Thread: Adjectives

Hi!

Would you explain me a difference between these words? How would you arrange them? Which of them are the most beatiful and which ones the least?

Are they all used for things, animals and persons?

шикарный
прикольный
восхитительный
замечательный
отличный
великолепный

Let me introduce some shortcuts:
T- things,
P - pets,
C - children,
W - women,
M - men.

IMHO, from most beautiful to least (typical objects to which every word applies are in parenthesis):

Шикарный (TPW) - was invented for very nice AND very expensive things, I think. This very word (in its adverb form "Шикарно") was chosen for Eric Cartman's "Awesome!" in Russian version of South Park.

Восхитительный (TPCW)

Великолепный (TPM) =Замечательный (TCM)

Отличный (TP)

прикольный (TPCWM) - slang, it's not about to say that something is better than good, it's more like 'how interesting!'

Originally Posted by maxmixiv

Шикарный (TPW) - was invented for very nice AND very expensive things, I think. This very word (in its adverb form "Шикарно") was chosen for Eric Cartman's "Awesome!" in Russian version of South Park.

Восхитительный (TPCW)

Великолепный (TPM) =Замечательный (TCM)

Отличный (TP)

прикольный (TPCWM) - slang, it's not about to say that something is better than good, it's more like 'how interesting!'

A few remarks about etymology:

I confirmed on Викисловарь that шикарный ultimately comes from the French word "chic" (which some English speakers incorrectly pronounce as though it meant цыплёнок).

And the noun прикол can have the abstract meaning of "practical joke" (or more generally "something interesting and entertaining"), but the original concrete meaning was "a vertical post (to which you can tie a boat, or a horse, etc."

Also, the verb root -хит- in восхитительный corresponds pretty closely to Latin rapere, "to seize, carry away." (For instance, похищение = "an abduction, a kidnapping")
So "enrapturing" would be a fairly literal English translation.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

And the noun прикол can have the abstract meaning of "practical joke" (or more generally "something interesting and entertaining"), but the original concrete meaning was "a vertical post (to which you can tie a boat, or a horse, etc."

I'm pretty sure that прикол comes from a word колоть (to pierce/stab)