"Wash the bones": the meaning of phraseology. What does it mean to "wash the bones"

Phraseological turns make our speech more interesting. Any, everyday talk can be a great example of the richness of our language. We will talk about one of the popular phraseology today in our article.

How often are we going to wash the bones of a common acquaintance? Similar topics are considered bad form. But at least, accidentally we are doing it. Briefly, the meaning of phraseology can be referred to as "discussion behind the back of a person". Without going into the moral side of the process, let's look at the expression from the philological point of view.

So, later in this article we will try to tell you what it means to "wash away the bones", and also consider some moments of the history of this phraseology.

The modern meaning of expression

Since phraseology has an indirect meaning, at least at the current stage of its use, then we are just interested in it.

So, the basic meaning of "washing the bones" at the present stage is "discussion behind the back, rumor". Extremely negative expression - "slander". In general, it is always - either to discuss the features of a person's character without his presence, or specific actions.

Also note that in general, the modern meaning has a negative emotional color. Sometimes there are exceptions, when the discussion of a person behind his back is on the positive side.

The origin of phraseology

Like many other stable expressions, "washing the bones" has its very amusing story of origin. To begin with, this combination itself sounds very ominous. So where did this expression come from?

The history of phraseology begins in ancient times, the sphere of education is the Orthodox Greek ritual culture, which, to some extent, went over to the Slavonic culture. The expression is related to the following eerie burial ritual.

So, according to ancient traditions, there was a secondary burial. This ritual provided for actions when the bones of a deceased person were extracted from the grave, washed with water and wine, and then laid back in the grave. Hence the direct meaning of the expression "wash the bones". Phraseologicalism, now existing with a specific meaning, entered into use through direct meaning.

The question remains open as to what purpose this ritual was conducted. Open sources give such an explanation.

Bone washing was performed in order to make sure that the curse was not applied to the body. The damned dead at night leave the graves (vampires, ghouls, ghouls) and destroy people, taking their blood to the last drop. Such bodies in the graves lie nepristlivshie, only swollen and darkened.

Mention of expression in written sources

Researchers of usurious folk art did not ignore phraseological units and did not miss the opportunity to fix them in their works. However, the expression "wash the bones" (the meaning of phraseology and its origin) was not mentioned in the scientific literature up to the dictionary created by Dahl.

But already in the work of Dahl is given and the interpretation of the expression, and a historical reference to its origin.

Mentioned in art texts

Although in scientific research the topic of our discussions began to rise rather late, the art of the word was one step ahead. In fiction, texts contain this expression, and it occurs quite often.

In the works of Russian literature since the 19th century, we meet it already in various contexts. On the basis of this, researchers suggest that it was at that time that phraseology fell into the literary layer of the Russian language from colloquial speech.

Among the writers who have this expression in their works, Saltykov-Shchedrin (his "Provincial Sketches"), Melnikov-Pechersky with his novel "On the Mountains," "Grandmother's Stories." Chekhov also adorned his narrative with popular expression (for example, "From the notes of a quick-tempered man").

Variants of expression

Phraseological units, like the words of a language, have their own synonyms, are used in various forms. The latter may be of varying degrees of similarity to "wash the bones". The meaning of phraseology at the present stage, we disassembled above, everything happened historically the same way.

So, in written sources of the literary Russian of the 19th century, there are three variants that differ slightly in the morphological form. The value remains the same, but the verbs have different prefixes. The initial word is the infinitive verb "wash". With prefixes, it forms such variants: "wash it" (actually, we consider it as the most common in our article), "wash it" (it was much less common, today you can not hear it at all), "wash it" (today it is also unlikely You will hear).

In one of Chekhov's works (the story "Zinochka") we see another form similar to "wash the bones", but derived from another root: "sort out". It is considered secondary, most likely, purely author's decision on a par with authorial neologisms.

Synonyms of expression

Synonyms in phraseology "wash the bones", modern and those that occur only in the artistic and scientific literature, not so much. An interesting fact: the academic dictionary gives the expression "shake bones" (meaning "gossip") as synonymous, however, according to available data, literary texts of the 19th and 20th centuries do not contain such a form.

Another, more understandable example with the synonyms of the phraseology under consideration, on the basis of the expression "dismantle the bones". It is almost purely literary, because there is no information that in this form was used in folk speech. There was this phrase clearly under the influence "to wash (to touch) bones". The values converge in individual cases or are similar in others: "discuss something or someone in detail," "subject to detailed analysis, criticism," and "condemn, criticize."

In the well-known "Crime and Punishment" of Dostoevsky, an excellent form of expression is also used: "pounding the stones", which means "washing the bones". The essence of the same, only partially changed imagery.

In a row with the phraseology "wash the stones" is put another - "to sort through the thread." Their meaning converges, but the imagery is different.

conclusions

So, in our article, we tried to comprehensively and most interestingly highlight what it means to "wash the bones". The main thing that we were going to learn from the discussion is its meaning: "to discuss, gossip about a man in his absence."

Historical development of the meaning of this expression has passed many stages. Initially, it was literal and depicted a ritual action, then went on to analyze the character of a person. Today we have a familiar context and meaning, which we invest in it intuitively.