Thread: Married, single, divorced

I translated this funny pic from Hebrew... I wanna see if I got my translation to Russian correctly

Good one!

In Russian words "single", "married" and "to marry" are gender-specific.

Men: холостяк, женатый, жениться. (from жена=wife)
Women: незамужняя, замужняя, выйти замуж. (from муж=husband)

For women its "незамужняя" instead of "холостячка" and "замужем" instead of "женатая".

Well, the dictionary showed me холостячка

Babylon Rus-Eng
холостячка (f)
n. single woman, bachelorette, unmarried woman

Efremova (Russian Explanatory Dictionary)

холостячка
холостячка
ж. разг.-сниж.
Женщина, которая не состоит в браке; незамужняя женщина


But I guess it's not in common use? Anywho, thank you guys, I'll fix it. Good to know!

Холостячка (разг. сниж)
Сниж means derogatory
Разг means colloquial
Derogatory + colloquial = redneck

Use незамужняя instead.

Yes, "разг.-сниж." The word exists but usually it has some strange flavor... It is not neutral. Well, "bachelorette" also is not so common.

IMHO, незамужная is the unmarried woman who wishes to get married, холостячка is a maverick who can’t care less about marriage; it’s a defiant attitude to what is usually expected from a woman. Another usefull word cтарая дева is a spinster of about forty or older who still (c)overtly hopes to marry sb.

PS What a fashionable fancy bonnet, made out of cock’s plumage, btw!

Originally Posted by diogen_

PS What a fashionable fancy bonnet, made out of cock’s plumage, btw!

Hmmmm... I was going to correct this to "rooster's plumage" -- but in the context, perhaps "cock's plumage" is more appropriate!

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Hmmmm... I was going to correct this to "rooster's plumage" -- but in the context, perhaps "cock's plumage" is more appropriate!

Throbert, thanks for the correction. But I'm bewildered. What's wrong with the "cock's plumage"? I googled the phrase and found the following picture:
Cocks Plumage Royalty-free Image | Getty Images | 148440842
In what aspect the plumages distinct from each other?

Originally Posted by diogen_

Throbert, thanks for the correction. But I'm bewildered. What's wrong with the "cock's plumage"?

In modern English, the word "cock" practically always!!!! means х*й, not петух!!

In fact, I would advise Russians against translating петух as "cock" unless it's in a historic or literary quotation ("Peter, thou shalt deny me three times before the cock crows") or if it occurs in certain proverbial or technical senses ("cock-and-bull story" or "to cock a gun").

BTW, the English word "rooster" (петух) was not commonly used until perhaps the 18th century -- before that, "cock" did not have the obscene slang meaning referring to the penis. But as the slang sense "cock as in х*й " became increasingly popular, people became embarrassed about saying "cock as in петух", and the once-rare word "rooster" became the normal term.

P.S. The etymological development of cock is quite well known -- at least compared with the relatively obscure history of f*ck -- and we can list the senses from oldest to newest:

1. "cock" = петух -- ancient, going back at least to proto-Germanic
2. = кран (для провода) -- 15th century
3. = молоток на старомодном ружье -- 16th century
4. = х*й -- probably by mid-17th century

So, "sense 4" probably developed as a rude joke based on the three older meanings. ("It has a red head, it stands up in the early morning, sometimes water comes out of it, and sometimes it shoots like a cannon...")

But it occurred to me that in this context, "cock's plumage" would work as a joke to describe the fancy hat worn by the разведенная кошка (i.e., making a joke that she had symbolically cut off her husband's wang...)

In other cases, however, "rooster's plumage" avoids any possibility of an unwanted double entendre.

P.S. Perhaps an approximate Russian equivalent might be saying "лазурные мечтания" instead of the more traditional phrase "голубые мечтания"?

Well, well, well, oo's the cock o' the walk now then eh?

Going off half cocked perhaps.

True, Seraph -- it's perfectly okay to use cock in a "traditional fixed phrase".

But I'd consider it to be a "Lake Titicaca" sort of word (i.e., one that inevitably provokes hysterical laughter from 10-year-old boys).

I meant those as fitting into the historical, literary, and fixed expressions. Not a comment about your posts.

Guys do you know there's a nice neutral word "член" in Russian?
I recommend using it instead when you don't want to sound rude as you do when you say "хуй".
Btw can you range the synonyms for pennis by rudeness, please?

Here's the one in Russian (rudeness accending):

Прибор - Somewhat respectful meaning, as of the thing of a good size
Достоинство - same as previous
Аппарат - same as previous
Фаллос - neutral, bookish
Пенис - neutral, a tiny bit bookish
Член - neutral, can be used either formally or in informal speech (short for (мужской) половой член)
Хрен - colloquial
Писька - widespread between kids under 12 y.o., they tend to call it so when speaking with each other. Can as well refer to the vagina. Universal. That's why it's used amongst kids.
Писюн - widespread referring small penices of boys by their parents, since it's masculine, it sounds kinda respectful compared to писька.
Пиписька - same as писька but slightly derogatory as if it is small-sized. Refers to the pennis only. Childish.
Стручок - small-sized, derogatory
Елда - rude, large sized.
Хуй - rude. Used in cussing a lot.

Of course if you say писька, писюн, пиписька referring to the pennis of a man, it will sound derogatory as if it were as small as the one of a boy.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

In modern English, the word "cock" practically always!!!! means х*й, not петух!!

Throbert, thanks a lot! I really wasn’t aware to what extent my original joke was off-color. "Голубая мечта" sounds pretty good in its “standard” meaning more often than not.. Голубая мечта
Beware of a “new” meaning of петух though.
Петух
Ответы@Mail.Ru: вы все знаете что такое на жаргоне петух?

Btw can you range the synonyms for pennis penis by rudeness, please?

Actually, it would be rather difficult to make the list you're asking for -- not because I'm embarrassed about such questions, but because of regional/dialect variations in English. So a term that is "extremely vulgar" in UK English might be "mildly vulgar" in US English, and "child's speech" in Australian English. And even within the US, there may be differences in opinion about "degrees of rudeness" depending on whether you ask (for example) a Polish-American from New York, an Italian-American from Florida, or an African-American from Chicago. This can be especially true when you're asking about terms that fall in the "slightly rude" range -- i.e., somewhere in the vast canyon between "safe to use in church" and "pornographic."

All I can say for certain is that "cock", "dick", and "prick" are undoubtedly the three strongest/rudest variants in all dialects of English, while "penis" is, of course, the acceptable clinical/scientific/neutral term in all dialects.

But which is MORE obscene: "Cock" or "prick"? That depends on what part of the English-speaking world you come from. And is it a mild vulgarism or merely a childish euphemism if you refer to it as a "wiener" (дословно "сосиска")? Again, it depends on your dialect.

Thanks Throbert.
I didn't know the case was so complicated and hard to unravel, because in Russian we have more or less constant tinges of these words which don't vary very much regionally.

Originally Posted by Medved

Thanks Throbert.
I didn't know the case was so complicated and hard to unravel, because in Russian we have more or less constant tinges of these words which don't vary very much regionally.

"tinges" here should be "shades of meaning" or "connotations," probably.

Anyway, there are other examples that come to mind. The name "Pussy Galore" (from the James Bond novel/movie Goldfinger) has exactly the same sexual meaning in both the UK and the US -- but it sounds "более пошлый" to American ears than to British ears. And when the UK-produced film was released in the States (this was back in 1964, remember), some movie theaters refused to show it, at least in conservative Southern cities.

On the other hand, the title of the 1999 Austin Powers movie The Spy Who Shagged Me (which was a US production) was "censored" for television advertisements in the UK, where "shag" sounds more vulgar than in the US. Again, the title MEANS exactly the same thing in both countries (i.e., "The Spy Who Had Sex with Me"), but the slang term shag isn't as "dirty" in America.