What does the expression angry water mean? What does the expression “they carry water for the offended” mean? “They carry water for the offended!” How do you understand this saying?
You don’t need to study for long the numerous pages on the Internet devoted to this saying to be convinced of the amazing variety of its interpretations, sometimes very contradictory. Many people, confused, wonder, enter into an argument, seeking an explanation for the saying “They carry water for the offended.”
Why exactly “offended”
Does the meaning of the saying “They carry water for the offended” express a hint that the “offended”, that is, people deprived of something, always get the hardest and most thankless work? By the way, in the case of such an understanding, the saying is perceived as something self-evident, as a banality. Or is it some kind of warning for these same “offended”? And why is it their destiny to carry water, and not, say, to chop wood or fell timber?
And how does this correspond to the statement of S. I. Ozhegov’s classic Explanatory Dictionary that the expression “carrying water on someone” means abusing his flexible, kind character, loading him with tedious and not prestigious work?
Proverb or saying
But before you begin to understand the meaning of the saying “They carry water for the offended,” it doesn’t hurt to clarify what we are talking about: a proverb or a saying?
Even on this issue it is not so easy to achieve clarity. But these are different concepts.
To be precise, a proverb is a concise, rhythmically organized folk saying with an instructive meaning. A proverb is a truncated or underdeveloped proverb, which, as a rule, does not form a complete sentence. Example: “In the middle of nowhere.”
We must imagine that any current expression, be it a proverb or a saying, exists (circulates between people) as a kind of living formation. That is, it changes along with them and along with time, which is why it can acquire a new meaning, different from the original one.
Changing vocabulary over 150 years
“They carry water for the offended” - the meaning of the saying, and its lexical composition has changed since it was recorded in 1867 in V. I. Dahl’s “Explanatory Dictionary” “Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people.” “The angry carry water on a stubborn horse” - this is how it sounded 150 years ago.
How did the “angry” turn into the “offended” and how do they differ from them? It turned out that many of our contemporaries do not feel the difference here and perceive these words as synonyms.
Angry, disgruntled, even angry - this is a person out of balance. (Compare: “An angry person doesn’t carry pots” or even “An angry person doesn’t drive pots”). Linguistic experts compare the word “angry” with the word “heart” - to get angry, to do something in the hearts, that is, rashly, thoughtlessly. And according to Christian ideas, the heart is the place where anger, one of the seven deadly sins, is concentrated.
Angry or angry
The meaning of the proverb “They carry water for the offended” has another meaning. If you dig deeper into the root basis of the “angry” and wrathful, it turns out that “anger” is related in origin to the word “fire”. How to put out the fire? It is filled with water.
This is how the ancient and very deep explanation of the saying “They carry water for the offended” is revealed. And in everyday understanding, she expressed a warning, good advice to a person who is quick to anger - to change his behavior, to dampen his ardor. At the same time, the understanding was not canceled that being a water carrier is a difficult occupation and not one of the most honorable.
Water Museum
And the explanation of the proverb “They carry water for the offended” in the exhibition of the Water Museum in St. Petersburg does not stand up to any criticism. It boils down to a simple illustration of everyday circumstances: rude, impolite water carriers who offend people are punished by forcing them to work for free. One might think that among all the city workers, it was the water carriers who were for some reason especially intolerant (where is the written evidence of this?) and the police were forced to specifically monitor and punish them.
The “legend” that unscrupulous water distributors replaced high-quality water drawn from the deep and clear Neva with muddy water from the Fontanka or Moika for profit, and was punished for it, also smacks of the same precocious writing. It would not hurt the authors of such legends to take into account the fact that water was distributed not only in St. Petersburg.
Word transformation
But how did the transformation of the angry into the offended take place? The fact is that the word “angry” is synonymous with the word “touchy.” And logically this is understandable: after all, a person who is unreasonably angry, angry, hot-tempered solely because of bad character easily becomes touchy without any apparent reason.
And here again we have to talk about the linguistic hearing loss of our contemporaries, about their inattention to the semantic nuances of the form of a word.
“Touchy” is a character trait of a person who is inclined to be offended, regardless of whether there is a reason for this. “Offended” is someone who has been deliberately offended or humiliated. And why should this person, who has already suffered, be offended again by carrying water on him?
Not a man, but a horse
The meaning of the saying “They carry water for the offended” is sometimes transferred not to a person, but to a horse. Indeed, you can’t carry water on a hot horse to the place; you’ll spill it along the road. Tame, mostly old horses or geldings, that is, “offended”, are suitable for this work. In Russian literature, the phrase “water nag” was often used to mean: driven, exhausted by back-breaking labor.
Criminal jargon
But closer to the truth are those researchers of modern speech who point to the widespread introduction of the dictionary of the criminal world into the spoken language in recent decades. In criminal jargon, "offended" (or "lowered") refers to a homosexual prisoner of the lowest reputation.
The meaning of “They carry water on the offended” here is already close to the saying “They carry water on fools” or “The devils carry water on the offended.”
This means that when we say, “They carry water on the angry” (and this option has not yet completely fallen out of use), we want to make someone understand about his excessive “angry” - inappropriate pride, ambition. We seem to encourage a person to be more modest in his own interests.
But the meaning of the saying “They carry water for the offended” will be different. He simply states that those who are bypassed by fate and the attention of people and who have come to terms with this face a hard fate. Your neighbors will not be slow to take advantage of this. That is, this is closer to the interpretation given in S.I. Ozhegov’s dictionary, although the dictionary only cites the saying “to carry water.”
Try comparing these two options. The latter looks flatter, less interesting in literary terms.
Modern semantic shades and historical heritage
There are many other versions of the proverb that are not so common: “water is carried” by “fools”, “stubborn”, “kind”, “gullible”. Unlike the original, there are no negative meanings; there are also positive characters - “kind”, “gullible”.
It is curious that the expression “to carry water” as part of a proverb has turned into an independent phraseological unit, and it acquires various semantic shades. Thus, a hard-working, hardworking, physically strong person is characterized by his ability to “carry water.” And sometimes this phrase sounds ironic: “Yes, you can carry water on it!”
A proverb (or saying), being a stable phrase, is not something unambiguous, given once and for all. It connects us with the historical origins of our culture, but remains alive and somewhat changeable.
What does the expression “they carry water for the offended” mean?
The question is closed because it is a duplicate of the question “Why do they carry water to the offended?”T-tender
It is NOT so much about the offended “Carrying water” as they themselves allow it to be carried on themselves.
And you can also say this: “You yourself are offended, and you make it worse for yourself by loading yourself with the burden of grievances.”
After all, you must agree that an offended person carries the offense on himself (or in himself) as an extra burden, as unnecessary water, as a “heaviness on the soul.” This resentment presses, interferes, but the person still carries it, not understanding; it’s easier to forgive, to take and throw off all this negativity.
It is generally believed that the expression originated from the following events.
Thoroughbred horses took part in races, as well as at exhibitions, and they were easy to sell; in general, they were valued, groomed and cherished.
But the horses were not purebred and were the very “offended” ones - it was on them that they carried water to
bazaars and squares.
Peresvetik
Resentment is a very bad feeling and a person drives himself into the framework of being offended and sulks at the whole world. And he cannot understand that by resentment he harms only himself, other people do not care about his condition.
And this saying applies to the offended, because they pout like a mouse on a rump and carry an emotional burden that pulls them down, so they are compared to a horse and a water carrier that delivers this water, he was always despondent and never laughed.
The offender needs to understand that no one is to blame for his grievances, this is only his problem, that he is driving himself into it and spoiling his nervous system and health.
Metamorph
I don’t know how true this version is, but I heard that this expression arose in relation to thoroughbred horses. Some were healthy and strong. They were used at races and in competitions, and in hunting, and as producers. And the other horses were “offended” by their health. And they were mainly suitable for carrying water. That is, use it for rough and heavy auxiliary work.
There are other explanations for the origin of this expression, but this one seems to me the most plausible.
It became most interesting and this is what I found out on the Internet, it turns out that there are many versions, but the most plausible one is probably still connected with the history of St. Petersburg water carriers.
Greedy traders inflated the price of water in order to make money and, of course, they were punished for this, not like in our time.) And how were they punished? But they simply took away the horse and the merchant carried the barrel on himself.)
Marktolkien
This expression comes from the 18th century, from the times of Peter the Great. It concerns the work of water carriers; they delivered clean water on carts to residents, receiving payment for this from the city or state treasury. When the most cunning began to charge people for water, they were punished - they were forced to carry water all day, harnessing instead of a horse. The water carriers were of course offended.
The expression “They carry water for the offended” is as old as time. It means that you don’t need to constantly be offended and accumulate grievances in yourself, since this only makes the one who is offended worse. And the offender most likely has already forgotten that he once offended someone. Therefore, you need to be able to forgive, otherwise you won’t have any nerves.
Stealth
I completely heard it like this - “They carry water for the offended, and bake bread for the hot ones.”
This means that no one pays attention to your offense - you don’t have to tense up, and don’t get angry - it’s also of little use. You can’t prove anything to anyone, and it doesn’t bother anyone.
It probably means something like that you are being offended in vain. He who is offended will work hard. But you also need to know where this expression came from and what exactly it means to “visit the water”....................
What does the expression “They carry water for the offended” mean?
“They carry water for the offended.” Why is there such an expression?
I read somewhere that Peter I really did not like evil and touchy people. And when a person was openly and publicly angry or expressed his aggression, he was punished as follows: they hung buckets of cold water on him and forced him to run. When running, naturally, cold water from the buckets splashed and fell on the person, thereby cooling his ardor.
Or here's another version.
There is a saying similar in meaning: “They carry water on the angry, but they ride on the kind.” Most likely, it is about horses. The horse was angry, with a bad character, and was used for hard work as a water carrier.
In any case, these sayings tell us that hot-tempered and touchy people (and animals) have not been loved at all times. Therefore, you need to remember that being offended is more expensive for yourself.
K o v
Offended people are usually pouty, silent, irritable, uncommunicative, just like animals, not people, and it was on them that in ANCIENT Rus' they carried water, etc. So it turned out so smoothly: they transport water to the offended.
Alex-rib-87
Indeed, there is such an expression. Look at offended people - they are sad, silent, as if they were deprived of something. They are similar in this way to oxen animals - bulls, on which buffalos carried water. This is probably why this expression was introduced. It can also be assumed that if you were offended, the punishment would be carrying water.
What is the meaning of the proverb “they carry water for the offended”?
The question is closed because it is a duplicate of the question “What does the expression “they carry water for the offended” mean?”Grigory Mytil
This ancient folk saying reflects a very subtle and philosophical concept of life in society. To a person, for some reason, society pointed out certain wrong actions, instead of proving that he was right, he became offended and “gave up.” If so, then such a person is considered not a fully-fledged member of society and his voice or opinion is not perceived by society. It becomes completely controlled by society. As for carrying water, this is not an objective (physical) understanding of the essence of this expression, but a subjective one.
Jenny
I think that when people are offended and accumulate grievances, they load themselves with these grievances and, as it were, carry an extra burden through life, so it turns out that they live hard, as if they were carrying water on them. So it’s better to forgive or not be offended at all.
One of the options could be this: an offended person is easier to manipulate, he is more reliable, and everyone around him will take advantage of this. From this we can conclude that in the event of some actions of other people that do not suit you, you should not be offended in silence, but counteract at least with words in order to eliminate the problem. An offended person is an unconstructive element of society, because over time, accumulated grievances can burst out at the most inopportune moment.
“They carry water for the offended!” How do you understand this saying?
Cook
They carry water for angry people. This is how the saying goes. This means they are forced to work. Why is it easier to make an angry person?
School etymological dictionary:
"ANGRY", oh, oh; -dit, a, oh.
1. Prone to angry, angry, irritable. S. disposition Don't be afraid of me, I'm not with. Throw an angry dog a bone. Dahl. 2. Feeling angry, angry with someone. irritated by someone. Here was a gentleman who was greedy for epigrams and angry at everything. Pushkin. The eccentric, having arrived at a huge feast, was already angry. Pushkin. He sharpened the bayonet, grumbling angrily (adv.). Lermontov. || Imbued with anger, irritation, expressing irritation, anger. S. shout. S. spp. S. look. 3. transfer Hostile, hostile, terrible (poet). With your head open to the storms of life, you have stood under an angry thunderstorm all your life. Nekrasov. 4. transfer Extremely strong in its manifestations, highly effective (colloquial fam. joke). S. tobacco (strong and bad). Angry wine. Angry price (very high). S. frost. ◊
Cheap and cheerful (colloquial) - about something. inexpensive, accessible, easy to implement and at the same time achieving the goal, meeting the purpose.
Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov, 1935-1940"
In this saying, the word angry is used to mean strong. Related sayings:
“He who is lucky gets carried,” “A small woman is for love, a big woman is for work.”
Personally, I find it so ok.
They carry water to the offended, what’s the point...origin
Violetta®
A person must be able to forgive. And if he constantly walks around offended, and there is no reason to be offended, it already looks stupid, no one becomes interested in him. This is a figurative expression.
Taken from the forum:
The phraseological unit to carry water on someone means “to take advantage of someone’s reliability in business or assignments.” Probably, the proverb that offended (angry) people carry water arose due to the fact that hard work was a punishment for a person’s touchiness: they literally carried water on an offended, angry person.
The composition of the human body is inherent in a certain percentage of water, and, literally speaking, a person is a bag of water, and even more literally - as a person fits onto another person, one can assume that a certain container of water is being dumped on his hump - so it turns out that a water carrier .. . Why is a person offended - hmm, the water is salty - he cries, that’s probably what they’re transporting...
Slavyanka Ivanova
Origin of the expression “they carry water for the offended”:
thoroughbred horses took part in races and exhibitions, they were easy to sell, but non-pedigreed horses with a “flaw” or, in other words, “offended” were suitable for transporting water in bazaars and squares.
Lyubov Pantyukhina
This expression appeared during the reign of Peter the Great, when there were no city water pipelines and water was brought to the population in barrels. Horses were harnessed and thus drinking water was delivered to people in the cities, and this was done by special people who received payment for this from the state treasury - water carriers. It was a fairly prestigious and well-paid job. Water was delivered to the townspeople free of charge, but dishonest water carriers, contrary to the decree of the sovereign, began to illegally sell water, in a word, they began to sell water to the population. The Emperor, having learned about this lawlessness, became terribly angry and ordered another decree to be issued to punish dishonest water carriers. And the punishment was simple. A water carrier caught selling water was harnessed to a cart with a barrel instead of a horse, and he had to carry this water around the city all day. Naturally, the water carriers were very offended, since it was hard physical work. This is where the expression “they carry water for the offended” comes from. Source: tour guide's story. Water Museum. Saint Petersburg
Alexey Shegurov
Origin and meaning of the phrase “they carry water for the offended”
There are three versions of the origin of this expression.
One of them dates back to the nineteenth century. At that time, many people used the services of water carriers, which delivered clean drinking water in barrels on carts. Water was sold for an inexpensive, one might say symbolic, fee.
However, some water carriers inflated the price, which caused fair indignation among buyers. As punishment, greedy water carriers were harnessed to a cart instead of a horse, forcing them to deliver the water themselves.
The second version is also associated with water carriers. It is worth noting that in those days, along with drinking water, process water was also delivered, which was used for household needs, such as washing something or watering, and was correspondingly cheaper. The barrels in which water was transported were of different colors depending on the quality of the water. The white ones carried drinking water, and the blue and yellow ones carried technical water. So, rogue water carriers sometimes passed off process water as drinking water. When the forgery was revealed, the well-deserved “people's punishment” overtook the “hero” in the form of the punishment described above.
The third version dates back to the time of Peter the Great, according to whose decree a person who publicly shows his resentment and anger should be forced to run with a yoke and two buckets filled with ice water until the irritation passes.
In general, resentment is not worth your emotional experiences, because they manifest themselves in you, and not in the person to whom the resentment is directed.
[link blocked by decision of the project administration]
Who doesn't carry water?
They carry water on the offended - it is necessary to be offended if the situation deserves it. You should not demonstrate resentment to others, because, firstly, this is a balm for the soul of the offender, and secondly, the desire to respond, take revenge, or react somehow makes the offended person a figure that does not belong to himself, dependent, a doll, a puppet, an object of manipulation“They carry water” means they use it for their own interests, exploit it
« I have mentioned ridicule and mockery more than once... Sometimes, after taking a sip of tea, I would spit, there was salt that someone had poured in, or a half-pound piece of my own sugar was thrown into a tea mug. When washing the deck, which was being rubbed with brushes, I was subjected to a seemingly random hose and constant scolding remarks that I was slowly sweeping the deck or weakly scrubbing it with a brush... I took it seriously and was touchy not only to abuse or hostility, but also to jokes, of course. rough, which delighted my tormentors"(A. Green "Autobiographical Tale")
Synonyms of the saying “they carry water for the offended”
- Angry doesn't carry pots
- A cruel word raises wrath
- Anger is a bad advisor
- An evil insult is bitterer than wormwood
- Master of your anger is master of everything
- I don’t quarrel with anyone and I’m not afraid of anyone
- Resin is not water, swearing is not hello
- Hold your tongue and squeeze your heart in your fist
The use of phraseological units in literature
—
« Look, she hasn’t even lost her appetite - she eats for two... - They carry water for angry people. Grandma didn't hear these words"(M. Zoshchenko “Lelya and Minka”)
—
« He knocked the bottom and set the damask. “They carry water on fools,” he said. Sat down boldly"(A. N. Tolstoy “Peter the First”)
—
« Don't be angry. They say they carry water for angry people... Let's go"(Nikolai Dubov "Boy by the Sea")
—
« How many times can I say it, Tumanov, foremen serve in the police, but they carry water to the offended"(Oleg Seledtsov "Training")
—
« Well, come on, come on, be offended! They carry water to the offended! Come on, come on!"(Nikolai Kolyada “Slingshot”)
You don’t need to study for long the numerous pages on the Internet devoted to this saying to be convinced of the amazing variety of its interpretations, sometimes very contradictory. Many people wonder and enter into an argument, seeking an explanation for the saying “They carry water for the offended.”
Why exactly “offended”
Does the meaning of the saying “They carry water for the offended” express a hint that the “offended”, that is, people deprived of something, always get the hardest and most thankless work? By the way, in the case of such an understanding, the saying is perceived as something self-evident, as a banality. Or is it some kind of warning for these same “offended”? And why is it their destiny to carry water, and not, say, to chop wood or fell timber?
And how does this correspond to the statement of S. I. Ozhegov’s classic Explanatory Dictionary that the expression “carrying water on someone” means abusing his flexible, kind character, loading him with tedious and not prestigious work?
Proverb or saying
But before you begin to understand the meaning of the saying “They carry water for the offended,” it doesn’t hurt to clarify what we are talking about: a proverb or a saying?
Even on this issue it is not so easy to achieve clarity. But these are different concepts.
To be precise, a proverb is a concise, rhythmically organized folk saying with an instructive meaning. A proverb is a truncated or underdeveloped proverb, which, as a rule, does not form a complete sentence. Example: “In the middle of nowhere.”
We must imagine that any current expression, be it a proverb or a saying, exists (circulates between people) as a kind of living formation. That is, it changes along with them and along with time, which is why it can acquire a new meaning, different from the original one.
Changing vocabulary over 150 years
“They carry water for the offended” is the meaning of the saying, and its lexical composition has changed since it was recorded in 1867 in V. I. Dahl’s “Explanatory Dictionary” “Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people.” “Angry people carry water on a stubborn horse” - that’s how it sounded 150 years ago.
How did the “angry” turn into the “offended” and how do they differ from them? It turned out that many of our contemporaries do not feel the difference here and perceive these words as synonyms.
Angry, disgruntled, even angry - this is a person out of balance. (Compare: “An angry person doesn’t carry pots” or even “An angry person doesn’t drive pots”). Linguistic experts compare the word “angry” with the word “heart” - to get angry, to do something in the hearts, that is, rashly, thoughtlessly. And according to Christian ideas, the heart is the place where anger is concentrated, one of
Angry or angry
The meaning of the proverb “They carry water for the offended” has another meaning. If you dig deeper into the root basis of the “angry” and wrathful, it turns out that “anger” is related in origin to the word “fire”. How to put out the fire? It is filled with water.
This is how the ancient and very deep explanation of the saying “They carry water for the offended” is revealed. And in everyday understanding, she expressed a warning, good advice to a person who is quick to anger - to change his behavior, to dampen his ardor. At the same time, the understanding was not canceled that being a water carrier is a difficult occupation and not one of the most honorable.
Water Museum
And the explanation of the proverb “They carry water for the offended” at the exhibition in St. Petersburg does not stand up to any criticism. It boils down to a simple illustration of everyday circumstances: rude, impolite water carriers who offend people are punished by forcing them to work for free. One might think that among all the city workers, it was the water carriers who were for some reason especially intolerant (where is the written evidence of this?) and the police were forced to specifically monitor and punish them.
The “legend” that unscrupulous water distributors replaced high-quality water drawn from the deep and clear Neva with muddy water from the Fontanka or Moika for profit, and was punished for it, also smacks of the same precocious writing. It would not hurt the authors of such legends to take into account the fact that water was distributed not only in St. Petersburg.
Word transformation
But how did the transformation of the angry into the offended take place? The fact is that the word “angry” is synonymous with the word “touchy.” And logically this is understandable: after all, a person who is unreasonably angry, angry, hot-tempered solely because of bad character easily becomes touchy without any apparent reason.
And here again we have to talk about the linguistic hearing loss of our contemporaries, about their inattention to the semantic nuances of the form of a word.
“Touchy” is a character trait of a person who is inclined to be offended, regardless of whether there is a reason for this. “Offended” is someone who has been deliberately offended or humiliated. And why should this person, who has already suffered, be offended again by carrying water on him?
Not a man, but a horse
The meaning of the saying “They carry water for the offended” is sometimes transferred not to a person, but to a horse. Indeed, you can’t carry water on a hot horse to the place; you’ll spill it along the road. Tame ones, for the most part, or geldings, that is, “offended”, are suitable for this work. In Russian literature, the phrase “water nag” was often used to mean: driven, exhausted by back-breaking labor.
Criminal jargon
But closer to the truth are those researchers of modern speech who point to the widespread introduction of the dictionary of the criminal world into the spoken language in recent decades. In criminal jargon, "offended" (or "lowered") refers to a homosexual prisoner of the lowest reputation.
The meaning of “They carry water on the offended” here is already close to the saying “They carry water on fools” or “The devils carry water on the offended.”
This means that when we say “They carry water on the angry” (and this option has not yet completely fallen out of use), we want to make someone understand about his excessive “angry” - inappropriate pride, ambition. We seem to encourage a person to be more modest in his own interests.
But the meaning of the saying “They carry water for the offended” will be different. He simply states that those who are bypassed by fate and the attention of people and who have come to terms with this face a hard fate. Your neighbors will not be slow to take advantage of this. That is, this is closer to the interpretation given in S.I. Ozhegov’s dictionary, although the dictionary only cites the saying “to carry water.”
Try comparing these two options. The latter looks flatter, less interesting in literary terms.
Modern semantic shades and historical heritage
There are many other versions of the proverb that are not so common: “water is carried” by “fools”, “stubborn”, “kind”, “gullible”. Unlike the original, there are no negative meanings; there are also positive characters - “kind”, “gullible”.
It is curious that the expression “to carry water” as part of a proverb has turned into an independent phraseological unit, and it acquires various semantic shades. Thus, a hard-working, hardworking, physically strong person is characterized by his ability to “carry water.” And sometimes this phrase sounds ironic: “Yes, you can carry water on it!”
A proverb (or saying), being a stable phrase, is not something unambiguous, given once and for all. It connects us with the historical origins of our culture, but remains alive and somewhat changeable.
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