What does a student do in an exam if he "floats" in the answer to a question that he knows, but very approximately, so to speak, does he, poor, have a hated acquaintance with the question? When did this martyr of science hear a ringing, but he doesn’t know where he is, because he looked at the book, but saw a fig? Naturally, it begins to pour from empty to empty and beat around the bush.
Great is the language in which the banal fact of pulling out the "wrong" ticket can be described with so many vivid phraseological turns. And … However, we will not pour from empty to empty and leave the negligent student alone with a strict but fair teacher, and we ourselves will turn to such an interesting issue as historyorigin of phraseological units.
What is phraseologism?
Often we do not even suspect that the expressions we use are actually phraseological units. An example is such familiar expressions as: "without looking back", "sleepless night", "rich choice" and so on. This is normal, because we cannot remember every minute the fact that a phraseological unit is a unity of two or more words organized as a stable phrase, a sentence that has a holistic, unchanging meaning, and that phraseological units include: sayings, proverbs, catchphrases and expressions of the most diverse origins.
History of the origin of phraseological units
Phraseological units are formed and get into our speech in different ways.
- Phraseological units of ancient origin. For example, "Procrustean bed", "Domocles sword", "Trojan horse".
- Bible expressions: "Sodom and Gomorrah", "Lot's wife", "bear your cross".
- Stable expressions borrowed from other languages, the so-called tracing paper (literal translation from the source language): "hand washes hand" (lat.), "blue stocking" (French), "that's where the dog is buried" (German.).
- Folk language with its inherent figurativeness and accuracy: "play the fool", "beat the thumbs".
- Literary works, films: "and Vaska listens and eats", "make an elephant out of a fly".
If we take as a basis the statement that in the language, as inmirror reflects the existence of its bearers, then phraseological units are the very center of this mirror. Therefore, phraseological units are those expressions that correspond to the ideas of the carrier people about the surrounding reality, aptly and succinctly characterize it.
To make our conversation more substantive, as an example, let's take and define the meaning of the phraseological unit "pour from empty to empty".
Where did the expression "Pour from empty to empty" come from?
If you trust the legendary sources, then the history of the expression we are interested in began in Hellenic enlightened times, when philosophers liked to exchange opinions on core issues, to discuss abstract topics. One day, the famous philosopher Democritus happened to hear a conversation between his colleagues, in which one asked ridiculous questions, and the second answered him inappropriately. Democritus listened and listened and said something like this: "Brother philosophers, don't you think that one of you is milking a goat, and the other is setting up a sieve?" We do not know whether the subtle humor of the great philosopher was appreciated by the couple on whom he poured out, but contemporaries and descendants picked up the phrase, making it winged.
Idle chatter is an international process
Since ancient times, the Democritus expression has been entrenched to characterize pointless word disputes.
And since there are enough lovers to talk about nothing in any country, then gradually the descriptionridiculous, from the point of view of functionality, the process of milking a goat in a sieve, has undergone changes in accordance with the ideas of each people about a meaningless action. The meaning of the phraseological unit "to pour from empty to empty" is comparable with the French expression "beat the water with a sword", English "beat the air", Italian "catch the clouds".
If we are talking about foreign phraseological units, it is worth mentioning the difficulties associated with the translation of Russian phraseological units into other languages. When translating, the original meaning of the expression is often lost. So, the meaning of the phraseological unit “to pour from empty to empty”, in French it will be something like this: “pour (pour) vacuum (nothing) into a hollow”. All the wit from using the synonyms "empty" and "empty" evaporated, giving way to a set of words describing some not entirely clear action.
Briefly about synonyms, antonyms and derivational role
The essence of transfusion from empty to empty is clearly demonstrated by the trio of buckets in the figure before the sub title. Naturally, no one will talk about a useless action with praise. Therefore, the meaning of the phraseological unit "to pour from empty to empty" is negative. This expression is used when it is necessary to characterize the process of idle talk and pointless conversations, or when it is necessary to describe an unnecessary business.
It should be noted that the transfusion from empty to empty, judging by the abundancephraseological units-synonyms - a common phenomenon. Here are some of them:
- scratch your tongue;
- to breed containers-bars;
- pound water in a mortar;
- carry firewood into the forest;
- carry water with a sieve;
- spit on the ceiling;
- weave your tongue;
- breed turuses on wheels.
Functionally, the expression "pour from empty to empty" can be replaced by a synonymous adjective:
- meaningless;
- idle;
- leisure;
- pointless.
And finally, the word that was born thanks to the expression "pour from empty to empty" is a synonym for phraseological unit: empty.
If you are tired of pouring from empty to empty, the antonym and antipode process "to speak to the point" will come to the rescue. Antonyms can also include the following phraseological units:
- no sooner said than done;
- said - as cut off;
- doesn't waste words;
- keep your word.
Futuristic
What is the difference between a dead language and a living one? The dead is immutable, unlike the living. Epochs, life change, some words are forgotten, others come to replace them. Therefore, sometimes you have to rummage through dictionaries and encyclopedias in order to understand why "beat the thumbs" and in general what it means, where the eye is in the ocean, and why it should be protected.
Probably centuries will pass, and our descendants will look for the answer to the questions: what kind of animal is "patstalom", why do teapotstextbooks and for what dish did you grind game?
