The emergence of the first proverbs refers to the distant times of human history. Most scientists in the last century believed that proverbs arose when the Slavic tribes were still in a state of ethnic and linguistic community. It was generally accepted that ancient proverbs expressed mythical concepts and ideas. The antiquity of proverbs was not in doubt.
The secret of the origin of proverbs is hidden in them. Many proverbs invade the sphere of business relations, customs, become part of them. The poetic expression of thought in these proverbial judgments is just an unconsciously artistic form of reflecting reality: "Mosquitoes are talking - to a bucket", "Dry March, and wet May make good bread." In all these proverbs, their vital and practical meaning is most important. These are advice, everyday rules, observations of the weather, an expression of social orders that one has to obey - in a word, business life in all its manifestations. Everyday and social orders were reflected in such proverbs directly - as their direct expression. These proverbs arose in everyday life and did not go beyond everyday use. This is the oldest type of folk sayings. It can be assumed that the whole complex area of unwritten laws and rules of human behavior, life, orders, was expressed in the first proverbial judgments, in their formulas.
In conditions where there was no written language, proverbs were necessarily rhythmic: this form helped them to remember accurately. The stability of proverbs was facilitated by the stability of the customs and everyday institutions to which they belonged. As for brevity, this property of proverbs is quite explicable by the fact that the proverbial judgment did not need proof, it was based on common experience.
There are few proverbs and sayings among the collected materials of Saratov folklore. Recording them takes a long time, so their collections, printed and handwritten, dating back to the 19th century, are small in terms of the number of texts.
The bulk of Saratov proverbs are all-Russian proverbs in their ideological and aesthetic nature. Some of them bear a vivid imprint of the feudal and capitalist eras. Some of them, undoubtedly, of the Volga origin, like the old burlatskaya or robber, for example, "There is nothing to pay the debt - I run to the Volga."
Unlike other genres of folklore, the proverb is perfect, devoid of idealization of life phenomena and human relations, it hits, "not in the eyebrow, but in the eye."
“In the simplicity of the word - the greatest wisdom, proverbs and songs are always short, and the mind and feelings are invested in them for whole books,” M. Gorky argued. Indeed, proverbs and sayings are the smallest genre of oral folk art. This is also an ancient genre used by chroniclers. They summarize centuries-old labor experience, moral convictions, religious ideas and social views of the people. Since ancient times, proverbs have come into popular use and from literary works. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin's epigraph to the work "The Captain's Daughter" is given such a proverb "Take care of honor from a young age."
Proverbs and sayings have long been part of our speech, but few people think about their origin. After all, once stable phraseological units did not exist, but certain conditions contributed to the emergence of a new culture of communication. To better understand the meaning of proverbs and sayings, hotshow life offers to delve into their history. Here are some interesting facts about how famous Russian proverbs and sayings appeared.
For those who are not in the know, the expression means a document of no value. In the people, fake papers are often called "filkin's letter". The history of the proverb comes from the distant 16th century, marked by the reign of Ivan the Terrible. At that time, Metropolitan Philip II of Moscow was engaged in writing complaint papers in order to expose the villainy of the tsar. Ivan the Terrible, with contempt and mockery, called the messages "filka's letter."
People use this idiom when they want to express awkwardness and some embarrassment. There was a catchphrase from the French expression "ne pas danser son assiette", which was erroneously mistranslated. If the original is correctly translated, the saying should sound something like "to be at a disadvantage." The word "assiette" has two translations - "position" and, in fact, "plate". By an absurd accident, the homonyms were confused, and the expression took on the form in which it is known to modern people.
The famous expression has appeared in Russian speech since the 19th century. It is easy to guess that it is associated with merchants of drinking water. The cost of a valuable product at that time was equal to 7 silver coins per year. Naturally, some cunning water carriers wanted to earn more and inflated the price of the goods. Such acts were recognized as illegal and were punished. In order to teach a dishonest merchant a lesson, his horse was taken away. The offended water carrier had to harness himself to the cart and drag the heavy load.
It is not worth arguing about the original Russian origin of the saying. "Prorukha" is a word used by the Slavs in the old days, denoting a gross mistake, a blunder. Further analysis of the proverb is quite simple. The old woman can be regarded as an experienced and wise person who has seen a lot in life. It turns out a banal, but wise truth: even the best masters sometimes make mistakes in business.
Some proverbs and sayings have come down to us not quite in their original form. So, for example, the phrase "ate a dog" came from the ancient Slavs, originally had a different meaning. Today, the expression is used as a characteristic of a person endowed with invaluable experience and a huge store of knowledge in a particular area. A few centuries ago phraseologism sounded somewhat different. People said “I ate the dog and choked on my tail” when they wanted to laugh at someone else's failure. The meaning of the phrase is this: a person was able to do a great job, but stumbled over a minor detail.
As you know, people say “it is written on the forehead” about individuals with clearly negative character traits. Naturally, in fact, there are no inscriptions on the person’s face, the phrase sounds rather abstract. In the first half of the 18th century, the saying sounded more true. The Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna issued a decree requiring that all caught criminals be branded. Thus, thieves and murderers could be easily distinguished from law-abiding citizens. The brand was placed on the forehead and remained on the skin for life.
Selfish people have existed at all times. Not without them and in the time of Ivan the Terrible. When the tsar conquered Kazan, the local princes began to put pressure on pity. Everyone tried his best: most of the population turned out to be poor and miserable, requiring the patronage of the great sovereign. With the help of a cunning move, the princes hoped to get the location of Ivan the Terrible. Apparently, the selfish motives of the inhabitants of the city were revealed, as they began to be called "orphans of Kazan."
The origin of proverbs dates back to ancient times. They concentrate and express in a brief artistic form a set of knowledge, observations, and signs of the working people. Proverbs consolidate the labor, everyday, social experience accumulated by the people and pass it on to subsequent generations. The origins of proverbs are quite varied. The main ones are direct life observations of people, the socio-historical experience of the people. Some of the proverbs and sayings that exist among the people go back to book sources. Didactic poems from old manuscripts, poems of poets, as well as works that came out of the classical East, to a certain extent, replenished the composition of Eastern proverbs. The fight against foreign invaders, ardent love for the motherland and hatred for its enemies, fortitude, courage and heroism of the Russian people - all this was found in short but wise sayings.
The working people who created all the wealth of the country and defended it from foreign invaders languished for many centuries under the heavy yoke of exploitation and enslavement. The people saw the culprits of their hard life, their suffering in the boyars, officials, churchmen, landlords, and then in the capitalists. A lot of proverbs have been created that reflect the difficult and hungry life of a peasant, opposed to the well-fed and carefree life of a gentleman squeezing all the juice out of him (a poor peasant does not eat bread, a rich man will eat a peasant; The boyar chambers are red, and the peasants have a hut on their side; Peasant calluses bars live well). There are especially a lot of proverbs that caustically ridicule priests and monks, their greed, selfishness, selfishness (Ass and a thief fit everything; A wolf's mouth and priest's eyes are an insatiable pit).
The poor man had nowhere and no one to complain to. Officials stood guard over the same feudal lords (Where there is strength, there is law). It was impossible to come to court without a bribe, which was possible only for the rich. And, of course, the case was always decided in their favor. Where there is a court there is untruth.
Life constantly convinced the masses that neither the god they prayed to, nor the king they hoped for, bring the desired relief. God is high, the king is far away - such a conclusion is inevitable. One could only rely on one's own strength. In the most difficult times, the people did not stop dreaming about freedom (In a stone bag, but the thought is free), about reprisals against their masters (There is a thunderstorm; Let the red rooster go), about a happy life (There will be a holiday on our street). The class struggle, overt or covert, never ceased, and the well-aimed word was a sharp weapon in this struggle.
It was not for nothing that such proverbs arose among the feudal lords: The serf's word is like a horn; A mortal look is worse than scolding.
But gradually the views and ideas of people changed. A particularly sharp change in the minds of the people came after the Great October Revolution. For the first time in the history of mankind, a state of workers and peasants was created, workers received equal rights, women
liberated from centuries of family and social slavery, the people became the true masters of their own destiny and won the conditions for free creative work. Proverbs could not pass by these revolutionary transformations: Lenin's testament spread all over the world; There was a torch and a candle, and now Ilyich's lamp. These and many other sayings speak of fundamental changes in the life of working people.
1. Business is time, and fun is an hour. The proverb was born in Russia during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich and originally sounded: “business is time and fun is an hour.” In 1656, by order of the king, a Collection of rules for falconry was compiled, which the king loved very much, and at that time was called "fun". At the end of the preface, Alexei Mikhailovich made a handwritten postscript: "... and do not forget the military system: it's time for work and fun," which meant - everything has its time: both business and fun.
2. Tablecloth path - they talked about the road, which is "straight, like an arrow, with a wide smooth surface that the tablecloth lay down." So in Russia they saw off on a long journey. In modern language, the expression has the opposite meaning: "... indifference to someone's departure, departure, as well as the desire to get out, anywhere."
3. The expression "hot spot" is found in the Orthodox prayer for the dead ("... in a hot place, in a resting place ..."). So in the texts in the Church Slavonic language is called paradise. In Russia, intoxicating drinks were produced mainly from cereals (beer, vodka). In other words, green means a drunken place.
4. Stay with the nose. Here you should use the word "nose" in a different meaning - a burden, to carry. The expression refers to a person giving an offering or a bribe. And, if the gift was not accepted, then it was already impossible to agree, so the person left.
5. They carry water to the offended. The phrase has been used since the time of Peter I. At that time, the profession of a water carrier was popular. In order to earn more money, especially enterprising water carriers began to raise the price of their services. In order to punish the miser, Peter I gave a special instruction - instead of horses, greedy water carriers should be harnessed to the cart. They were forced to carry out the punishment.
6. It stunned me” - we are talking about something that greatly surprised us. The etymology of this expression is worth looking for in antiquity, at a time when warriors fought in heavy armor. If a warrior was hit hard on the helmet (helmet), he lost consciousness, and sometimes received serious injuries.
7. Ate the dog. Now this expression refers to a person who has vast experience in something. Previously, this phrase was used differently: “I ate the dog, and choked on my tail,” they said about someone who, having done hard work, made a mistake because of a trifle.
8. In full, the saying sounds like this: “You can’t stick a cut off chunk back.” Daughter issued to foreign lands; a son separated and living his own home; a recruit whose forehead was shaved - all these are cut off chunks, it’s no wonder to see each other, but you won’t heal with one family. In the old days, bread was exclusively broken (hence the word chunk arose), and not cut.
9. Like a drunken zyuzya. This expression is found in Alexander Pushkin, in the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin", when it comes to Lensky's neighbor - Zaretsky:
Falling off a Kalmyk horse,
Like a drunk zyuzya, and the French
Got captured...
The fact is that in the Pskov region, where Pushkin was in exile for a long time, "zyuzey" is called a pig.
10. Put dust in your eyes. Currently, it is used in the sense of "creating a false impression of one's capabilities." However, the original meaning is different: during fisticuffs, dishonest fighters took with them bags of sand, which they threw into the eyes of their opponents.
11. Get off the pantalik. We are talking about Mount Pantelik in Greece. Marble was mined at Pantelik. As a result, many labyrinths were formed in which it was easy to get lost.
12. This is still written on the water with a pitchfork. In Slavic mythology, "forks" were called mythical creatures that lived in reservoirs. They predicted fate by writing it on the water. According to another version, this is what circles were called. During divination, pebbles were thrown into the river and, according to the shape of the circles formed on the surface of the water, they predicted the future. But such predictions rarely came true, so “it’s written on the water with a pitchfork” they began to talk about unlikely events.
13. The expression “crush water in a mortar” means doing something useless, it has an ancient origin. In medieval monasteries, it had a literal character: delinquent monks were forced to crush water as a punishment.
The origin of proverbs dates back to ancient times. They concentrate and express in a brief artistic form a set of knowledge, observations, and signs of the working people. Proverbs consolidate the labor, everyday, social experience accumulated by the people and pass it on to subsequent generations.
The origins of proverbs are quite varied. The main ones are direct life observations of people, the socio-historical experience of the people. Some of the proverbs and sayings that exist among the people go back to book sources. Didactic poems from old manuscripts, poems of poets, as well as works that came out of the classical East, to a certain extent, replenished the composition of Eastern proverbs.
The fight against foreign invaders, ardent love for the motherland and hatred for its enemies, fortitude, courage and heroism of the Russian people - all this was found in short but wise sayings.
The working people who created all the wealth of the country and defended it from foreign invaders languished for many centuries under the heavy yoke of exploitation and enslavement. The people saw the culprits of their hard life, their suffering in the boyars, officials, churchmen, landlords, and then in the capitalists. A lot of proverbs have been created that reflect the difficult and hungry life of a peasant, opposed to the well-fed and carefree life of a gentleman squeezing all the juice out of him (a poor peasant does not eat bread, a rich man will eat a peasant; The boyar chambers are red, and the peasants have a hut on their side; Peasant calluses bars live well). There are especially a lot of proverbs that caustically ridicule priests and monks, their greed, selfishness, selfishness (Ass and a thief fit everything; A wolf's mouth and priest's eyes are an insatiable pit).
The poor man had nowhere and no one to complain to. Officials stood guard over the same feudal lords (Where there is strength, there is law). It was impossible to come to court without a bribe, which was possible only for the rich. And, of course, the case was always decided in their favor. Where there is a court there is untruth.
Life constantly convinced the masses that neither the god they prayed to, nor the king they hoped for, bring the desired relief. God is high, the king is far away - such a conclusion is inevitable. One could only rely on one's own strength. In the most difficult times, the people did not stop dreaming about freedom (In a stone bag, but the thought is free), about reprisals against their masters (There is a thunderstorm; Let the red rooster go), about a happy life (There will be a holiday on our street). The class struggle, overt or covert, never ceased, and the well-aimed word was a sharp weapon in this struggle. It was not for nothing that such proverbs arose among the feudal lords: The serf's word is like a horn; A mortal look is worse than scolding.
But gradually the views and ideas of people changed. A particularly sharp change in the minds of the people came after the Great October Revolution. For the first time in the history of mankind, a state of workers and peasants was created, all working people received equal rights, women were freed from centuries of family and social slavery, the people became the true master of their own destiny and won the conditions for free creative labor. Proverbs could not pass by these revolutionary transformations: Lenin's testament spread all over the world; There was a torch and a candle, and now Ilyich's lamp. These and many other sayings speak of fundamental changes in the life of working people.
But, creating something new, the people do not throw away all the best that our ancestors have accumulated over the centuries. Of course, to preserve such a proverb, for example: The priest will buy money and deceive God - we have no conditions. But love for work, skill and craftsmanship, courage, honesty, love for the motherland, friendship and other qualities that could not manifest themselves in full force before, only in our time have received all the opportunities for the most complete disclosure. And proverbs that speak of these qualities will always be our companions. Proverbs that smash boastfulness, laziness, selfishness, hypocrisy and other vices in people's behavior have not lost their meaning. For example, the words will always be true: A lazy person is not worth a grave.
Life is not limited to the creation of new and the preservation of old proverbs. Many proverbs are rethought, remade in accordance with the new conditions. The life of individual proverbs can be traced over many centuries.
At the beginning of the 12th century, the chronicler included in the Tale of Bygone Years an ancient proverb even for him: Pogibosha, like obre (they died like obri). It was about the images, or Avrs, who attacked the Slavic tribes and conquered some of them, but were defeated at the end of the 8th century. Similar proverbs were created about other enemies of the Russian people. We know the proverb: He died as a Swede over Poltava, which arose after the victory of the troops of Peter I over the Swedes in 1709. The defeat of the Napoleonic army in 1812 gave a new version of this proverb: He disappeared like a Frenchman in Moscow. After the overthrow of tsarism in 1917, a saying arose: He died without glory like a two-headed eagle.
In our time, many proverbs are being remade in a new way. There was a proverb: Not an ax amuses, but a carpenter; now they say: Not a tractor plows, but a tractor driver. Previously, they always said: One is not a warrior in the field. For our soldiers, it sounded in a new way: If it is tailored in Russian, and there is one warrior in the field. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 proverbs: From the world on a thread - a naked shirt; Lying like a gray gelding - recorded in this form: From the world on a string - to Hitler a rope; Lying like gray Goebbels.
Russian writers make extensive use of the inexhaustible reserves of folk wisdom. However, they not only take from the national language, but also enrich it. Many successful expressions from works of fiction become proverbs and sayings. Happy hours are not observed; How not to please a loved one; Silencers are blissful in the world; Do not say hello from such praises; More in number, at a cheaper price - here are a few sayings from A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit", which exist in the language as proverbs. Love all ages; We all look at Napoleons; What will pass will be nice; And happiness was so possible - all these lines from the works of A.S. Pushkin can often be heard in oral speech. A man exclaiming: There is still gunpowder in the flasks! - may sometimes not know that these are words from the story of N.V. Gogol "Taras Bulba".
I.A. Krylov, who relied in his work on a living colloquial language and often introduced folk proverbs and sayings into his fables, himself created quite a few proverbial expressions (And Vaska listens and eats; But things are still there; But I didn’t notice the elephant; A helpful fool is more dangerous than an enemy; A cuckoo praises a rooster for praising a cuckoo; Why count gossips, isn’t it better to turn to yourself, godfather?). Many proverbs, sayings, apt expressions have entered the colloquial language from the works of other Russian writers of the past and our time.
The collection dates back to the 17th century, when some amateurs began to compile handwritten collections. Since the end of the 17th century, proverbs have been printed in separate books. In the 30-50s of the 19th century, the Russian scientist and writer Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (1801-1872) collected proverbs. His collection "Proverbs of the Russian people" includes about 30,000 texts. Since then, many collections of proverbs and sayings have been published, but in our time, the collection of V.I. Dalia is the most complete and valuable.
A proverb is a short, poetically figurative, rhythmically organized work of folk art, summarizing the historical and social experience of generations, used for a vivid and in-depth characterization of various aspects of human life and activity, as well as the phenomena of the surrounding world. The proverb appears to the reader or listener as a general judgment, expressed in the form of a grammatically complete sentence.
So, proverbs and sayings, with their well-known proximity, also have significant differences that make it possible to clearly distinguish between these remarkable genres of Russian folk poetry. As noted in the latest research papers, a textbook on folklore for universities, one of the characteristic features is “the combination of the general and the specific in them, more precisely: common features and signs of phenomena in nature, social life, personal relationships of people are transmitted in a concrete form. Proverbs are characterized by certain forms of generalization. First of all, these are judgments of a general nature ... ". The image of generalized facts and typical phenomena inherent in proverbs, as well as pronounced allegoricalness, allow the works of this genre to be widely used in different cases.
Often the original meaning of the proverb is forgotten, since the phenomenon that gave rise to it passes away, but it is used in an allegorical sense. This is the proverb: To love heat - to endure smoke. It arose when the peasant huts did not have a pipe and were heated in a black way, i.e. the smoke from the stove went into the room and then slowly went out the window. And, of course, it was impossible to get heat without smoke.
Proverbs that become incomprehensible disappear from live speech. A somewhat different matter with proverbs. Often we pronounce them without thinking about the original meaning. They say, for example: “To work carelessly”, “to find out the real truth”, “to find out all the ins and outs”. Each of these sayings arose on the basis of real phenomena. The expression "to work carelessly" has come from the times of Muscovite Russia, when the boyars wore clothes with sleeves that reached the knees. Of course, it was impossible to do anything with such sleeves. There was a proverb: You can’t tell the whole truth, so you will tell the whole ins and outs. This is about torture. "Genuine truth" - those testimonies of the accused, which were obtained from them during torture with a long bar (special sticks for torture). If it was not possible to achieve the necessary answers, in this way, nails and needles were driven under the nails. Hence - the ins and outs.
Proverbs about proverbs:
Proverb to the word says.
The old proverb never breaks.
Proverbs are not sold in the bazaar.
A proverb is a flower, a proverb is a berry.
Proverbs about parents:
The child does not cry - the mother does not understand.
When the sun is warm, when the mother is good.
The parental word is not spoken to the wind.
Proverbs about friendship and love:
Good brotherhood is stronger than wealth.
Friendly - not heavy, but apart - at least drop it.
An old friend is better than two new ones.
Love is really strong.
Not nice for good, but good for nice.
Proverbs about good and evil:
What you do not know how to praise, do not blaspheme.
The evil Natalya has all the people of the canal.
