Why do they say it screams like a beluga? Why don’t belugas roar and fish don’t dance to someone else’s tune? Shout to the entire Ivanovskaya

Beluga roar BELUGA ROAR. BELUGA ROAR. Simple Cry loudly and uncontrollably. The owner's snub-nosed daughter, swollen from tears, roared like a beluga, leaning against the door.(Sholokhov. Virgin Soil Upturned). [ Lviv:] Blessing soon? [Kosykh:] It should be soon. They bring Zyuzushka to her senses. The beluga is roaring, it’s a pity for the dowry. [Lviv:] And not daughters?(Chekhov. Ivanov). The old woman loved to remember her son. She remembers, and she roars like a beluga. He will irritate both himself and the old man(V. Boltyshev. In Svetly Klyuch).

Phraseological dictionary of the Russian literary language. - M.: Astrel, AST. A. I. Fedorov. 2008.

See what “Beluga roar” is in other dictionaries:

beluga roar- cry loudly, uncontrollably and for a long time; sob. There are two points of view on the origin of this expression. 1. The phraseological unit is a reworking of the phrase roar a beluga whale, in which a beluga whale is a polar dolphin capable of roaring. 2. There is no evidence... ... Phraseology Guide

beluga roar- colloquial Loudly, furiously scream or cry (mixed with white/hoy) ... Dictionary of many expressions

roar- See scream, cry, roar... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and expressions similar in meaning. under. ed. N. Abramova, M.: Russian Dictionaries, 1999. roar, scream like a knife, whine, howl, make noise, scream like a knife, bawle, choke... ... Synonym dictionary

roar- wow, you're right; nsv. 1. Make a roar (1, 3 signs). Bull, deer roars. The crowd roars. The storm roared. The sea roared. The ship's whistle is blaring. The engine roars. 2. Unwind Cry loudly and hard. R. secretly, furtively. R. at the top of his voice. R. because of trifles. Stop crying!… … encyclopedic Dictionary

roar- woo/, vesh; nsv. 1) make a roar 1), 3) A bull, a deer roars. The crowd roars. The storm roared. The sea roared. The ship's whistle is blaring. The engine roars. 2) decomposition Cry loudly and hard... Dictionary of many expressions

BELUGA ROAR. BELUGA ROAR. Simple Cry loudly and uncontrollably. The owner's snub-nosed daughter, swollen from tears, roared like a beluga, leaning against the door (Sholokhov. Virgin Soil Upturned). [Lvov:] Blessing soon? [Kosykh:] It should be soon. Zyuzyushka feels... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language

roar roar- Cm … Synonym dictionary

The phrase, meaning blind submission to someone else's will, was first used in the 5th century BC in Herodotus's book of Histories. Two and a half thousand years ago, during the war with the Medes, the Persian king Cyrus tried in vain to win over the Greeks of Asia Minor to his side. When he conquered the Medes, the Greeks expressed their readiness to submit to him. To this, he told their ambassadors Aesop’s fable “The Fisherman and the Fishes”: “One flute player, seeing fish in the sea, began to play the flute, expecting them to come out to him on land. Having lost his hope, he took a net, threw it in and pulled out many fish. Seeing how the fish were fighting in the nets, he said to them: “Stop dancing; when I played the flute, you didn’t want to come out and dance.”

sing Lazarus

A stable expression denoting complaints about life and an attempt to evoke sympathy from others appeared during the times of Tsarist Russia: then beggars, cripples, and the sick gathered in crowded places, trying to beg for alms. In addition to prayers and lamentations, they often sang a song with a plot borrowed from the Gospel story “About the Rich Man and Lazarus.” The end of the story was supposed to frighten everyone who refused to give alms: poor Lazarus went to heaven, and his rich brother went to hell. But since not all those asking were truly poor, the expression “to sing Lazarus” began to mean “to beg, whine, complain about fate.”

The bear stepped on my ear

The history of the origin of this expression begins in Ancient Rus', with festive “market fun”. In those days, one of the most spectacular entertainments was bear wrestling - a “hand-to-paw” competition between man and animal. Such a battle for the brave men who decided to test themselves in battle with the beast often ended in hearing problems at best. And sometimes even more serious health consequences. Later, “a bear stepped on the ear” began to be said not about a person who is hard of hearing, but about a person who sings poorly.

Engraving “Royal Games”, Boris Chorikov. Reproduction

First and second violins

When a person is called the first or second violin, this is how his role in any matter is indicated: dominant and leading, or subordinate and secondary. The concepts come from orchestral music: the first violins “lead” all the other instruments, and the second ones perform only the accompanying part.

a swan song

In Russian, a swan song is usually called a bright, significant event in life or career before its end. This interpretation is associated with the legend mentioned in the fable of the ancient Greek poet and fabulist Aesop (VI century BC): “They say that swans sing before they die.” According to legend, swans, which by nature are not songbirds at all, a few moments before their death, find their voice and sing for a short time, and their singing is amazingly beautiful.

The highlight of the program

The expression, which initially meant the most popular number of a concert, and later the main event of any event, came into our language from French through the so-called semantic (from “semantics” - the meaning of a word) tracing paper. In France, the word “clou” means not only a metal rod with a cap, but also something significant, main, important. Thus, our nail acquired a second meaning.

Beluga roar

This phraseological unit, denoting loud, sad moans, is interesting because it contains an error, or, as it is also called, an “oral typo.” Among the marine inhabitants, the beluga fish and the commercial animal beluga, a white-skinned dolphin, are distinguished. And only beluga whales can “roar” furiously, and beluga whales, a very large species of the sturgeon family, like all other fish, are silent and cannot scream, howl, or roar.

There is another point of view on the origin of this expression: previously in the Russian language the word “beluga” meant both large sturgeon fish and polar dolphin. That is, initially the phraseological unit may not have contained any error; the discrepancy appeared later.

Shout to the entire Ivanovskaya

In the old days, on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin, the area near the bell tower of Ivan the Great was called Ivanovskaya, and the etymology of the expression that has survived to this day is connected with it. It is believed that on this square, a crowd of people exchanged news and rumors, trade deals were made, and royal decrees were announced publicly, in a loud voice, “to all Ivanovo.” Another version of the origin of the expression is the fact that on Ivanovskaya Square they also punished those guilty of bribery and extortion - they were mercilessly beaten with whips, causing them to shout throughout Ivanovskaya Square.

"Ivan the Great Square in the Kremlin." Vasnetsov A.M., XVII century. Reproduction

Beluga is a huge fish, one of the largest freshwater fish. Reaches a length of up to 4.5 meters and a weight of more than a ton.

With such a gigantic size, it seemed that the expression “roar like a beluga” was apt.

But this rather big fish doesn’t make any sounds that a person can hear, that’s why it’s a fish. Where did this expression come from?

It's all about the Russian language. It actually sounds like a beluga whale's roar. Beluga as opposed to beluga- a mammal and lives in the northern seas. This is a toothed whale, a relative of dolphins and narwhals. A fairly large animal, up to 6 meters long and weighing up to 2 tons. The color is pearly white, which is how the beluga whale got its name.

BeluKha

In addition to the ability to produce ultrasounds, with the help of which she locates the depths of the seas, she is famous for her vocal abilities. Beluga whales can whistle, quack, make sounds reminiscent of an out of tune symphony orchestra, and many others. And all this with decent volume. It is even called the sea canary.

Beluga

Northern industrialists, who had been hunting beluga whales for a long time, introduced the saying “Roars like a beluga whale.” People who live far from the ocean and have never seen a sea cetacean have altered this statement in accordance with their ideas. After all, very close to them in the longest river in Europe lives a giant fish - the beluga.

This is how they converted the beluga into a beluga.

This expression is used most often in common parlance, that is, in everyday reduced speech. It means "to cry very loudly, furiously." In the drama A.P. Chekhov's "Ivanov" one of the characters says: " They bring Zyuzushka to her senses. Beluga roars, sorry for the dowry". In M. A. Sholokhov's novel "Virgin Soil Upturned" we read: " The owner's snub-nosed daughter, swollen from tears, roared like a beluga, leaning against the door".

The modern form of this expression - beluga roar - often causes confusion. Indeed, in modern Russian, beluga is a sturgeon fish. She, of course, cannot cry. They say: “as dumb as a fish.” What's the matter?

The following assumption was made: initially this expression sounded different, namely: roar beluga whale, since here, supposedly, we are talking about the sounds made by a polar dolphin, a marine animal, which is called beluga whale in modern Russian. Replacement belu X and on white G y in phraseology is given in some popular books as an example of a “linguistic paradox”.

However, there is no evidence that the word beluga was ever used in this expression. They spoke and still say in Russian only to roar like a beluga. According to the Card Index of the Old Russian Dictionary of the Institute of Russian Language of the USSR Academy of Sciences, one of the manuscripts from 1535 says that “lions and belugas can roar.” And in later written monuments we find the already formed phraseological combination roar beluga. The fact is that for a long time in Russian the word beluga meant both a large sturgeon fish and a polar dolphin. We have reliable evidence of this since the 16th century. In the “Dictionary of the Regional Arkhangelsk Dialect” published in 1885, the sea animal, the polar dolphin, is called both beluga and beluga. At the same time, the word beluga comes first. " Local industrialists, - writes the compiler of the dictionary A. Podvysotsky, - This animal is also called a sea cow". This name was given to the beast, undoubtedly, for its ability to make very characteristic sounds and roar.

In all Russian language dictionaries of the 19th century, the polar dolphin is called both beluga and beluga. It can be assumed that the word beluga as a dialectal, local name for a game animal entered the literary language from scientific geographical literature, in particular from the works of the Russian traveler of the second half of the 18th century I. Lepekhin. This naturalist scientist was distinguished by his deep knowledge of folk speech. Lepekhin consciously sought to introduce folk, local names into scientific use. Thus, the northern Russian dialect name beluga became known first in a special scientific language, and then appeared in general literary speech.

In modern Russian, beluga is the only name for a polar dolphin. Now only fish is called beluga. The modern distribution of “roles” for these two words occurred only in the 20th century. What about phraseological units? In stable speech patterns, words, grammatical forms, and pronunciation features that have changed or even completely disappeared from the language are often preserved. This is how the stable expression roar beluga is preserved in the Russian language, despite the fact that the word beluga itself has not been used for a long time as the name of a sea animal. The phraseological unit retains its ancient form.

Beluga roars.

When this famous phrase is said, an association arises with a person who screams and cries so much that it can be heard very far around. There are other phraseological units in the Russian language that sound completely different, but have a very similar meaning. They are pronounced like this: “flowing like a stream”, “whining like a dog”, “shouting with good obscenities”, “roaring roaring” and much more. There are even similar expressions in other foreign languages ​​of the world.

The phrase itself " beluga roar" could be considered a mistake, or even, most likely, a verbal typo. The beluga fish is the largest of the sturgeons and, like other fish, it not only does not roar, but does not make any sounds at all. Therefore, it would be more logical to say “dumb as a fish.” But another aquatic inhabitant has a voice. And what kind. This is a polar beluga dolphin that has smooth white skin and lives and hunts in herds. The beluga whale can make a special sound, very similar to a moo. This scream is not only loud, but also quite unpleasant.

Why did such a funny confusion happen? Most likely, this happened due to some peculiarity of the Russian language. In some places in Russia, the letter “G” is pronounced as the sound “X”. It is possible that the same thing happened with the word beluga and a sound change that no one even noticed. It is difficult to say this one hundred percent, but this version has a right to exist. Everyone who hears idiom roar beluga, perfectly understands its meaning, which could not be asserted if the erroneous word began to be pronounced absolutely correctly.