"And the wolves are full, and the sheep are whole": the etymology and meaning of the saying

The Russian language, like all other languages of the world, has its wealth, and it is passed on from generation to generation. This value is stable expressions, the meaning of which is laid long ago and is understandable to all: proverbs, sayings, phraseological units. Each language has its own sayings, and sometimes the same proverb is translated from one language to another, changing even the characters. Recently, in politics, to describe the situation in the world or in a separate country, the saying "wolves are full and the sheep are whole" is used.

Using proverbs, sayings and phraseologicalisms in his speech, a person shows that he knows the culture of the people well. After all, it is from folk tales that many stable expressions are taken, which were remembered and loved for their brilliance and imagery. When a person correctly and, most importantly, competently uses steady turns in speech and writing, this is a sign of education and speech etiquette. When the speech turnover is used out of place, not in that sphere of use or with the wrong meaning, it can lead to a speech error and incident in conversation. Using phraseological units, it is necessary to take into account the style of conversation, the semantic load and stylistic properties.

On television and in journalism, to describe political change, phraseology is often used: "wolves are fed, and sheep are whole." The meaning of this expression and the described problem do not always coincide. Where does this expression come from and what does it mean?

Proverb or proverb?

The words "proverbs" and "sayings" are often used together, and many believe that they have the same meaning. On the one hand, this is correct. If we say that "wolves are full, sheep are safe" - a proverb, no one will argue and argue that this is a saying. After all, these two phenomena bear a hidden meaning, they are concise, brief in content, sometimes rhyme, point to flaws or encourage a person.

There is no clear classification of winged expressions, but there are some definite differences.

Proverbs - this is a complete sentence, which emphasizes some action and is built on some logic. In the proverb there is morality, teaching something, a background to something. Most often there are two parts, and the second is like a conclusion from the first. Some proverbs have an author, we know where it comes from.

For example, the following proverbs can be cited: "Do not say gop until you jump over," "without knowing the ford, do not poke into the water," "go quietly - you'll go on".

Proverbs are not sentences, they are an expression for describing a phenomenon or regularity. There is no action, but simply describes the fact of what happened. There is no morality or teaching. Sayings are taken from folk sayings or the author is unknown.

For example, the following sayings: "two boots - a pair", "paper all endure," "fools do not write the law."

"And the wolves are full, and the sheep are whole": the meaning of phraseology

Phraseological units are stable expressions that are always used in a figurative sense. For phraseological units, the use of hyperbole and allegory is natural. They also have accuracy in presenting the fact, some phraseological units are used to show life experience, attitude and attitude to the world. These expressions are stable and do not change. Some phraseological units are taken from folk wisdom, their authors are unknown, and others are well known for their discoverers.

The phraseology "wolves are full, and the sheep are whole" has a meaning, a visible, visible well-being, where it seemed as though no one was harmed.

From all of the above, we can conclude that this statement is probably not a proverb, but refers to the category of sayings or phraseological units.

The meaning of the saying

A very good and life-saying "wolves are fed and the sheep are whole" has ambiguous meaning. The wolf and the sheep are used not only in proverbs and phraseology, but also are heroes of different tales and tales. Even in the biblical stories the sheep was the prototype of the righteous and all the trusting person, and the wolf is a sinner and a seducer. These are two sides that can never come to one opinion, they constantly have contradictions.

This is a saying about wisdom, that it is always possible to get out of a hopeless situation without pain. You can agree on something, sometimes go over your principles, but do not lose anything and do not sacrifice anything. During its use, the saying "and the wolves are full, and the sheep are whole" was slightly transformed, an ending "and eternal glory to the shepherd" appeared. After all, the shepherd suffers during this struggle between a wolf and a shepherd.

In the modern world, this saying is used to describe people who achieve different goals, and everyone believes that he is right, does not want to make concessions. A shepherd is a man who found a compromise way to solve the problem, without offending either side.

Etymology of the origin of expression

As already mentioned, wolves and sheep were mentioned in the Bible, but it is known that these animals came from a proverb from ancient metaphorical sayings, where wolves and sheep or lambs were opposed. In Russian, the expression came from the places where pastures with sheep were the most, from the boundless Salsk or Mozdok steppe. The shepherds were aware of the problem of the loss of sheep from the herd and immediately said fewer goals. After all, for the loss of sheep, the shepherd must compensate the owner for the cost of the animal. That's where the intelligent shepherd boy came from.

The use of the words "wolf" and "sheep" in other cruel expressions

In many phraseological revisions of the type "both wolves are fed and the sheep intact," the meaning of phraseology almost does not differ from the meaning of the saying. But there is still a large number of stable expressions with the word "wolf". The brightest and most used is the "wolf in sheep's clothing." This expression is also taken from biblical stories and shows that a bad person can pretend to be good in order to achieve his plans, but nothing good can be expected from this.

"The wolf does not collect the sheep." "Wolves feel where the sheep spend the night." These two phraseologisms also describe the inconsistency of the characters of the two animals, the fact that sheep are the prey of wolves, and never become friends.