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Старые привычки дают о себе знать, да?

I wonder if this is a commonly used expression to convey the idea of "Old habits die hard"? If an automatic translator is anything to go by, however, it doesn't seem to turn up any example of this phrasing.

In Russian, is it more like "Old habits are letting their presence be known / rearing their ugly heads"?

Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
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6 Answers6

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Yes, your translation is OK. Another one idiom (among translations you found) which is commonly used is

Привычка - вторая натура

The following is also often used, but has a little bit different meaning:

Горбатого могила исправит

This expression describes a person with negative qualities, who don't want to correct the behaviour. It could be applied to negative habits too.

Dmitriy
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    I'd add here that your second expression is insulting. The English original is much more neutral. So it should be used quite carefully. – rumtscho Jun 28 '18 at 16:03
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    "Натура" here would be an archaic word for "природа". Meaning not the biosphere around us, but someone's or something's essence, nature (sic), virtue. – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 11:54
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    That being said, the first idiom does not carry the wish to "kill an old habit", the idiom, if anything, is a bit (mostly it is neutral, but a bit) leaning to reinforce the habit, to see it as a way to organize world, to do some required if boring mundane activity. However, if the TS's idea actually is not to condemn that old habit, but to explain his behavior, puzzling others, without decrying that behavior nor the habit, then that idiom seems to be a perfect match. – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 11:56
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There's another idiom which in some cases could be used to denote an unhealthy fixation on old habits or cravings:

Как волка ни корми, он всё в лес глядит.

Which roughly translates into "No matter how well you're gonna feed the wolf, he'll always keep glancing at the forest." or much more liberally, "You can take the wolf out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the wolf."

However, it will always have negative connotations and often imply relapsing into a former, inferior, state while neglecting other people's good will and attempts to change one's nature for the better.

Thus, it will be applicable to e.g. a paroled thug disillusioned with the hardships of an honest life and contemplating their return to crime, or to a struggling chain smoker whose significant other has been desperately trying to transition them to vaping to no avail, but it won't apply to a jogger who fractured their arm and had to take a break from their daily routine.

At any rate, it will almost certainly be perceived as something offensive if you tell that to someone straight out. Unless you both know each other well and you're confident that the recipient can take a joke!

(Reference)

undercat
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    this has a similarity but a tangential one. It does not talk about some arbitrary habit trained, but more about something inbred, something fixed. Another idiom of a kind would be "маленькая собачка - до старости щенок" – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 11:52
  • @Arioch Agreed! A more English-friendly way to express the meaning of this idiom would be "You can take the wolf out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the wolf." – undercat Jun 29 '18 at 12:14
  • well, that latter idiom is originally about a maiden and a village, and using the play on homonym words, it is rather risky and may be quite insulting. – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 12:16
  • @Arioch I'm sorry, but I don't understand which idiom are referring to. – undercat Jun 29 '18 at 12:23
  • "Можно/легко вывести девушку из деревни, но нельзя/трудно вывести деревню из девушки". Sometimes it is being told as "вывеЗти" but that misses the point. Here is a pun - the second use of "вывести" means to remove a stain, to clear a dirt, "вывести пятно с платья". And that means being raised in village is a stain per se. Which is (intentionally) picking upon. "You can walk a maid out of a village, but you can not cleanse the maid of a village inside her". This play on words gets lost when translating from Russian. – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 12:31
  • In one soviet book I saw a proverb "не поминай волка всуе". I have a feeling there once was a designed push to replace "politically incorrect" idioms with some rather neutral variants about some anonymous animals and such. – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 12:33
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    @Arioch Could you provide a link indicating that it was originally a Russian idiom though? I always thought it was an adaptation of the English "You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy" which has been in use for over 100 years and has taken dozens of various forms. – undercat Jun 29 '18 at 12:34
  • i did not say it could not be adapted from other languages, just that the "wolf/forrest" version is an adaptation of "maid/village" version. And your link just proves it, that it was about rural people, not wild animals originally. However, given that the first known use in English was in 1913 - it could be both ways. English is "dirty harbour whore, knocking other languages out and robbing them", so it could be adapted in English too. – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 12:39
  • As for "как волка ни корми", it's been in use for at least several hundreds of years according to the dictionary that I linked could apply to e.g. serfs changing their landlords. In any case, it most certainly predates the Soviet rule. – undercat Jun 29 '18 at 12:39
  • i agree, "feeding wild predator" is a reasonable and plausible image per se. Worth being coined and fixed into an idiom. Same as warming snakes on one's chest, etc. Just "taking out" is not so good matching the forest narrative as it fits the village narrative. Same for remaking the Bible quote into "ideologically neutral" wolves. – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 12:42
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – undercat Jun 29 '18 at 12:53
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There's also "старого коня [or пса] новым трюкам не научишь" (you can not teach an old horse/dog new tricks). Although it conveys a more pessimistic feeling of impossibility (e. g. they don't die hard - they don't die, period).

Headcrab
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Волк каждый год линяет, да обычая не меняет.

English equivalent: The fox changes his skin but keeps his knavery.

Suvitruf - Andrei Apanasik
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Why just not say:

старые привычки не умирают

I think it's well used expression.

Alexan
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I also like this one, it can be used in this context: "Охота пуще неволи". It's not used as often, but it really should be.

postoronnim
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    The meaning is not even close, it's completely different. – Abakan Jun 28 '18 at 15:20
  • @Abakan go on, what does it mean? – Omar and Lorraine Jun 29 '18 at 08:30
  • @Wilson It means your wish (охота) to do something forbidden or disadvantageous is stronger (пуще) than your fear of any possible punishment or harm. – Abakan Jun 29 '18 at 08:40
  • @Abakan I disagree with this interpretation. Imho, "неволя" here means a someone's order, i.e. it is about the contrast between "will" and "duty", and a will is stronger. But anyway, it is wrong answer. – Dmitriy Jun 29 '18 at 10:42
  • @Dmitry Perhaps you are both correct. I would think along "я неволен сделать что-то", like "it is prohibited for me to do...". So, there both exist an order (a prohibition) and some implied punishment for crossing that prohibition. – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 12:46
  • It perhaps can also mean like "if you really desire to do/get something, you would find a way to WORK AROUND the prohibitions, orders and laws", like "водa дырочку найдёт". Not fighting the неволя head on, but finding an unexpected unorthodox way to gain what you really truly want regardless. – Arioch Jun 29 '18 at 12:49
  • from my point of view "Охота пуще неволи" is mean: охота[desire; wish; want; will] stronger than неволя[bondage, slavery, imprisonment, restriction of freedom, coercion]. – Eugene Jun 30 '18 at 04:35
  • the direct meaning (just imagining situations, where I could use the idiom) is probably that when a person is doing something out of one's own desire, it would do it faster, stronger, with more dedication and spirit, than if doing the same even under the harshest coercion thinkable. Which, however, does not preclude other interpretations to be applied when situational context would call for it. Even in "intentional pun" mode, if nothing else. Like, for example, stumbling upon an obstacle, the coerced person would be more inclined to make a bulletproof excuse, than creatively overcome – Arioch Jul 02 '18 at 09:41