Many words came into Russian speech during the period of fashion for teaching children of aristocrats certain languages. When French was at the peak of popularity, the inhabitants of Russia borrowed many capacious, vivid and ambiguous terms that are no longer so well known to the younger generation today. A special place among them was occupied by "affront". This is a colorful statement that was familiar to every person who cherished his honor.
Greetings from France
Most researchers tend to lean towards the French affront as the progenitor, although Polish and Celtic also have definitions that are similar in sound and spelling. The inhabitants of Paris invested in this concept only one meaning - shame. Terrible, unsightly public shame in front of relatives, neighbors, bystanders who have witnessed some scene from your life.
Development in Russia
But Muscovites and Petersburgers used the term in a broader sense. There are about four key values:
- public insult;
- shaming (losing) or failure;
- unexpected trouble;
- a sharp rebuff.
Ancestors could tell in detail what affront means, both for a representative of high society and for ordinary citizens. The breaking of a long-agreed engagement is also suitable here, and in front of friends or higher ranks, in front of whom no one wants to be embarrassed. And an ordinary dispute between two dandies who made a bet on the winner of the race, boasting of their knowledge of horses, and one of them was a complete loser. Even bullying for any reason can be described by the aforementioned concept.
In a general sense, the term means a situation where a person does not expect a dirty trick, there are all the prerequisites for a positive outcome, but - a failure! The collapse of bright expectations with a sad outcome: a fall in the eyes of society. Not necessarily strong, but a blow to reputation. It will not be easy to find a synonym among the words in demand in the 21st century, but the most similar will be the sacramental "fiasco".
Contemporary use
Say that today? Not worth it. The older generation enthusiastically read classical Russian literature, watched Soviet films about the 17th-19th centuries, where the directors tried to immerse the audience in the atmosphere of the past even with the help of the speech of the characters. They are familiar with the concept of "affront" - this is a frequent situation in the works of Tolstoy, in artistic productions and in comedies about village life.
People are young or in an ironic waythey will say “fiasco”, or they will pick up no less capacious expressions from the section of obscene vocabulary. Leave the word for history books and theater stage.
