In black gloves. Hedgehogs: interpretation of phraseology
1935-1940, for the word "hedgehog").
Keep in tight fist someone- (colloquial) treat someone strictly, severely. (Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language (1992), N. Yu. Shvedova, to the word "mitten")
Many believe that the expression was formed on behalf of the head of the NKVD of the 30s of the 20th century, Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich (1895 - 1940), who became famous for his repressions. In the middle of the 20th century, Boris Efimov's poster "Hedgehogs" was widely known, where the People's Commissar Yezhov N.I. he takes a multi-headed snake, symbolizing the Trotskyists and Bukharinites, with a tight grip.
But, the expression was widely used back in the 19th century, long before the birth of Yezhov, for example, by a writer (1860 - 1904) and a poet (1799 - 1837).
In fact, hedgehog mittens (or golitsy) are working leather mittens without lining and fur, they were intended for catching hedgehogs. Back in the 18th century, the expression "hedgehogs" was recorded in the proverb: "Hedgehogs and a soft body are taken."
Expression with close meaning:
Keep on a short leash.
Examples
Catherine Ryan Hyde (born 1955)
"Don't Let Go" (2010, translated from English 2015):
"Usually Grace had to keep herself in black gloves and bashfully hide your talent, but sometimes there was still a reason to show it.
"- And what, are there cockroaches in your house? Partanen said loudly:
If a woman keep a tight rein, then the insects, rest assured, will not breed ... The women will devour them, but destroy them ... "
The Russian language is extremely rich in phraseological phrases and emotionally colored vocabulary. Our literature in bright colors will give any phenomenon or living being an exact definition. So there was a well-aimed association for ill-treatment - tight-fisted gloves. But do we perceive this concept correctly and what did our ancestors actually mean? Let's find out.
Where did hedgehog gloves come from?
This phraseological unit has its roots in the distant past. In the days of the peasantry, when, in addition to housing, a Russian person also had a barn with grain crops attached, he faced an acute problem: how to make sure that the crop remained safe and sound? Invasions of mice became a real problem for the agrarian. The most effective technique against voracious rodents were predatory animals - at least cats. So where does the hedgehogs?
In our everyday life, cats have partially lost the function of catching someone, because the owners bring them food on a silver platter. And hedgehogs do seem to be wild, non-tame animals. But inventive peasants used live hedgehogs to catch mice in their lands. To catch such a valuable specimen for the economy, the villagers needed protective clothing. This is how the heads were invented - the very prototype of mittens. They were made of very thick leather, the lining was not provided.
With hedgehog gloves, the peasant was able to quickly deal with prickly needles. The hedgehogs perfectly fulfilled their function as mousers. Therefore, this method of getting rid of mice was popular. So, these rough mittens were needed to solve a pressing domestic issue, and they became a stable expression only many years later.
Legend of Yezhov
The new life of this phrase began in the Soviet Union, during the reign of Stalin. There was such a people's commissar in the infamous NKVD - Nikolai Yezhov. In accordance with his position in the state apparatus, he was famous for his cruel, ruthless character. The artist Efimov even released a satirical poster. On it, Yezhov was depicted in prickly mittens, holding a three-headed snake in his hands. The monster was the personification of the enemies of the state - the henchmen of Trotsky and Bukharin.
Thus, the expression has radically changed its meaning. From mittens for catching hedgehogs in the minds of people, they turned into mittens from hedgehogs. Previously, the expression "hedgehogs" was used in classical literature by such authors as Pushkin, Turgenev, Chekhov, in its original sense. But the language develops, does not stand still, so time and history sometimes change it beyond recognition.
Hedgehogs: meaning in modern times
In everyday life, everyone probably had to use the phrase "keep it in a tight rein" more than once. The meaning of a phraseological unit is clear even to a schoolboy - this is a strict and cruel appeal to someone. Often it is used in relation to despotic bosses or even playful children who strive to break parental rules. What association does a person have at this moment? That's right, he imagines needle-shaped mittens, with which you can literally strengthen your authority (with the help of brute force, of course).
Initially, hedgehogs were completely irrelevant. Such mittens belonged to haberdashery made of leather. Although they were not worn for beauty, but for purely practical purposes. Well, now, animal advocates would most likely be outraged by such treatment of poor hedgehogs. Good thing it's just a harmless play on words. A coma of a smile, she is not able to evoke any other emotions in the interlocutor.
Antonym for phraseologism
The catchphrase "hedgehogs" has several antonyms to it. It is quite natural that over time, people find completely opposite to each stable expression. The reception of antithesis is also used by writers and people of all professions who in one way or another relate to the study of the Russian language. What antonyms can be chosen for this phraseological unit? The simplest option is not to have a soul in someone or something. It means unconditionally loving and affectionately treating someone. So the opposite opinion can be expressed using this particular expression.
Phraseologisms-synonyms
Phraseologism "with a tightrope" also has several similar meanings. One of them can be attributed to the stable expression "keep in a black body." Its meaning is to keep someone in absolute obedience or mistreat. This phrase originated in the Turkic language. These people were engaged in horse breeding everywhere. It was customary for them not to feed the horses to their fill, so that they would not lose their physical form. In this sense, the phrase should be interpreted as "black meat" - meat without fat.
The idiom "keep on a short leash" is also close in meaning. This means that one should not give too much freedom to anyone.
All of us have repeatedly heard the expression "keep tight." The meaning of the expression is clear to most of us - it means to treat someone strictly and harshly, to keep on a "short leash" and not allow slack. And probably, many of us came up with an association with mittens made from hedgehogs, or rather from their skins - of course, the feeling when you are held in mittens full of thorns can hardly be called free and pleasant ...
But what is the origin of this expression? And did there ever exist such an object as hedgehog gloves, where did this image migrate to this phraseological turn, and if so, what did they look like?
At the end of the first half of the twentieth century, after the era of the infamous Stalinist rule, it was widely believed that the expression came from the People's Commissar of the NKVD named Yezhov, who became famous for his harshness and repression in the 30s. This image was additionally fixed in the public consciousness by the poster of the artist Efimov, which was called: "Hedgehogs". This poster depicted the people's commissar holding a monster in the form of a many-headed hydra in prickly (so, after all, from hedgehogs?) mittens - it personified the "enemies of the regime" Trotskyists and Bukharinites.
But in fact, this expression is much older than the Stalinist repressions. It has been known since much more ancient times, and has been repeatedly encountered in classical Russian literature - the expression "keep in tight rein" can be found in the works of Pushkin, Chekhov, and Turgenev. It was used in a meaning close to the modern meaning - that is, “to press against the nail”, not to give relief and the opportunity to escape from strict control. In the dictionaries of the 18th century there is a proverb: “To be taken with hedgehogs and for a soft body”, while its meaning was close to that voiced above, although it did not mean punishment.
Where did the image used in the expression come from? And how did those hedgehog gloves look like?
The fact is that mice often started in the basements of houses and barns of peasants (which is not surprising, since it was there that the peasants stored their supplies). To combat them, not only cats were used, but also other predators that hunt mice, namely hedgehogs. But a cat is a domestic animal, tamed, but how to lure a hedgehog into the right room? It is problematic to take it in bare hands, just because of its prickly skin. What then to do? It was for this that hedgehog gloves, or the so-called golitsy, were needed. They were made of very thick leather and had no lining. It is with such mittens that you can take a hedgehog, curled up into a prickly ball, and take it to a barn or basement to new hunting grounds. And then, when he brilliantly fulfills his mission and copes with the mouse attack, take him to freedom with the same mittens.
So in the manufacture of hedgehog gloves, not a single hedgehog was harmed!
Dear readers! Alas and ah, but circumstances still do not allow me to meet with you as often as I would like. I, Nadya Bokhan, thank you for your attention and say “see you soon!”. I hand over the reins of power to the new author and I hope he will keep them in a tight grip. And why in a hedgehog, and what kind of mittens they are, he himself will tell you.
We have already discovered the secret of the origin of ordinary mittens, this time we will try to find out the genealogy of the “hedgehog mittens”, their use, and so on.
At first glance, everything is quite transparent - for sure, these are mittens made of hedgehogs. The imagination vividly draws a brave tailor who came up with a crazy idea to sew small, harmless and even useful (from the point of view of gardeners) snorting animals clothes for hands from the skins of small animals. It is obvious, however, that such mittens do not represent any value other than aesthetic and educational. However, this monstrous conjecture about a Swedish man who has not heard of Greenpeace is not so far from the truth. In Dahl's explanatory dictionary, it is stated that special muzzles were sewn from needle skins for grown calves so that the cow would not be allowed to suck on them.
And what's with the gloves?
Let us recall the family of the princes Golitsyn. They owe their surname to the golitsy widely known in narrow circles. This was the name of the working tops made of rough leather without woolen or fur linings. Having dressed in them, you can painlessly do almost anything for yourself: even catch hedgehogs. With their help, this simple occupation was mostly indulged in. Well, that's why the golitsy got the nickname - "hedgehogs".
Phraseological turn "to take someone with a hedgehog" was born from a little-known Russian proverb "with a hedgehog and a soft body taken" and no less little-known Russian proverb "Hedgehog head - to teach a craftswoman." In the 19th century, with the light hands of writers, whom we used to call our everything, it began to be often used in literature, which, naturally, brought their glory to the iron fists.
Remember Petrusha Grinev's unsuccessful attempt to deceive the elderly German general in The Captain's Daughter without a twinge of conscience?
- Now about the case ... To you, my rake ... um ... "keep in tight irons" ... What are yeshyov mittens? It must be a Russian saying... he repeated, turning to me.
“That means,” I answered him with an air as innocent as possible, “to be kind, not too strict, to give more freedom, to keep in tight rein.
– Um, I understand... “and not to give him free rein”... no, it’s obvious that Jeshev’s mittens don’t mean that...
Exactly one hundred years later, in the thirties of the twentieth century, the phrase "hedgehogs" acquired an extremely sinister meaning. Ironically, the NKVD of the USSR at that time was headed by Nikolai Yezhov.
On the poster, the artist B. Efimov depicted the commissar himself, tightly holding a reptile with the heads of "Trotsky-Bukharin-Rykov spies, pests, saboteurs" by the throat.
It is noteworthy that after the chief Commissar for Foreign Affairs in 1939 ended up in the place of his victims, the iron gloves were not renamed "Beria".
Keep tight-lipped whom. Razg. Express. Strictly, severely treat someone. I was under the command of Kolka Maslov, a boy equally nimble both in studies and in mischief; only by a strange chance this fellow was away from the fighters, it is clear that the strict dad kept his son in tight rein(M. Alekseev. Brawlers).
Phraseological dictionary of the Russian literary language. - M.: Astrel, AST. A. I. Fedorov. 2008 .
See what "Keep tight" in other dictionaries:
Keep tight-lipped- SLEEVES A, s, f. A piece of clothing that covers the entire hand and thumb separately. Fur gloves. Canvas mittens (working). Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov
keep a tight rein- See crowd... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and expressions similar in meaning. under. ed. N. Abramova, M .: Russian dictionaries, 1999 ... Synonym dictionary
keep a tight rein- to keep someone in strict obedience, to treat someone very strictly and severely. Hedgehog mittens (holits) - working leather mittens without lining and fur, they were intended for catching hedgehogs. Back in the 18th century, the expression hedgehogs ... ... Phraseology Handbook
Keep tight-lipped- whom. Razg. Get along with someone. strictly, severely; educate someone. with great rigor. DP, 219; BTS, 252; FSRYA, 396; BMS 1998, 507; ZS 1996, 227; SRGK 3, 173; F 1, 157; SOSV, 67 ...
keep a tight rein- see hedgehog ... Dictionary of many expressions
keep (someone) in a tight grip- Wed. He constantly watched me, as if I was capable of all crimes and I should have been kept in a tight grip. Turgenev. Unhappy. 17. Wed. I am cruelly mistaken if he, taught by experience and barely escaping from death, inexorably did not hold ... ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary
Keep in tight sleeves- whom. Novg. The same as holding in an iron fist (MITTLE). NOSE 2, 85 ... Big dictionary of Russian sayings
Keep (someone) in tight rein- Keep (someone) in a tight grip. Wed He constantly watched over me, as if I was capable of all crimes and should have been kept in a tight rein. Turgenev. Unhappy. 17. Wed. I am cruelly mistaken if he, taught by experience, and ... ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)
keep somebody in black gloves- razg. Get along with someone. strict, severe... Dictionary of many expressions
in black gloves- in tight-fisted gloves. Unchanged Strictly, sternly, severely. More often with verb. nesov. kind: keep... how? in tight gloves; take ... in tight grips. Is it really necessary that they are peasants forever before Chichikov's eyes and that he keep ... ... Educational Phraseological Dictionary
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