a) prepositions – for example, ПО НАПРАВЛЕНИЮ к кому-чему ‘toward’
b) conjunctions – for example, ПЕРЕД ТЕМ КАК ‘before’
c) particles – for example, ТОГО И ГЛЯДИ ‘(one may do sth. (sth. may happen)) any minute now’
5) Approximately 350 commonly used proverbs and sayings that occur in Russian literature and/or colloquial speech. For example, ЯБЛОКО ОТ ЯБЛОНИ НЕДАЛЕКО ПАДАЕТ ‘the apple never falls far from the tree’.
6) Some крылатые слова, or “winged words,” that is, commonly used quotations from works of Russian literature and poetry. For example, БЫЛИ КОГДА-ТО И МЫ РЫСАКАМИ ‘we too had our hour of glory’, from A.N. Apukhtin’s poem “A Team of Bays” («Пара гнедых», 1895).
7) The dictionary follows the Russian lexicograpic tradition in including some other types of set phrases that are not strictly idiomatic, such as НЕСТИ/ПОНЕСТИ ВЗДОР (АХИНЕЮ, БЕЛИБЕРДУ.) ‘spout drivel’.
The dictionary does not include composite terms such as ЦАРСКАЯ ВОДКА ‘aqua regia’, БЕЛАЯ ГОРЯЧКА ‘delir-
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ium tremens’, АНЮТИНЫ ГЛАЗКИ ‘pansy’, and the like,
which can be found in comprehensive general bilingual dictionaries.
Etymological Groups
Etymologically, Russian idioms include the following groups:
1) Idioms rooted in Russian reality, past and present, including the Soviet era. For example, ПОПАДАТЬ/ПОПАСТЬ ВПРОСАК ‘put one’s foot in it’, from the old practice of using a machine called «просак» for making rope; БЕЗ СУЧКА БЕЗ ЗАДОРИНКИ ‘without a hitch’, from the speech of carpenters and joiners; ИСКУССТВОВЕД В ШТАТСКОМ ‘plain-clothes agent’, referring to a secret police agent, specifically to the KGB’s widespread practice of recruiting informers during the Soviet era. The source of such idioms is explained either in an etymological note at the end of the entry, or in the definition and/or usage note.
2) Idioms based on or derived from the Bible. For example, КАИНОВА ПЕЧАТЬ ‘the mark of Cain’; МАННА НЕБЕСНАЯ ‘manna from heaven’.
3) Idioms drawn from Greek and Roman mythology. For example, АХИЛЛЕСОВА ПЯТА ‘Achilles’ heel’; АВГИЕВЫ КОНЮШНИ ‘Augean stables’; ТАНТАЛОВЫ МУКИ ‘the torments of Tantalus’.
4) Idioms that are full or partial loan translations of phrases from other languages. For example, КАЖДОМУ СВОЁ ‘to each his own’ (from the Latin suum cuique); ВЕЩЬ В СЕБЕ ‘thing-in-itself’ (from the German Ding an sich); СТРОИТЬ КУРЫ ‘pay court to s.o.’ (partial loan translation of the French faire la court).
Grammar
It is assumed that the user has a basic knowledge of Russian and English grammar and grammatical terminology. There are, however, several points that deserve special attention.
The term “copula,” used widely in the grammatical descriptions, is understood to embrace a rather broad group of copulalike verbs. It includes both those verbs that are regularly used as copulas (that is, оказываться/оказаться, казаться/показаться, становиться/стать, делаться/сделаться, считаться, представляться, оставаться/остаться, бывать, and являться in its copular use) and some other verbs occasionally used as copulas (сидеть, стоять, and the like).
Some idioms are used as subject-complements only with the copular быть, which takes a zero form in the present tense. This is shown in the grammatical brackets of the entry or sense as быть0.
Some idioms can be used both with copular быть0, and with existential or possessive быть (which can be used in the present tense in the form есть). Such idioms are presented with two patterns, one with and one without есть. For example, НА ПРИМЕТЕ has the following two patterns:
у Y-a есть на примете один (такой и т.п.) X = Y has an (a certain, one) X in mind.; || (этот) X у Y-a давно на примете = Y has had an (his) eye on (this (that)) X for (quite) some time.
The user must be aware that when a verb is used as a participle or a verbal adverb (whether as part of an idiom or not), it changes its syntactic function. Such change of function is com-
mon to all Russian verbs and is therefore not specified for verbal idioms.
In the dictionary it is assumed that the grammatical subject may be in the nominative or the genitive case. This approach (suggested by a number of linguists including Mel’cuk 19743, Chvany 19754, and Apresjan 19805 and 19856) differs from the traditional approach, which assigns the role of subject only to noun phrases in the nominative case. In addition, a noun phrase in the genitive case is considered to function as the subject in constructions where a quantifier functions as the predicate; for example, Денег у меня кот наплакал ‘I have practically no money’.
In definitions and equivalents, the English pronouns “one,” “one’s,” and “o.s.” (for “oneself”) correspond to the subject of the Russian clause, while the pronouns “s.o.” and “s.o.‘s” (for “someone” and “someone’s”) correspond to the object of the Russian clause (direct, indirect, and/or prepositional). For example, the idiom УТЕРЕТЬ HOC кому... has the definition ‘to outdo s.o., prove one’s superiority in sth.’ Here, “s.o.” corresponds to the Russian indirect object кому, and “one’s” refers to the Russian subject of the verb phrase. The abbreviated forms “s.o.” and “sth.” are used in all instances except when the phrases “someone else” and “something else” are irreplaceable elements in an equivalent, as in the case of С ЧУЖОГО ПЛЕЧА ‘.off someone else’s back; someone else’s castoff(s)’; НА (ЗА) ЧУЖОЙ СЧЁТ ‘.at someone else’s expense; .on someone else’s tab’. When the Russian verb has two objects, “s.o.” or “s.o.‘s” is used in reference to only one of them; the other object is referred to as a “person” (or a “thing”), “another,” etc.
In looking at the equivalents for Russian patterns, one must remember that the Russian and English tense-aspect forms do not fully correspond. For example, the Russian present tense (imperfective verbs only) can be rendered by the English simple present or present progressive; the Russian perfective past can be rendered by the English simple past, present perfect, or past perfect. The English tense-aspect forms most commonly used in patterns are the simple present and the simple past, but they should be viewed as models to be modified as contexts require.
Ordering of Entries
Each entry begins with a letter-number indicator showing its placement in the dictionary, as:
П-163 • ВЫСШИЙ ПИЛОТАЖ.
Idiomatic homographs are listed as separate entries, each of which is marked by a superscript number:
П-559 • ПО ПРАВУ1…
П-560 • ПО ПРАВУ2.
Entries are ordered alphabetically by their key words in precisely the same form as the key words are used in the idioms. For example, ИЗ РЯДА ВОН ВЫХОДЯЩИЙ is entered under РЯДА (genitive singular) rather than РЯД (nominative singular).
Whenever possible, the key word is a content word. Content words are nouns (including substantivized adjectives and participles), adjectives, numerals, main verbs, adverbs, and pronouns. If a complex particle, conjunction, preposition, or interjection has a content word, the idiom is placed under that con-
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tent word; for example, А МЕЖДУ ТЕМ ‘(and) yet’ is placed under ТЕМ. Idioms not containing any content word (such as many interjections and complex particles) are entered under their first word; for example, АЙ ДА ‘what (a).!’ is entered under АЙ.