3

Do you know of any idiomatic expression in Russian, the meaning or etymology of which is usually misinterpreted by non-Russian speakers? Is there such an expression in Russian that Russian speakers are already tired of explaining to foreigners that the meaning of it or its original meaning is not what they think.

One that comes to my mind is Nikita Khrushchev's "Мы покажем вам кузькину мать!" rendered by interpreters at the time as "We will bury you all!", which was not really what the expression really meant. Do you know of any other such cases?

(I guess it's a bit off-topic here - sorry about that)

brilliant
  • 5,752
  • 1
  • 15
  • 32
  • I think most of idioms are usually misinterpreted by non-Russian speakers, For example: Оказать медвежью услугу or Переливать из пустого в порожнее – rpc1 Feb 21 '17 at 09:47
  • 1
    мы вас похороним and мы вам покажем кузькину мать were two different phrases in original Russian, said by Khruschev on two different occasions. – Quassnoi Feb 21 '17 at 10:15
  • @Quassnoi - Were they rendered in English differently? – brilliant Feb 21 '17 at 12:11
  • @rpc1 - Can you, please, give an example of how those two idioms usually are misinterpreted by non-Russian speakers? – brilliant Feb 21 '17 at 12:13
  • @brilliant: of course they were. – Quassnoi Feb 21 '17 at 18:06
  • @Quassnoi - Do you know how 'мы вам покажем кузькину мать' was rendered? – brilliant Feb 21 '17 at 19:40
  • @brilliant: it was one of Khrushchev's favorite expressions, but most famously it was uttered during the kitchen debate with Richard Nixon. According to Victor Sukhodrev, it was translated literally that time. – Quassnoi Feb 22 '17 at 06:49
  • About how Кузькина мать was translated- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuzma%27s_mother – Abakan Feb 23 '17 at 17:16

0 Answers0