Prison phrases and words with interpretation

In the history of mankind, with its variety of cultural trends, there have always been certain layers of people who, according to their behavior and value orientations, do not fit into the general standard and are carriers of traditions that go beyond the generally accepted norms, but which influence the life of society. In Russia, a vivid example of this can serve as a prison subculture, which brought to life law-abiding citizens numerous prison phrases that became the basis of the widespread slang in our days.

Thieves' lingo is the heir of the language of merchants

Since criminal prison phrases are part of the Russian language (we would like it or not), they also fell into the field of vision of researchers, like all the other elements that make up it. Serious study of this phenomenon, scientists engaged in the XIX century and found an interesting fact. It turned out that thieves' lingo not only has a connection with the secret language of Russian merchants, but it is also a product of it. Even its very name - "fenya" - comes from the completely innocent word "office", which means a wandering merchant, a peddler.

It is believed that the reason for creating a secret language lies in the desire to hide from outsiders all that concerns commercial secrets - sources of receipt of goods, purchase prices, implementation plans and much more. But here the path begins, which leads from the shop of an honest merchant to a thief's dump. The fact is that the traders themselves called themselves "oszetelnikami", and, apparently, not without reason - the verb "ozetit" in their language meant to deceive, to leave in a fool . Obviously, the secret language served also to exchange information about where and how to commit fraud.

"Fenya" - a sign of belonging to the thieves' world

However, many serious researchers, among them Academician D.S. Likhachev, were of the opinion that hardly prison sentences could serve as a reliable means of secrecy. Specific thieving speech can give out an attacker rather than hide his intentions. In addition, although it is full of characteristic jargon expressions, but not enough to be incomprehensible to others. It would be more correct to assume that the purpose of "feny" is to expose in the thief of "one's own" and along with other signs: the manner of dressing, gait, tattooing, gesticulation, and so on - to emphasize his belonging to the criminal world.

Another reason why prison jargon, expressions, phrases and other characteristic elements of speech can not be used for conspiracy is their easy assimilation by others. For example, law enforcement officials, that is, those from whom you need to keep secrets, easily master a specific lexicon. The same can be said about the servants of the places of imprisonment, and about the prisoners who are imprisoned, but nevertheless do not belong to the criminal world. Practice shows that thieves' language is the first thing that every new owner comprehends.

Words that have survived time

There is an erroneous opinion that characteristic prison phrases disappear from the lexicon of the criminal world and are replaced by new ones as soon as their significance becomes known to operatives. This is not true. Studies in this area show that very many elements of jargon have existed for several centuries.

Suffice it to recall the well-known words: fuck (trusting simpleton), shmont (search), grandmother (money), cop (police officer), bazaar (conversation, dispute) and many others. These expressions used in our days are found in the manual on the language of the criminal world, which was published before the revolution, intended for investigative workers and was called "The thieves' slang. Blatnaya music. "

Folk speech is the basis of the thieves' language

It should be noted and the fact that prison phrases and expressions, for all their external unattractiveness, often have deeply national roots. Each "Urka" - so often called themselves representatives of this social stratum, is a native of a particular region, and in his "fena" often there are expressions that are a reflection of the linguistic features of the native locality. For example, the Great Russian language enriched " blatnaya muzyka " with such words taken from the dialects of various regions of Russia as bashlat (screaming and cursing), cormorant (small, beginning thief), botning (to speak in jargon), and so on.

Particularly active was the process of assimilation into the blatant language of popular expression during the mass Stalinist repression, when millions of people found themselves in the Gulag. During this period the criminal "fenya" was subjected to a powerful influence of all sorts of local dialects and dialects. In addition, it absorbed the elements of urban slang and various types of professional jargon. It is also characteristic that the throat language, which underwent significant changes by that time, reflected in itself many realities of the then world, both at the domestic and the political level.

The reasons for rooting in modern language slang expressions

It is known that from the twenties to the fifties in the places of confinement, representatives of the most diverse strata of society served their sentences for a long time. Among them were dekulakized peasants, workers, former nobles, servicemen, clergymen and many others. All of them, being behind a barbed wire, quickly learned the accepted jargon and brought in it various elements of the lexicon. It is generally believed that it was during this period that the Feng, in view of the changes introduced into it, became the generally accepted language of all prisoners, regardless of their camp status.

Those millions of prisoners of the Gulag, who were fortunate enough to go free, brought to the jargon the jargon, which for years was an integral part of their vocabulary. It was a huge number of its carriers that provided this "thieves music" a wide influence not only on the colloquial, but also on the literary language of a free society.

Slang as an integral part of modern culture

Thus, in the Soviet Union, in view of its "special path of development", prison jargon, unique in its expressiveness and linguistic wealth, appeared, the phrases and words of which have no analogues in any other language of the world. Being a "Babylonian pandemonium" and a mixture of languages, views and perceptions of the world, the Gulag - a great tragedy of the people, has become fertile ground for the creation and spread of thieves. On its expanses, it rose to unprecedented heights.

Prison phrases have become an integral part of the Russian language. It is known that many representatives of the intelligentsia, especially the humanities, who passed through Stalin's camps, noted in their records that they involuntarily fell under the influence of this wild and bright element, which became the concentration of genuine popular speech. They quite rightly pointed out that without the vocabulary of this peculiar jargon, the amazing etymology of the words entering it, the knowledge of roots and features, undoubtedly, not only the Russian language, but also Russian history, and as a result, culture as a whole, will become poorer.

The origin of some common expressions

Continuing the conversation about the connection between "criminal music" and dialect vocabulary, as well as analyzing prison phrases and their meaning, it is appropriate, among other things, to recall the word " lepy" (jacket), which is very common in the criminal world. His etymology is interesting enough. Once in the environment of vagabond merchant-peddlers, it denoted a painted women's handkerchief (apparently, from the Slavic word lepota - beauty ). The same value it initially had and the thieves. It is known that during long hours of forced idleness, the sailors painted handkerchiefs and sent them home as gifts. But over time, their products were called marochki (from the word to dirty, smudge ), and their former name passed to jackets, instead of the formerly used word clift.

Comicness of some thieves

It should be noted that there are quite funny prison phrases and expressions. For example, the uninitiated will become stumped when he heard the phrase "coffin with music". It turns out that this is nothing more than an ordinary piano. Or the purely church word "altar", used as a judge's table . And it seems very funny to use the name of the famous French actor Belmondo in the meaning of a very stupid person, a complete fool . In general, prison phrases - funny and not very often, are built on the basis of expressions used in the ordinary language and giving them a new, sometimes completely unexpected meaning, which makes them comical.

Jewish roots of many thieves

Strangely enough, but the formation of the notorious "thieves' music" was greatly influenced by two Hebrew and Yiddish languages. This happened after in prerevolutionary Russia, as a result of the law on the Jewish Pale of Settlement, places for their compact residence were formed. They were not slow to form ethnic (in this case Jewish) organized criminal groups. Their members communicated among themselves in Yiddish or Hebrew, a language completely incomprehensible to police officers, since they did not take on the service of the Jews, and accordingly, there were no translators. Over time, these expressions formed a specific prison jargon, phrases and individual words of which could not be understood by representatives of the authorities.

As an example, one can cite the well-known word shmont ( search ). It happened from the Hebrew - shmone ( eight ), and it's no coincidence. The fact is that in the south of Russia, where Jews often settled and where they had to serve sentences, searches were conducted in the prison cells, according to the established schedule, at eight o'clock in the evening. It is the semantic connection between the operation of the guard and the time in which it was produced that gave birth to an entrenched expression in the thieves' world.

Another example of borrowings from the Hebrew language, this time Yiddish, is the word fraera , derived from Frej (freedom). It serves to refer to people who have not been in prison and who do not have relevant experience. By the way, the word blat used in our life (for example, to get something from the blat ) is also derived from Yiddish. It is based on the word Die Blatte - a sheet of writing paper or a note . In this case, we mean the necessary note for the device of affairs from the right person.

Dictionaries of thieves

As already mentioned above, prison slang - phrases and individual words used in the criminal world, have repeatedly been the subject of research by linguists. The beginning of this was laid in the XIX century, the output of slang dictionaries VI. Dahl and I.D. Putilina. However, a special surge of public interest in this field of linguistics provoked the appearance in 1908 of a dictionary compiled by V.F. Trakhtenberg - one of the most famous swindlers of the early XX century.

This outstanding crook became famous for selling the Moroccan mines to the government of France, to which he had not the slightest relation and which he had never seen before. After many and "glorious" adventures in the Taganskaya prison, he filled his spare time with the collection of material for a thievish dictionary, which included prison jargon - phrases with translation.

After his sensational publication at different times, dictionaries and other compilers were published, but, even the most superficial acquaintance with them, they were all simply copied from the previous author and given a new signature to the publishing house. Thus, the dictionary of V. Lebedev , published in the 1920s, is a somewhat supplemented edition of Trakhtenberg, and the following collection of V.M. Popova became a repetition of the work of Lebedev. Further S.M. Potapov published his dictionary, no different from the publication of Popov. Incidentally, it was during this period that the foundations of the widely practiced lexicographical plagiarism were laid.

Thieves' lingo these days

Connoisseurs of modern thuggery jargon believe that in our days he is going through not the best of his time. In their opinion, it is steadily degrading. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is called the changed contingent of places of detention. Among those who are behind barbed wire, a large percentage of lumpen - people who have an extremely primitive vocabulary. The low level of development of the criminogenic stratum of young people also affects. In general, many are inclined to state the "fall of morals" of the convict world.

The editor-in-chief of Mediasonony, Sergei Smirnov, after talking with the current sidelists, selected 15 prison sentences, in his opinion, which made it possible to draw a picture of modern Russia. This repeatedly published document sums up the path that Russian jargon has gone through for decades. Leaving aside the question of the objectivity of reflecting modern life, one can say with full confidence that, from a phraseological point of view, he undoubtedly testifies to the uninterrupted continuity of the present "fenya" and the language of the former inhabitants of places not so remote. It's "without a bazaar!"