The wisdom of the people is reflected in proverbs and sayings. One way or another, we encounter them every day from early childhood: we hear winged expressions from the lips of our grandparents, proverbs are often found in folk tales, lullabies, jokes. Thus, we absorb part of the mentality, part of the folk culture. This is how, through the native language, national self-consciousness begins to form, so one cannot ignore such an important component as proverbs and sayings.
Usually, the speech of the older generation is decorated with different sayings: they know where to insert a red word, as they say, they won’t go into their pocket for a word (look, here is a stable expression). But in vain, many people think that proverbs are becoming obsolete and their use is the lot of village old men and grannies. Sometimes, by the way, a saying inserted into a conversation can enliven it, make the conversation more interesting, and you will be known as a witty and eloquent speaker. The more subjectfolk sayings is so wide that without a doubt we can say: there is a good expression on any topic.
However, in order not to look stupid, you must know the meaning of a particular proverb that you use in speech. Otherwise, you risk being the hero of the proverb about fools.
It is about them now that we will talk.
Who is the fool?
Durak is a word that now has a negative, even abusive connotation. Using it, we want to offend someone, to call a stupid, narrow-minded person. And this is consistent with the main meaning in the modern explanatory dictionary. However, this was not always the case. Formerly court jesters were called fools; the word had, rather, a positive meaning, because to become such a jester, one had to have a number of personality traits: a fool had to be witty, eloquent, and have an excellent sense of humor. Now it seems to us not only ridiculous, but even absurd! Try to call someone a fool and prove to him that this is a compliment to his intellectual abilities. Most likely, you yourself will be considered crazy or, even worse, they will decide that you just decided to make fun of your interlocutor. It is understandable, because now a fool is a more expressive, even colloquial and abusive synonym for the word "fool".
Origin of the word
The etymological dictionary of the Russian linguist Shansky says that the word "fool" is derived from stupid, that is, stupid. The original dùrti mattered"hit, prick, sting." Thus, the fool is initially "stung, bitten", and only then - "crazy", the one who was bitten.
Why are there so many fools?
Proverbs and sayings about fools appeared almost at the same time as the word itself. As we understand, a very, very long time ago. Over the years, their number has increased so much that all the sayings about fools are almost impossible to count, although research in this area has been going on for decades. Are there really so many stupid people in our country? The fact is that the fool is a very popular character, remember the same fairy tales where Ivanushka the Fool was the main character. The fool is popular not only among Russians. There are many Ukrainian proverbs about fools (“a fool gets richer with a thought”), Kazakh ones (“a clever law, but a fool a stick”), there are proverbs about fools in distant Japan (“even a fool can have talent”). As we can see, there are enough fools everywhere.
Where to find it?
How can a modern person learn sayings about fools? In addition to listening to someone else's speech and memorizing your favorite phrases, you can look into a special dictionary of popular expressions or a dictionary of proverbs and sayings.
The most famous and most complete at the moment are the books "Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people" by Vladimir Dahl and "Dictionary of Russian proverbs and sayings" by Vlas Zhukov. In the first one, all proverbs (and their author of the dictionary collected more than forty thousand in his entire life) are grouped by topic. So, sayings about fools and smart people should be looked for in the thematic group called "Mind is stupidity." Zhukov's dictionary contains about one and a half thousand sayings, which are most often used in Russian speech, both oral and written. This book is also valuable in that the dictionary entries reflect not only the meaning of this or that expression, but also a stylistic mark that reflects the features of the use of the saying, the options for its use, and even its origin. Dictionary construction alphabetical.
Russian proverbs and their meanings
As mentioned earlier, in order to correctly and appropriately use proverbs, you need to know their meaning. Well, using specific examples of Russian sayings about fools, let's consider the meaning of some of them.
"To teach a fool is to heal a dead one". If you want to talk about the futility of teaching someone, then feel free to use this proverb, its meaning is quite transparent and based on comparison, so that any fool will understand - here is another expression about fools, more precisely, using this image, because we are talking about something elementary and so simple that even the most stupid person will guess what, in fact, the matter is.
By the way, people say especially often that pedagogical efforts are futile in relation to fools. There are quite a few proverbs with a similar meaning (uselessness of learning) in Russian. Here are a few.
- "No matter how you cook the fool, everything smells of foolishness from him."
- "To teach a fool what to pour water into a tub without a bottom, what to sculpt peas into a wall."
- "You can't inflate a holey fur, but you can't teach a crazy one".
Well, the conclusion from this can also be made with a popular expression: "you can't retrain all the fools in the world" (there is a variation with "you can't reread" - it means "you can't recount"). That is, there are so many stupid people in the world that no matter how much you teach them, no matter how much you try to make them smart, no matter how much you explain common truths, you will not get rid of fools. "Nevertheless, the light is foolish" (used if someone's stupidity saved a situation).
Unpredictable and dangerous
that there are a dime a dozen fools in the world. However, this is not the worst problem. The dangerous thing is that you don't know what to expect from such people. There are also many expressions about the unpredictability of fools. For example, "be afraid of the goat in front, the horse behind, and the fool from all sides"; "make a fool pray to God, he will hurt his forehead"; "baptize the fool, and shake his leg" and others.
Even a fool trying to help is not good. This is proved by the proverb about the helpful fool by the famous Russian fabulist, master of the witty word Ivan Andreevich Krylov: "The helpful fool is more dangerous than the enemy," says the writer.
Notmess with fools
This is what many Russian proverbs say: "get in touch with a fool, you yourself will be a fool"; "the smart one will teach, the fool will get bored"; "a fool will throw a stone into the water, but ten smart ones will not be taken out"; "you will send a fool, you will follow him yourself".
It's also better not to argue with fools. For example, Emmanuel Adolphe Essar wrote that if you argue with a fool, then there are already two fools. Here are some sayings about arguing with a fool for you, if you have not yet convinced yourself that this is a stupid exercise. "A fool's word, and he's ten to you" - fools often fall into verbiage, so it is useless to argue with them for a long time. An Indonesian proverb says: "You can't argue with a fool" - apparently in any part of the world, even in distant Indonesia, arguing with a fool is considered a matter for which it is not worth wasting your time. In the end, "to argue with a fool - do not respect yourself." Here is another common phrase about arguing with fools.
Found the fool
And what if the proverb about fools is used against you? First, if you understand the meaning of the proverb, then calm down - you are not such a fool, then!
Second, you can always counter with another saying in response. "The fool will tell himself" - in the sense that since your interlocutor spoke about fools, it means that he himself is one. The proverb "a fool is a fool for a fool" has the same meaning.
"Look for another fool! Found a fool!" - all these are catch phrases that are used to defend themselves when another seeks to leave you infools, that is, to benefit from your stupidity.
Is there any benefit to being a fool?
In general, there are positive sayings about stupid people. So even if you were called a fool, then remember that "the fool is happy, but God will give the smart" (that is, refusal).
Positive assessment of fools is given by sayings:
- "In Russia, fools are held in high esteem."
- "Fools are lucky".
- "The fool sleeps, but happiness lies in the mind".
Be that as it may, you can scold fools, you can praise, you can be angry with them or touched. But do not forget that "everyone has enough of their own dope", and "it's boring without fools".
