Thread: плошай

На бога надейся, а сам не плошай

What this verbs means in general.
What it means in this context.

By the way the expression На бога надейся, а сам не плошай is translated in Greek: "Συν Αθηνά και χείρα κίνει", which means: Give a hand to Athena (godess of wisdom) and don't expect everything from her.

Толковый словарь под ред. C. И. Ожегова и Н.Ю.Шведовой

ПЛОШАТЬ, -аю, -аешь; несов. (устарелое и просторечное). Совершать оплошность, промах, ошибку.
Смотри не плошай! = Не теряйся, действуй решительно.
На Бога надейся, а сам не плошай (посл.). II сов. оплошать, -аю, -аешь (разг.). Как же это ты так оплошал?

Cловарь синонимов Н. Абрамова

плошать см. осрамиться
_____________________________



http://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-russian/god-help-those-who-help-themselves

That expression means that you shall rely not only on God’s assistance but also do at least something in order to follow though the divine rule or, otherwise, face the music of not so benign neglect. In other words, in accordance with the proverb you indeed possess a minute quantity of free will, and not everything in life is rigidly determined by Providence. The statement is too presumptuous I’m afraid.))

Ответы@Mail.Ru: На Бога надейся,а сам не плошай.Что означает эта фраза именно для вас?

The word "плошать" is derived from the word "плохо", which means "badly", so it literally means "to do something badly". It can be translated into English as "to make a mistake, fail, blunder".

Antonio1986,

This word is only used with the particle "не"! Frankly, there's оплошать as well, which means drop a clanger / drop a brick.

Не плошай = don't drop a clanger / don't drop a brick.

На бога надейся, а сам не плошай = don't do stupid things that, you know in advance, can hurt you / don't be on thin ice / don't take a risk.

На бога надейся, а сам не плошай is a proverb.

For example:
A: Are you really going to have a go at bungee jumping. Have you seen this raggedy bungee cord??? It could break and you will fall to death.
B: Come off it! Everything's gonna be all right. Меня бог бережёт!
A: На бога надейся, а сам не плошай, they say.

I think the Hebrew word "לפשל" (лефашель, lefashel) comes from it. It means to screw up, to mess up, to make a mistake, etc.

Originally Posted by Valda

I think the Hebrew word "לפשל" (лефашель, lefashel) comes from it. It means to screw up, to mess up, to make a mistake, etc.

I'm not an expert, but that is highly unlikely. I think the origins could probably be Arabic as "fashal" means "failure" in Arabic:

Arabic Today: A Student, Business and Professional Course in Spoken and ... - John Mace - Google Books

I think the reason the origin for "lefashel" could not come from Russian is that in Semitic languages the root is comprised most of the time from three letters. In case of "lefashel" that would be "F-Sh-L" and Russian "плошай" would yield a hypothetical 'root' of "F-L-Sh'" which is different.

I should've said "I wonder if" not "I think"... I forgot we have know-it-alls here

Originally Posted by Valda

I should've said "I wonder if" not "I think"... I forgot we have know-it-alls here

And I should have put rather than .

It means to screw up, to mess up, to make a mistake, etc.

Yes, that's what it means. Exactly!