Build eyes: the meaning and origin of phraseology

Our contemporary, the Russian writer Oleg Roy, has an aphorism: "Even the eyes should be built not just so, but with a shine in them, without the blue bags under them and with a charming smile a little below them." A wonderful phrase, is not it? But today we are not talking about this, but about the stable expression of "building eyes".

"Vitamins" for Speech

Disease is an unpleasant thing, and everyone is exposed to it. Our speech is not an exception. She, too, sometimes gets sick. After all, she is not a soulless creature, and her vocation is not only the transfer of dry information. No, she wants to penetrate deeper, get to the heart, inspire, excite, in other words - live a full, bright life. So how can you help her avoid suffering? The way out is the daily use of "vitamins", which are phraseological units - figurative expressions. Alive, piercing, they not only adorn our speech, but also express the attitude, emotions, feelings of the speaker to what is happening. Phraseological unit "to build eyes" - one of such "useful tablets". Why?

Phraseology

Not every phrase can be attributed to phraseology. The latter has a number of features that distinguish it from ordinary everyday phrases. Firstly, it is a stable holistic combination of two or more lexemes ("it is impossible to" build eyes "and say" to build sponges "). Secondly, it has a single value, which has nothing to do with the value of each component in its composition. For example, "breakdown" means one thing - quickly, which, in turn, in no way corresponds to the meanings of the words "breakdown" and "head".

Proceeding from the foregoing, it becomes clear why the understanding of this linguistic phenomenon required the creation of a special, rather voluminous direction in linguistics - phraseology. There's a lot of work here. This is the creation of various classifications, and the study of methods of education, and the study of sources of origin. We propose to consider the stable expression "to build eyes" according to these points.

Origin

First of all, one question torments - where does the phraseology come from? Who breathed into a couple of faceless words life? Phraseological units are different. In Russian, they are divided into native Russian and borrowed. The first were born from old tales, epics, songs, legends, chronicles. They are the true reflectors of the uneasy history of the people, of its culture, of old customs and traditions. The same group includes aphorisms, priceless finds of Russian writers. For example, "beat the buckets", "milk rivers, kiselnye shore", "no fluff, no feathers", "we'll have a sprinkle", "ask a bath", "give birch porridge", etc.

The origin of the phraseology "to build eyes" - how to deal with this task? He just refers to the second group - borrowed, because he came to us from the French language. According to the scientific work of the linguist Shansky NM "The experience of the etymological analysis of Russian phraseological units", this figurative expression is tracing, that is, a literal translation from the French faire des yeux doux - "making sweet eyes".

What does it mean to build eyes?

For the meaning of phraseology, as well as for understanding what this or that word means, one should turn to explanatory dictionaries. The blessing of them exists a lot. This is the "Big Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language" edited by Telia VN, and "A Short etymological dictionary of Russian phraseology" edited by Shansky NM, and "Russian phraseology. Historical and etymological dictionary »Birikh AK And many others.

What do all the above sources say about the expression "to build eyes"? The meaning of phraseology is: to flirt, flirt, flirt, openly show their sympathy. It is interesting to note that this expression is used more often with reference to women.

Somatic component

We continue to consider the topic "Build eyes: the meaning of phraseology." Among the huge number of figurative expressions in a special group, sufficiently significant and highly productive, phraseological units with a somatic component are distinguished. It happens because a person comes into contact, studies the external world through the prism of himself, that is, describes objects, animals, giving them the image and likeness of his own. Their distinguishing feature is the presence in the composition of words denoting the parts of the human or animal body. These can be external parts of the body (head, ears, eyes, mouth, arms, legs), and internal organs (heart, liver, stomach). For example, "to puzzle" - to solve a difficult task with difficulty, "with a gulkin nose" - a small, insignificant amount of something, "bite the tongue" - abruptly shut up, do not wish to give out a secret, "voice of the heart" - intuition, "White liver" - a manifestation of cowardice and many others.

An interesting fact is that stable combinations with the somatic component of the "eye" are more frequent and take second place after phraseological units that have the word "head" in the composition. Apparently, for all people, regardless of nationality, the eyes are still a mirror of the soul, reflecting not only the inner world, but also helping to comprehend, observe, study reality. Confirmation of this and Somatism "to build eyes." A synonym for it is easy to pick: play with your eyes, shoot with your eyes, twirl your tail, make eyes. Again, the word "eyes" is most often used as the main component.

Other languages

The borrowed somatic phraseological units are, as a rule, international turnover. For example, the expression "to build eyes" - to flirt, flirt, has its analogs in many languages. In the language of Misty Albion, it sounds like to make eyes at smb, which literally translates as "making eyes to someone", or to make sheep's eyes at smb - "making sheep's eyes on someone". In German, we find the next turn mit den Wimpern klimpern, which in the literal transmission sounds like "trick or play with eyelashes". In French, the ancestor of this winged expression, we hear faire des yeux doux - "to make sweet eyes". As can be seen from the above examples, the phraseology under study preserves the image - "eyes", with the help of which feelings are described, which means that there is also a value - flirting, flirting.