The saying "put off in long box", As everyone probably knows, means" to delay the decision of a case for a long time. " But what this box is and why it is long, probably not everyone knows.
True, there is also a significant disagreement among philologists on this issue. To this day, three variants of the origin of our saying have been proposed.
According to one version, this is a primordially Russian turnover that appeared during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, father of Peter I. And it is allegedly connected with the custom of filing petitions. Before the accession of Alexei Mikhailovich, petitions in the royal name were left on the tombs of the royal ancestors in the Archangel Cathedral. But Alexei Mikhailovich did not like to live in the Kremlin, but in his beloved village of Kolomenskoye, where he ordered to put a long, or "long" box for petitions (long and long in Russian are synonymous words). This box was quite roomy, and until it was full, complaints were not taken away. And then the petitions were considered for a long time by the boyars and Duma clerks. So the lowering of the petitions into the tsar's box acquired a figurative meaning - "pulling the case."
It is difficult, however, to vouch for the accuracy of this explanation: after all, what we say is “put on the back burner”, and not “put down” and not “put”. And this legend has no exact historical justification. Therefore, other scholars believe that the “long drawer” was a writing desk drawer in the first Russian chancelleries, where complaints that did not require a quick response, or did not make officials want to consider them, were postponed.
However, there are several arguments against this version. Firstly, the turnover “put on the back burner” appeared only in the middle of the 18th century. Secondly, it is found exclusively in the literary language and, thirdly, it retains the invariability of form. These features characterize the so-called tracing paper (this term, philologists denote literal borrowings from other languages). Thus, our turnover is most likely a tracing paper from the German etwas in die lange Truhe legen (to put something in a long chest). Let us remember that it was at the beginning of the 18th century that the Germans poured into Russia in bulk.
Indeed, in the buildings of German courts there were large long lari-lockers, where court cases were put; however, they were used as benches. The cases of the rich and noble plaintiffs, of course, were resolved quickly, and the cases of the poor, the court officials were postponing to the farthest end of the locker-bench - "on the back burner." By the way, in the 18th century, a more modern version appeared: etwas auf die lange Bank schieben, literally - pushing something to a long bench.
So, the expression “put on the back burner” is probably taken from the everyday life of the German bureaucracy of the New Time (which, however, did not differ much from ours, which is why the ill-fated box took root on Russian soil).
And the Russian analogue to this foreign expression is “put under the cloth ". It does not require special explanations.
In principle, the expression “put on the back burner” has only one meaning. Moreover, it is consonant with the expression itself and has a negative meaning when used. It means postponing insignificantly important things for later, an intolerable delay in their implementation.
Alternatively, the verbal expression “put on the back burner” is considered a derivative of the nominal phraseological phrase “long box”, which is most often used to denote the delayed execution of something. For example, a will is a postponement of the performance of some actions until after the death of a person.
It is much more interesting to learn about where this phraseological phrase came from in our great and mighty Russian language. Because there are several versions of its origin.
The first version is official. It is believed that the origins of the meaning of the expression "put on the back burner" go back to the seventeenth century, during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich Quiet - the father of Peter the Great.
It was he who established the installation on the square opposite his Kolomna Palace of a box for submitting all requests, suggestions, petitions and complaints. Since at that time all notes were made on long sheets of paper - rolls or birch bark - the box was quite long in shape.
The problem was that the box was checked very rarely, so complaints to the sovereign were extremely rare. Sometimes they did not reach at all, since they were taken apart by the courtiers. Since the answer had to wait for a very long time, in the common people this box was called long.
The second version is semi-official. Some believe that the expression "put on the back burner" got its meaning much later - in the nineteenth century. At this time, in the offices and offices of officials there were obligatory dressers with filing cabinets of cases to be done. The drawers in these filing cabinets were very long.
And often cases that did not require urgent consideration were put aside in the longest and most distant box. Hence the expression.
From the same working environment, a synonymous phraseological expression came about - to put on the shelter. The same officials "hid" or put aside unnecessary affairs under the cloth, which was upholstered in the desks in their offices.
The third version is folk. In Russian, the semantics of the words "long" and "long" in the common people are the same. In other words, these words are synonymous.
Even the pronunciation of the phraseological phrase varies - some use both the pronunciation "put on the back burner" and the pronunciation "put on the back burner."
The fourth version is foreign. In German, there is a synonymous phraseological phrase: etwas in die lange Truhe legen. Literally, this expression means - to put aside something in a long chest. Most often in Germany, this expression is used in the judicial and legal industries to denote a too lengthy investigation of a case, "capercaillie"
But upon a detailed semantic consideration, it is very similar to Russian. Some philological scholars believe that the Russian-language expression is a reflection of the German-language version for certain situations.
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The “long box”, that is, putting off something important for tomorrow is not only the killer of your dreams, it can literally become a killer. And your health, and your relationships, and your career, and your family, sometimes life itself. If you do not immediately shorten your lockbox, blame yourself!What are we postponing?
Yes all! We only do what we postpone.money for a future purchase;
using a new thing until a convenient occasion;
start mondays new life;
fitness, sports, outdoor activities;
walks;
language learning;
serious relationship;
birth of children;
a trip to the zoo with them;
cleaning, washing, washing dishes, routine, unpleasant work;
clarification of relations and setting all points over i;
completion of started cases;
repairs;
a call to mom, dad, friend;
confession and communion;
;
forgiveness;
declaration of love.
You can list it endlessly, and each will have their own list. Meanwhile, our whole life is on this list! We tend to put off what's important. To one degree or another, this is exactly what determines our future.
Why are we postponing?
Now let's think about why we are doing this. Perhaps this will help us overcome the consequences of postponing important matters, that is, by and large, postponing our own life, for which, as you know, we have only one chance.Why?
1. We are tired of the routine, boring, unpleasant side of these matters.
2. Sometimes the quick attainability of the result is frightening. "We will redo all the business today, there will be nothing left for tomorrow."
3. Fear of failure is very frightening from completing cases, especially if they are really difficult. "What if it doesn't work out?" Is a powerful brake that forces us to postpone things that are crucial for us.
4. We are just too lazy.
5. Lost interest and, there is no incentive to continue what you started.
6. It seems to us that efforts are in vain. The futility of effort kills initiative. If we do not have success, victories, it is extremely difficult to complete cases, because they look meaningless.
7. It seems to us that the time has not yet come. Everything is ahead or we are not ready for the final stage yet.
The consequences of postponing
It would seem that there is something dangerous here, well, a person is putting off his life, let him do what he wants. This is his own business. It turns out not always. Sometimes someone's postponement leads to family quarrels, conflicts, stressful situations, and innocent people fall within the radius of action.And the child understands that the work started must be completed in order to move forward. But in life we \u200b\u200bcome up with thousands of excuses and reasons that help us cope with our own dishonesty and feelings of guilt for unfulfilled deeds.
We use killer arguments like
- lack of time, money, effort, means, desire, incentives, etc .;
- irrelevance of this case at the moment, there are more important things, now it is inconvenient, not the time, out of place;
- interference from loved ones, relatives, friends and foes, circumstances.
But our excuses only accumulate, turning into a snowball that inexorably moves towards us and threatens to crush us with the whole mass of unfinished plans and unfulfilled expectations.
And then we begin
to be nervous and freak out;to make mistakes;
hurry;
freeze;
run away, etc.
And we are overtaken
- migraine;
- stress;
- diffidence;
- disease;
- quarrels, reproaches, criticism;
- conflicts, breaks and even divorces.
Do you still think that family fights have nothing to do with shelving? Take an open-minded and critical look at your life. And you will find that
taps are leaking;
dishes grow moldy in the sink;
laundry itself is not washed;
the dust under the bed turns inexorably into drifts;
“Madame I am sitting” without fitness and with it becomes wider and wider;
hair and face without care turn into a washcloth and washboard;
a mother who no one calls becomes lonely and unhappy;
the dog yearns without a walk;
life slowly but surely slides into the swamp of routine and boredom (no travel, walks, child, new meetings).
This is a catastrophe! We urgently need to change something!
How to save yourself from unfinished business?
There is an exit.You can conduct an audit and select those without the end of which it is impossible to live further.
And immediately, just this very second, proceed to their completion. Not Monday, not tomorrow, just now. One an hour, a day, a week. And there you look, and there will be no unfinished business.
About the rest, less important mattersI should probably just forget. Cross them off the pending list. Consider that they are already completed. If you still haven't finished them, then you don't really need them.
It should always be remembered that unfinished business is like unclosed gestalts and constantly stall our progress. We are unable to start new deeds until old ones are completed. Do not pour water into a full cup.
Therefore, obeying the law of filling voids, we should periodically dismantle our debris and make room for new good beginnings and deeds. This is especially true on New Year's Eve, but you can find any other reason - New Year according to the Eastern calendar, a new month, Birthday, even, no matter how banal, Monday. And the vacant space will be occupied by new, interesting and so necessary undertakings.
Put on the back burner
(under the red cloth) - footnote.: put off for a long time
Wed The beginning preparation for the teacher did not end in anything, or, in any case, shelved.
Ch. Uspensky. Without your will. 1.
Wed Without shelving, they immediately went to the lake (hunting).
Pisemsky. People of the forties. 3, 19.
Wed His trial was pleasant to everyone, for the fact that it soon ended: immediately there was an analysis and a recovery on the spot, into the back box did not love save: everything would go on with him with a living hand.
P.I. Melnikov. The old years. 3.
At the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in Kolomenskoye, a long box was made in a post, where petitions were placed, which were quickly examined by the tsar, but remained motionless due to the red tape in the offices. In Russia, before Peter I, petitions to the tsar were also laid in the Archangel Cathedral on the graves of his ancestors.
Wed Etwas auf die lange Bank schieben.
Put (c) on a long bench.
In the old German legal process, the judges sat between the benches on which lay the cases that were subject to immediate consideration. These benches (benches) were like boxes, and the things that had been set aside were kept in these (long) benches.
Wed Mettre l "affaire aux oubliettes.
Cm. with a living hand.
Russian thought and speech. Yours and someone else's. Experience of Russian phraseology. Collection of figurative words and parables. T.T. 1-2. Walking and well-aimed words. Collection of Russian and foreign quotes, proverbs, sayings, proverbial expressions and individual words. SPb., Type. Ak. sciences.... M.I.Mikhelson. 1896-1912.
See what "put on the back burner" is in other dictionaries:
- (under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich a box for requests). See TIME MEASURES HURRY ... IN AND. Dahl. Russian proverbs
Put on the back burner - what. Outdated. Iron. Postpone the decision of the case for an indefinite period of time. The Senate, after talking about the answer, put it, as they say, in a long box under a red cloth (Derzhavin. Notes) ... Phraseological dictionary of the Russian literary language
Put in a long box (under the red cloth) a sock. put off for a long time. Wed The beginning preparation for the teacher did not end with anything, or, in any case, was put off in a long box. Ch. Uspensky. Without your will. 1. Wed Not… … Michelson's Big Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)
What. Spread. Delay the execution of what L. affairs for an indefinite period. FSRYa, 543; BTS, 271, 1535; SHZF 2001, 29; FM 2002, 649; ZS 1996, 222, 342, 474, 476; F 2, 69; BMS 1998, 653; Mokienko 1986, 39; DP, 565 ...
Blue box. Simple. Shuttle. iron. About TV. Mokienko 2003, 152. Long box. Zharg. angle. Shuttle. 1. The coffin. 2. Dark corridor. Baldaev 1, 113; Mokienko 2003, 152. / i\u003e Cf. put on the back burner. Drive someone into a box. Zharg. pier Bring someone l. ... ... A large dictionary of Russian sayings
Cm … Synonym dictionary
- (put) a footnote. postpone for a more or less long time Under the cloth lies (case) Cf. Have mercy! tout coule, tout roule, but we have the most useful projects under the cloth for six months, and no one wants to think about anything! Saltykov. Little nothings of life. 1, 2, 2 ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary - In various styles of speech, phraseological turns are widely used - stable phrases that form semantic unity. Their function is diverse: if in scientific and official business speech they are used mainly as ... ... Spelling and Styling Reference
Like many phraseological units, the expression "put on the back burner", meaning the delay of something for a long period of time, has an ambiguous origin.
It is likely that this phraseological unit originates during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, nicknamed "Quiet", by whose order a long box for the so-called petitions was installed in the village of Kolomenskoye (the king's favorite residence) next to his palace.
Anyone could leave a message to the king in this box with a complaint or request. Complaints were collected only after the full filling of this capacious box. Then the letters were considered for a long time by clerks and boyars. And in Russian the word "long" means "long". So it turns out that in order to submit a petition, you need to put it on the back burner. But still, we say: "put on the back burner" and not "put".
Therefore, other philologists believe that the origin of the "long box" lies in the nineteenth century. At that time, various motions, complaints and petitions were sorted out. So officials laid out the submitted papers in different boxes. Cases that did not require quick solution or they simply did not want to look at them, they put them in a drawer of the writing desk, which could be called "long".
But it is also possible that the phrase "put on the back burner" came into the Russian language from the German language: etwas in die lange Truhe legen, meaning "to put something in a long chest." Indeed, in the eighteenth century, there were indeed large and long chests in German courts to store court papers. So the affairs of the poor, in contrast to the nobility, whose affairs were resolved very quickly, were kept and waited for their "star" hour in the farthest chest: why not "long box".
In the end, I would like to note that the meaning of the last two versions is very well suited to another phraseological expression "put under the cloth", because the bureaucratic tables in state institutions were basically covered with cloth.
