20 February 2009
By Michele A. Berdy
С гулькин нос: a pitifully small amount of something
I've got noses on the brain. Once I started thinking about nose expressions in
Russian, that's all I see or read. Then I got so interested, for the last
several days
я уткнулась носом в справочники по русской фразеологии
(I've been buried in books on Russian expressions and idioms; literally,
"I've burrowed with my nose").
Some of these phrases, it turns out, are fake nose expressions.
For example,
оставлять с носом sounds like "to leave someone with his nose," but here нос has a different meaning. In the old days, a suitor brought his bride-to-be's family
нос or приношение (gift, offering). If the bride's family turned him down, they turned down his offering too, and the villagers would gossip:
Они оставили его с носом (they turned him down with his offering). Today the expression is used to describe cheating people or leaving them with nothing:
Он ушёл от жены и оставил её с носом (He abandoned his
wife and left her flat broke).
I've also come across the phrase
уходить с носом (to leave with one's offering) used to describe the sad plight of someone who brought нос to a bureaucrat or judge -- that is, he brought a
взятка (bribe) -- and the potential bribe-taker didn't accept it. The expression can be used to describe any situation in which a request was denied or a deal fell through. In translating into English, you might reverse the image:
Мы попросили увеличить дотацию от бюджета, но ушли с носом
(We asked for a hike in funding from the city budget, but we left
empty-handed).
But other Russian expressions shine the language spotlight on the real nose.
Утереть кому-то нос (to wipe someone's nose) probably comes from the image of a helpless child who needs someone to look after his facial hygiene. Today it describes getting the better of someone and is often found in articles about sports competitions: Р
оссийские биатлонисты утёрли нос немцам (Russian
biathletes whipped the German team).
Then there is the mysterious expression
комар носа не подточит, which seems to mean, literally, "the mosquito doesn't sharpen a nose." But to add to the confusion, it is used to describe anything that is well-made or well-done. Huh? Apparently the key to deciphering this expression is
подточить.
n some parts of Russia, it was a synonym for всунуть (to
shove into). In the old days, the sign of a well-built piece of furniture or
house was tightly joined planks of wood -- so snugly fitted that "the nose of a
mosquito couldn't squeeze in between them."
There are nicely rhymed ways of describing a good-sized schnoz:
Этот нос через Волгу мост (That nose could be a bridge over the Volga). Or:
Этот нос сто лет рос (That nose has been growing for a
hundred years).
But small noses get their due. If someone offers a size-12 friend a size-2
dress, the friend might say:
же на нос не налезет (literally, it wouldn't even fit on my nose). If you want to describe a pitifully small amount of something, you can say с гулькин нос. Here гулькин is the adjective derived from