???‚?????€???·????: thug, lamebrain, druggie, weirdo
In the pantheon of contemporary Russian insults, ???‚?????€???·???? is Zeus — the king of the bad guys. Like Zeus, ???‚?????€???·???? is brutish and inhuman. But sometimes ???‚?????€???·???? is like Zeus on drugs — weird, wacky and out of it.
Confused? Don’t feel bad. O?‚?????€???·???? is a confusing word with lots of slangy meanings.
???‚?????€???·????, the adjective ???‚?????€???¶?µ?????‹?? and verb ???‚?????€???·???‚?????? are all derived from ?????€???· (chill, frost) and ?????€???·???‚?????? (to become frozen). The prefix ???‚ adds the sense of an action done through and through. One armchair etymologist suggested that ???‚?????€???·???? and ???‚?????€???·???‚?????? were originally used figuratively to mean someone whose humanity had been frozen solid, as in this example: ?????»???‚???‡?µ???????µ ?»?????µ?€?‹ ???????µ???µ?»?? ?? ?????€?°?»?????? ???‚?????€???·???»??????, ???±???? ???‚?°?»?? ?????€???‡?µ, ???°?????»???µ — ?±?µ???????‰?°?????µ??, ???µ???°???????‚?? — ?????µ?€?‚?µ?»?????µ??. (Political leaders went gray and became morally inert, skirts got shorter, violence became more merciless and hatred — more deadly.)
Today, the most common meaning of ???‚?????€???·???? and its derivatives is a bullying monster — a thug who has no morals and whose brutality knows no bounds. This is worse than your average thug and close to the notion of a sociopath, as one fellow clarified on a blog:? ?? ?‡?µ???‚???‹?? ?±?°???????‚, ???µ ???‚?????€???·????. ?”?µ?‚?µ??, ?¶?µ???‰???? ?? ???????°?»???????? ???µ ?‚?€?????°??. (I’m an honest gangster, not a goon. I don’t touch children, women or disabled people.)
You might hear the adjective or verb used in this sense, too: ?????°?? ?????????µ?? ???‚?????€???·???»????, ???±???» ?·?° ?±???‚?‹?»???? ??????????. (Ivan went berserk and killed someone over a bottle of vodka.) ?????°?? ?±???????‚?????µ?‚, ?? ???°?‚???€?µ ???‚?????€???¶?µ?????‹??. (Ivan is raising all hell. He’s totally lost it.)
???‚?????€???·???? and ???‚?????€???¶?µ?????‹?? can also be used to describe a drug addict who has lost his humanity and morality and would do anything for a fix. ???? ???°???‚???»?????? ???‚?????€???¶?µ?????‹??, ?‡?‚?? ???€?????°?» ?????°?€?‚???€?? ?·?° ???°?€?????‚?????? ?? ?‚?µ???µ?€?? ?±?????¶???µ?‚. (He’s so wacked out on drugs that he sold his apartment to support his habit and is now homeless.) ?’???µ?????‹??, ?·?°?‰???‰?°???‰???? ?€??????????, ?? ???‚?????€???·????, ?????‚???€?????? ???µ ?…???°?‚?°?µ?‚ ???° ?????·??, ???±?° ???????µ?€???°???‚ ???±???????‚????, ???? ?????? ???±?????°???‚ ????-?€?°?·????????. (A soldier defending his homeland and a druggie who doesn’t have enough money for a fix both commit murder, but they kill in different ways.)
The third meaning is someone who is dimwitted, weird or wacko. This kind of ???‚?????€???·???? crosses boundaries of normality but is not necessarily violent. For example, an article about a university student who called in false reports to the police every day for a week because, as she said, ?????µ ?±?‹?»?? ???????‡???? (I was bored) was titled: ???‚?????€???¶?µ?????°?? ???‚?????µ???‚???° ???????‡?°?µ?‚ (A Weird Student Gets Bored).
???‚?????€???·???‚?????? is also used by the under-20 crowd to mean turning a deaf ear or pretending that you don’t know you are being talked about. In my experience — and as I recall — this is a teenage specialty: ???? ?????????€???‚ ?????µ, “?”?µ?????????°! ?????‚ ???µ ?????€???‚!” ?? ?? ???‚?????€???·???»?°???? ?? ???€???????»?¶?°?»?° ?????€???‚??. (He says to me, “Young lady! You can’t smoke here!” But I made like I didn’t hear him and kept on smoking.)
Finally, ???‚?????€???·???‚?????? can mean to break off relations. When a guy complained on a blog that a girl wouldn’t even talk to him, a sympathetic soul wrote: ?????° ?…???‚?? ?±?‹ ?? ?‚???±???? ???????±?‰?°?»?°????, ???? ?° ?????‚???? ???€?????‚?? ???‚?????€???·???»?°????. (She might have at least talked to you for awhile and then let you down.)
You know, compared with these ???‚?????€???·????, Zeus is a prince of a guy.
Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of “The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas), a collection of her columns.
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