Suddenly the door opens and you are caught off guard with a piece of the most delicious cake. Or this example: "Each of us has been in situations of this kind: an unexpected question suddenly takes us by surprise." This is at the wrong time and unpleasant, and there is no person on Earth who could predict or prevent those unpleasant events that would cause such a situation. So, today we will find out, by surprise - what is it?
Your friend's dictionary
An explanatory dictionary in this matter will provide an invaluable service, because there is no such word in the world that he could not give an interpretation. So, the word "by surprise" means "suddenly, unexpectedly, at the wrong time, inopportunely." Moreover, this word can be used in cases where a person is not ready to give an answer or adequately respond to an unexpected situation. That is, a person does not expect such an action in relation to himself.
The word "by surprise" is used incombined with such verbs: "catch", "attack", "catch".
Earlier, in colloquial speech, the word "surprise" served as the definition of an unexpected situation, but today the word is not used in this context and is considered obsolete.
Features of word formation
Modern man does not quite understand the adverb "by surprise". What is it? To understand this, one should consider the formation of this word.
So, it includes the prefixes v- and ras-. There remains a part of the word -bad-, which, in turn, is derived from the Slavic verb "polok". The meaning of this obsolete word is "to be frightened". As a result, it turns out that “by surprise” means “to be suddenly frightened or alarmed by your appearance at the wrong time or inopportunely.”
Phone drawing
Let's give an example of the use of the word "by surprise". Have you noticed that when talking on the phone, people take up a pencil. Indeed, at such moments, the hands are free, and the head is busy. But it is possible that you are bored or very tired. And from under the brush of the "artist" uncomplicated drawings are born. German psychologists conducted a series of sociological studies, on the basis of which it was possible to determine what mood a person is in at a given moment. But we will focus only on those drawings that relate to our topic. So, if during a conversation a person draws geometric shapes or houses, then he is distinguished by a love of order, a penchant for planning, and most importantly: it is very difficult to take him by surprise, he will be up to the enddefend your point of view. He knows exactly what he wants, his thoughts are clear and clearly structured.