Russian there are several meanings of the word “sapa”.

Firstly, this is the name of a fish of the genus chebak. In German, a similar word means a type of carp.

Secondly, in French, “sapa” means a hoe, a pick – a tool for performing earthworks.

The third meaning of the word came from Italian to French, and then to Russian. And it is closely related to the second meaning. Sapa is called a trench or trench. The word has taken root in military terminology. And this is not at all accidental. The word owes its birth to the warriors who besieged medieval castles. It was they who were the first to use the sly to get into the enemy fortress.

In some areas, a snake is called a sapa. This is the fourth meaning of the word.

Which explanation should I choose?

Of the four proposed meanings of the word “sapa”, you need to choose the one that most closely matches the meaning of the stable combination “silent glander”.

At first glance, it may seem that the name fish or snake fits very well. After all, they are able to move silently and lead a lifestyle hidden from human eyes.

But research carried out by linguists has proven that the expression “slowly” has nothing to do with these meanings, but is directly related to the second and third.

Historical reference

In military practice of the 16th–19th centuries, a special method of laying tunnels, trenches, and mines was used. It was called "the quiet sapa". Reversible glanders is another name for the same type of engineering structures. It must be said that the reversible (quiet) glanders were also used during the Great Patriotic War.

The work was carried out quietly from the enemy, without going to the surface. The work was very hard, but its result was a won battle due to the fact that through the constructed tunnel it was possible to secretly penetrate behind enemy lines or destroy his fortifications.

After the invention of gunpowder, silent glanders were used to plant bombs under the foundations of buildings or some other structures. Special people, who were called sappers, began to engage in silent sapping.

In addition to silent glanders, military engineers used flying glanders. A trench was dug on the surface, but under cover from the enemy. It was installed in advance and was constructed from bags of earth, barrels and other improvised means.

If a large number of soldiers were used to dig tunnels, then the work, although painstaking, was not so grueling. The final result could be obtained quite quickly.

A small group did the quiet or flying glanders slowly, passing the same area several times.

The decision to use silent fire was rarely made by military commanders due to the labor-intensive nature of the work. It was used only in cases where there was no other way to break the enemy’s resistance.

Use of the expression in modern language

So, initially, only the military knew who the silent sap was. The expression was used only in its literal meaning. That is, if they said “doing it on the sly,” it meant that the person was digging a tunnel, making a secret dig. There was no other meaning.

It so happened that while traveling through different languages ​​and countries, the expression came into use among the civilian population. This is where it acquired a figurative meaning, and its direct meaning was gradually forgotten.

The expression is most often used in a reprehensible sense. He acts on the sly - this means he weaves intrigues, plots, and prepares an undermining. For the time being, people around him have no idea about this person’s behavior and are unaware of his true intentions.

In the Russian language, phraseological units are used as stable indivisible lexical units. Their meaning does not consist of the meaning of the words that make them up. But studying the history of the emergence of a stable combination can be very useful. In this way we get acquainted with the history of peoples and reveal the secret of the appearance of words.

What does the expression “on the sly” mean?

Natalia Sapegina

Quietly - slowly



The expression “slyly” means secretly, unnoticed, on the sly, stealthily. The word "sapa" is almost unknown to modern native speakers. Sapa is a tunnel, trench, ditch to the enemy’s position, which was made unnoticed, secretly during the siege of a fortress in order to approach it, to undermine its walls. In the old days, “conducting a sapa” meant “conducting a tunnel,” by the way, hence the word “sapper” - “soldier of the engineering and construction troops.”

WHO IS THE "SILENT SAPA"? 12 EXPRESSIONS WE DID NOT THINK ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF WHICH WE DID NOT THINK ABOUT THE ORIGIN


Let's try to figure out where these things came from in the Russian language. strange words and revolutions.

Quietly

The word sape means "hoe" in French. In the 16th-19th centuries, this term denoted a method of digging a trench or tunnel to approach fortifications. The expression “on the sly,” which means: sneaking, sneaking somewhere unnoticed, originally meant secretly undermining, digging a secret tunnel.

Often the purpose of digging such trenches was to place explosives under the fortification, so the word “sapper” also comes from these times.

Suffer from bullshit

And here is the promised obscenity. Information about how recently the word “dick” has acquired an obscene connotation definitely prompts philosophical reflection on the conventions of prohibitions.

In Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” we read: “And the milk mushrooms? - Ferapont suddenly asked, pronouncing the letter “g” aspiratedly, almost like a dick.” Of course, the classic didn’t mean anything bad - a century and a half ago, that’s what the aspirated letter “x” was called in the Church Slavonic alphabet, that’s all.


After the reform of 1918, the name of the letter disappeared from primers, but the word itself remained in spoken language. Since there was no object, but the word was, a use was quickly found for it - they began to replace it famous word of three letters. Yes, with such success that after a couple of decades, the obscene meaning was finally assigned to a harmless word.

The most ironic thing is that the origin of the name of the disgraced letter was initially quite divine - from the word “cherub”.

At the same time, the word “garbage,” which is not even a derivative of dick, began to sound indecent. This is just the name of a common hernia, derived from the Latin term hernia. In the 19th century, such a diagnosis was often given to rich bourgeois children who wanted to “get away” from military service- peasants usually didn’t have enough money for “garbage.” So then half of Russia suffered from bullshit. Not like now.

Latest Chinese warning

Those born in the 60s of the last century remember how this expression arose. But subsequent generations were already deprived of the pleasure of following the confrontation between the United States and China at the turn of the 50s and 60s of the 20th century. When China, outraged by the U.S. air and naval support of Taiwan, issued its angry note called “The Final Warning” in 1958, the world shuddered in horror and held its breath in anticipation of a third world war.

When, seven years later, China already published the four hundredth note under the same name, the world was no longer shaking with horror, but with laughter. Fortunately, China did not go beyond threatening words; Taiwan still retained its independence, which Beijing still does not recognize. Those who know about the origin of the expression use it correctly: in fact, we are not talking about a final warning, but about empty threats that will not be followed by action.

Slap

This word, as well as the expression “Hey, hat!”, has nothing to do with hats. It came into slang straight from Yiddish and is a distorted form of the German verb “schlafen” - “to sleep.” “Hat,” accordingly, means “sleepyhead, gape.” While you are here, your suitcase is draped.

bosom friend

Everything is obvious here: a bosom friend is someone with whom you can “pour the Adam’s apple” together, that is, have a soulful drink.

A woman with a twist

And this image was given to us personally by Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. It was he who first coined the expression “a woman with a twist.”

In his drama “The Living Corpse,” one character says to another: “My wife was an ideal woman... But what can I tell you? There was no zest - you know, there is zest in kvass? “There was no game in our lives.”

Cast pearls before swine


These are the words from the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.” "Bible Matt. 7:6" / synodal translation, 1816–1862

With pearls, the phrase sounds somewhat more logical, and the ideal in its meaninglessness expression about beads is explained simply - that’s what pearls used to be called in Rus'. So the word “beads” became fixed in the expression and came into colloquial speech from the Church Slavonic text of the Bible.

Filka's certificate

Unlike Trishka with his caftan or Kuzka with his mysterious mother, Filka is a completely historical person. This is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Philip II of Moscow. He was a short-sighted man who forgot that the first duty of the Moscow high priest is to diligently give to Caesar what is Caesar's, so he barked for his misfortune with the Tsar-Father Ivan the Terrible. He decided, you know, to expose the bloody atrocities of the tsarist regime - he began to write true stories about how many people the tsar tortured, tortured, burned and poisoned. The Tsar called the Metropolitan’s writing “Filka’s letter”, swore that Filka was lying, and imprisoned Filka in a distant monastery, where the Metropolitan was almost immediately finished off by assassins sent.

Places not so remote



In the “Code of Punishments” of 1845, places of exile were divided into “remote” and “not so remote”. By “remote” we meant the Siberian provinces and subsequently Sakhalin, by “not so distant” we meant Karelia, Vologda, Arkhangelsk regions and some other places located just a few days’ journey from St. Petersburg. This phrase firmly entered the language of writers of the second half of the 19th century to indicate exile.

Not at ease

The expression comes from the French phrase n'être pas dans son assiette. The French word assiette means not only “plate” but also “position; state; mood".

A well-known story says that at the beginning of the 19th century, a would-be translator translated the phrase “buddy, you’re out of sorts” from some French play as “you’re out of your element.”

Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov could not ignore such a brilliant blunder and put an illiterate phrase into Famusov’s mouth: “My dear! You're out of your element. I need sleep from the road." With the light hand of the poet, the crazy phrase took root in the Russian language.

Unfrightened idiot


The authorship of the expression is attributed to Ilya Ilf. In the “Notebooks” that the writer kept since 1925, there is a phrase: “The land of unafraid idiots. It's time to scare." The expression parodied the title of Prishvin’s then popular book “In the Land of Unfrightened Birds.”

In the 80s of the last century, the phrase had a continuation: “The country of unafraid idiots and evergreen tomatoes.” The authorship of the second part belongs to Mikhail Zhvanetsky - “evergreen tomatoes” first appeared in his miniature “You didn’t bury it in Odessa in August?”

Sharpen the laces

Lyasy (balusters) are turned figured posts of railings at the porch. At first, “sharpening balusters” meant conducting an elegant, fancy, ornate (like balusters) conversation. However, there were few skilled people to conduct such a conversation, and over time the expression began to mean empty chatter.

Sometimes they say "on the sly." Who is Sapa and why is she quiet?

Svetlana Rudyagina

Who is this silent sap?
According to your numerous requests, dear readers, today’s educational program will reveal the secret of the expression “on the sly.” First, let's figure out what kind of glander it is, and then we'll find out why it's quiet.
In Russian there are as many as four meanings of this word. Firstly, sapa is a fish from the genus Chebak, possibly from the German word Zope, which means a type of carp. Secondly, this was the name for a hoe or pickaxe, from French word sape. Thirdly, as a consequence of the second definition, a trench or trench was called a sapa. Finally, the fourth meaning of this many-sided word is snake, from the Sanskrit “sarpa”. There is also the word “glanders” - an infectious disease akin to a runny nose, which horses often suffered from. It is probably from him that the isomorphic version of our phrase “slowly” came from, which is unanimously rejected by all dictionaries. I hope no one will mind if we don't consider it either.
So there are four subs available, but which one is the quietest? The glanders snake crawls very quietly. The glanders fish apparently swims even quieter. However, neither one nor the other is related to the expression under study. In the wars of the 16th-19th centuries, quiet saps were trenches laid underground in secret from the enemy. Quieter than fish and snakes, the military dug (sapa) into enemy fortifications and then blew them up. The military engineers who carried out this work were called sappers.
Later, the expression “slyly” entered civil speech, where it came to mean “sneaking, slowly, unnoticed, penetrating somewhere.”
Jerzy Lisowski

Sapa (from the French sape - hoe) is a method of digging a trench, ditch or tunnel to approach fortifications. Used in the 16th-19th centuries.
Two options are known: flying and switching glanders (quiet, secretive). The flying glander work was carried out from the surface of the earth under the cover of a pre-prepared protective embankment of barrels and bags of earth, and the crossover work was carried out from the bottom of the original ditch or trench without workers going to the surface.
The expression is to act “on the sly” which means: to sneak, slowly, unnoticed, to penetrate somewhere. Initially it was meant to secretly mine, dig a secret tunnel.

Olga Namestnikova

Firstly, sapa is a fish from the genus Chebak, possibly from the German word Zope, which means a type of carp. Secondly, this was the name for a hoe or pickaxe, from the French word sape. Thirdly, as a consequence of the second definition, a trench or trench was called a sapa. Finally, the fourth meaning of this many-sided word is snake, from the Sanskrit “sarpa”. There is also the word “glanders” - an infectious disease akin to a runny nose, which horses often suffered from. It is probably from him that the isomorphic version of our phrase “slowly” came from, which is unanimously rejected by all dictionaries. I hope no one will mind if we don't consider it either.
So there are four subs available, but which one is the quietest? The glanders snake crawls very quietly. The glanders fish apparently swims even quieter. However, neither one nor the other is related to the expression under study. In the wars of the 16th-19th centuries, quiet saps were trenches laid underground in secret from the enemy. Quieter than fish and snakes, the military dug (sapa) into enemy fortifications and then blew them up. The military engineers who carried out this work were called sappers.
Later, the expression “slyly” entered civil speech, where it came to mean “sneaking, slowly, unnoticed, penetrating somewhere.”

The origin of catchphrases and expressions!

Quote from message in the evening Read in full In your quotation book or community!
Origin catch phrases and expressions!

We use such phrases every day in speech, without thinking at all about their original meaning and origin. Why is the latest warning from China? Who is this silent sap? And why should a successful business burn out?



Reach the handle



IN Ancient Rus' The rolls were baked in the shape of a castle with a round bow. Townspeople often bought rolls and ate them right on the street, holding them by this bow or handle. For reasons of hygiene, the pen itself was not eaten, but was given to the poor or thrown to be eaten by dogs. According to one version, about those who did not disdain to eat it, they said: they got to the point. And today the expression “reach the pen” means to completely descend, to lose human appearance.
bosom friend



The ancient expression “to pour on the Adam’s apple” meant “to get drunk”, “to drink alcohol.” From here the phraseological unit “bosom friend” was formed, which today is used to denote a very close friend.
Add the first number



In the old days, schoolchildren were often flogged, often without any fault of the person being punished. If the mentor showed special zeal, and the student suffered especially hard, he could be freed from further vices in the current month, until the first day of the next month. This is how the expression “pour in the first number” arose.
Goof



Prosak used to be called a special machine for weaving ropes and ropes. It had a complex design and twisted the strands so tightly that getting clothes, hair, or beard into it could cost a person his life. It was from such cases that the expression “get into trouble” came about, which today means to be in an awkward position.
Latest Chinese warning



In the 1950s and 1960s, American aircraft often violated Chinese airspace for reconnaissance purposes. The Chinese authorities recorded every violation and each time sent a “warning” to the United States through diplomatic channels, although no real action followed them, and such warnings were counted in the hundreds. This policy has given rise to the expression “China's final warning,” meaning threats without consequences.
Hanging dogs



When a person is reproached or accused of something, you can hear the expression: “They hang dogs on him.” At first glance, this phrase is completely illogical. However, it is not associated with an animal at all, but with another meaning of the word “dog” - burdock, thorn - now almost never used.
Quietly



The word sape means "hoe" in French. In the 16th-19th centuries, the term “sapa” was used to denote a method of digging a trench, ditch or tunnel to approach fortifications. Gunpowder bombs were sometimes placed in tunnels to castle walls, and specialists trained to do this were called sappers. And from secretive digging of mines came the expression “slyly,” which today is used to denote careful and unnoticed actions.
Big boss



The most experienced and strong barge hauler, walking first in the strap, was called a cone. This evolved into the expression "big shot" to refer to an important person.
The case burned out



Previously, if a court case disappeared, the person could not be legally charged. Cases often burned down: either from fire in wooden court buildings, or from deliberate arson for a bribe. In such cases, the accused said: “The case has burned out.” Today this expression is used when we talk about successful completion a major undertaking.
Leave in English



When someone leaves without saying goodbye, we use the expression “left in English.” Although in the original this idiom was invented by the British themselves, and it sounded like ‘to take French leave’ (“to leave in French”). It appeared during the Seven Years' War in the 18th century as a mockery of French soldiers who left their unit without permission. At the same time, the French copied this expression, but in relation to the British, and in this form it became entrenched in the Russian language.
Blue blood



Spanish The Royal Family and the nobility were proud that, unlike the common people, they traced their ancestry to the West Goths and never mixed with the Moors who entered Spain from Africa. Unlike the dark-skinned commoners, blue veins stood out on the pale skin of the upper class, and therefore they called themselves sangre azul, which means “blue blood.” From here this expression for denoting aristocracy penetrated into many European languages, including Russian.
And it's a no brainer



The source of the expression “It’s a no brainer” is a poem by Mayakovsky (“It’s even a no brainer - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). It became widespread first in the Strugatskys’ story “The Country of Crimson Clouds”, and then in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (classes A, B, C, D, D) or one year (classes E, F, I). Students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs”. When they came to the boarding school, the two-year students were already ahead of them in the non-standard program, so at the beginning school year The expression “no brainer” was very relevant.
Washing the bones



The Orthodox Greeks, as well as some Slavic peoples, had a custom of secondary burial - the bones of the deceased were removed, washed with water and wine, and put back. If the corpse was found undecayed and swollen, this meant that during life this person was a sinner and he was under a curse - to emerge from the grave at night in the form of a ghoul, vampire, ghoul and destroy people. Thus, the ritual of washing the bones was necessary to ensure that there was no such spell.
The highlight of the program

The opening of the nail-like Eiffel Tower was timed to coincide with the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris, which created a sensation. Since then, the expression “highlight of the program” has entered the language.
If we don't wash, we'll just ride



In the old days, village women used a special rolling pin to “roll” their laundry after washing. Well-rolled laundry turned out to be wrung out, ironed and clean, even if the wash was not of very high quality.
Newspaper duck



“One scientist, having bought 20 ducks, immediately ordered one of them to be cut into small pieces, which he fed to the rest of the birds. A few minutes later he did the same with another duck, and so on, until one remained, which thus devoured 19 of its friends.” This note was published in the newspaper by the Belgian humorist Cornelissen to mock the gullibility of the public. Since then, according to one version, false news has been called “newspaper ducks.”
Seven Fridays a week



Previously, Friday was a day off from work, and, as a result, a market day. On Friday, when they received the goods, they promised to give the money due for it on the next market day. Since then, to refer to people who do not fulfill their promises, they say: “He has seven Fridays in a week.”
Scapegoat



According to the ancient Jewish rite, on the day of remission of sins, the high priest placed his hands on the head of the goat and thereby laid the sins of the entire people on it. The goat was then taken into the Judean desert and released. This is where the expression “scapegoat” comes from.
Fail



To fail means to experience failure, to fail on the way to the goal. However, the word “fiasco” in Italian means a large two-liter bottle. How could such a strange combination of words be created and how did it acquire its modern meaning? There is an explanation for this. It was born from the unsuccessful attempt of the famous Italian comedian Bianconelli to perform a funny pantomime in front of the public with a large bottle in his hand. After his failure, the words “Bianconelli fiasco” took on the meaning of an acting failure, and then the word “fiasco” itself began to mean failure.
Why are newcomers called “dummies”?



A teapot is an inexperienced user, a person who does not know how to efficiently use a personal computer to the extent necessary for him. The term comes from mountaineering. Experienced climbers call a kettle a beginner who has made his first ascent to the top of a mountain. As a rule, the first thing such people do is not take the necessary actions to set up the camp, but pose for photographers, resting one hand on their side and putting the other to the side, leaning on an ice axe, ski pole, etc., which is why their silhouette strongly resembles a teapot.

Series of messages "Aphorisms": APHORISMSPart 1 - Robot of aphorisms
Part 2 - Aphorisms
...
Part 26 - Aphorisms and sayings of Marcus Aurelius
Part 27 - APHORISMS OF ANCIENT ROME
Part 28 - The origin of catchphrases and expressions!
Part 29 - Aphorisms of Socrates
Part 30 - Stanislav Jerzy Lec
...
Part 44 - Kozma Prutkov is a special phenomenon in Russian literature
Part 45 - Over a cup of tea
Part 46 - BRIGHT APHORISMS OF MARK TWAIN

Razg. Iron. Stealthily, secretly, unnoticed (to act, achieve something). - I did [Galya]? So how is it, Nikitin? - Granaturov asked suspiciously. - Strong, strong, musketeer! Are you acting quietly? “I don’t understand,” Nikitin said. - I walked to the gate and got some fresh air(Yu. Bondarev. Shore). And Kolya decided to build a new bathhouse. The men grinned, the women advised him to hire a carpenter. But Kolya did not listen. Quietly assigned to the forest, Kolya’s plot was allocated in a pine forest and the log house was allowed to be erected(Al. Ivanov. Kolya - one hundred grams). SILENTLY. Simple Region Well, if they’re pinned to the wall and don’t get out, a silent, long siege begins, with starvation and quiet gulps the Chushans get their way: what they need to bypass, they’ll bypass, what they want to get, they’ll get, whoever they need to survive, they’ll survive.(V. Astafiev. Tsar Fish). - From the military term sapa: “a tunnel or ditch to the enemy’s position, which was made secretly, quietly, unnoticed, usually when besieging a fortress to undermine its walls” (from Italian. zappa- hoe). Lit.: Dictionary Russian language / Edited by prof. D. N. Ushakova. - M., 1940. - T. 4. - P. 50.

Phraseological dictionary of the Russian literary language. - M.: Astrel, AST. A. I. Fedorov. 2008.

See what “Silent glanders” is in other dictionaries:

    Quietly- Pribike. Same as by stealth (SAPA). SNFP, 108 ...

    SILENTLY. Razg. Iron. Stealthily, secretly, unnoticeably (to act, to achieve something). Did you see [Galya] out? So how is it, Nikitin? Granaturov asked suspiciously. Strong, strong, musketeer! Are you acting quietly? “I don’t understand,” Nikitin said.… … Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language

    GLANDERS- knows him. Sib. Absolutely nothing is known about what. SPS, 161; SRNG 11, 312; SRNG 36, 123; Mokienko 1086, 181. Sap on sapa (by sap). Volg. About partners who are similar to each other. Glukhov 1988, 143. Glanders is looking for snoring (found). Volg., Don. Shuttle... Big dictionary Russian sayings