What is the meaning of the saying "They carry water for the offended"?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

It is not necessary to study the numerous pages on the Internet devoted to this saying for a long time to be convinced of the amazing variety of its interpretations, sometimes very contradictory. Many people, confused, wonder, enter into an argument, seeking an explanation for the saying “They carry water on the offended.”

Why exactly "offended"

Is it really the meaning of the saying "They carry water for the offended" expresses a hint that the "offended", that is, people deprived of something, always get the most difficult and thankless job? By the way, in the case of such an understanding, the saying is taken for granted, as a banality. Or is it a kind of warning for these most "offended"? And why is it their destiny to carry water, and not, say, cut firewood or cut down forest?

And how does this correspond to the statement of the classic Explanatory Dictionary of S. I. Ozhegov, that the expression "to carry water on someone" means to abuse his complaisant, kind character,burdening with tedious and not prestigious work?

Proverb or saying

But before you start to understand the meaning of the saying “They carry water for the offended,” it doesn’t hurt to clarify what it is about: a proverb or a saying?

Even this issue is not so easy to achieve clarity. But these are different concepts.

To be precise, a proverb is a concise, rhythmically organized folk saying with an instructive meaning. And a proverb is a truncated or underdeveloped proverb, which, as a rule, does not constitute a complete sentence. Example: "In the middle of nowhere."

One must imagine that any current expression, be it a proverb or a saying, exists (walks between people) as a kind of living entity. That is, it changes with them and with time, so it can acquire a new meaning, different from the original one.

Changing the lexicon in 150 years

“They carry water to the offended” - the meaning of the saying, and its lexical composition has changed since it was recorded in 1867 in the “Explanatory Dictionary” by V. I. Dahl “Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people”. “The angry people carry water on a stubborn horse” - this is how it sounded 150 years ago.

How did the "angry" become "offended" and how do they differ from them? It turned out that many of our contemporaries do not feel the difference here and perceive these words as synonyms.

Angry, angry, even angry is a person brought out ofmental balance. (Compare: "Angry man does not ride with pots" or even "Angry man does not ride with pots"). Linguistic experts bring the word "angry" closer to the word "heart" - to get angry, to do something in the hearts, that is, rashly, thoughtlessly. And according to Christian beliefs, the heart is the seat of anger, one of the seven deadly sins.

Angry or angry

The meaning of the proverb "They carry water for the offended" has one more meaning. If you dig deeper into the root base of the “angry” and angry, it turns out that “anger” is related in its origin to the word “fire”. How to put out the fire? It is filled with water.

This is how the ancient and very deep explanation of the saying "They carry water for the offended" is revealed. And in the everyday sense, she expressed a warning, good advice to a person who is quick to anger - to change his behavior, to dampen his ardor. At the same time, the understanding that being a water carrier is a difficult and not the most honorable occupation has not been canceled.

Water Museum

And the explanation of the proverb “They carry water for the offended” in the exposition of the Museum of Water in St. Petersburg does not hold water at all. It boils down to a simple illustration of everyday circumstances: rude, impolite water carriers who offend people are punished by forcing them to work for free. One might think that it was the water carriers among all the urban workers who for some reason were particularly intolerant (and where is the written evidence of this?) And the police were forced to specially monitor them andpunish.

The “legend” that unscrupulous water carriers replaced high-quality water drawn from the full-flowing and clean Neva with muddy water from the Fontanka or Moyka for profit, for which they were punished. It would not hurt the authors of such legends to take into account the idea that water was delivered not only in St. Petersburg.

Word transformation

But how did the transformation of the angry into the offended happen? The fact is that the word "angry" is in the same synonymous row with the word "touchy". And logically, this is understandable: after all, a person who is groundlessly angry, angry, quick-tempered solely because of a bad character easily becomes touchy for no apparent reason.

And here again we have to talk about the linguistic hearing loss of our contemporaries, about inattention to the semantic nuances of the form of the word.

“Touchy” is a character trait of a person who is prone to be offended, regardless of whether there is a reason for this. "Offended" - this is the one who was obviously offended, humiliated. And why should this person, who has already suffered, be offended again - to carry water on him?

Not a man, but a horse

The meaning of the saying “They carry water on the offended” is sometimes transferred not to a person, but to a horse. Indeed, you can’t take water to the place on a hot horse, you will splash it along the way. Quiet, mostly old horses or geldings, that is, “offended”, are suitable for this work. In Russian literature, the phrase "water carrier" was often used.nag" in the meaning: driven, exhausted by overwork.

Criminal jargon

But those researchers of modern speech who point to the widespread introduction of the dictionary of the criminal world into the spoken language in recent decades are closer to the truth. In the jargon of criminals, the “offended” (or “lowered”) is the name of the gay prisoner of the lowest reputation.

The meaning of “They carry water on the offended” here is already approaching the saying “They carry water on fools” or “They carry water on the offended.”

So, when we say “They carry water for angry people” (and this option has not yet completely fallen into disuse), we want to make someone understand about his excessive “angry” - inappropriate pride, ambition. We seem to urge a person to be more modest in his own interests.

But the meaning of the saying "They carry water on the offended" will be different. He simply states that those who are bypassed by fate and the attention of people and who resigned themselves to this, get an unsweetened fate. Neighbors will not hesitate to take advantage of this. That is, it is closer to the interpretation given in the dictionary by S. I. Ozhegov, although the dictionary only cites the saying “carry water.”

Try comparing these two options. The latter looks flatter, less interesting in terms of literature.

Modern shades of meaning and historical heritage

You can cite many other versions of the proverb, not so common: “water is carried” on “fools”, on “stubborn”, on “kind”, on “gullible”. Unlike the origin althere are no negative values, there are also positive characters - “kind”, “trustful”.

It is curious that the expression "carry water" as part of a proverb has turned into an independent phraseological unit, and it acquires various semantic shades. So, a hard-working, industrious, physically strong person is characterized by his ability to “carry water”. And sometimes this phrase sounds ironic: “Yes, you can carry water on it!”

A proverb (or saying), being a stable phrase, is not something unambiguous, given once and for all. It connects us to the historical origins of our culture, but remains alive and somehow changeable.