home » Haircuts » Bosom friend is the origin of phraseological units. They say, “A bosom friend,” but why is he a bosom friend? And in general, what kind of word is “Bosom Friend”? Bosom friend: the meaning of phraseology

Bosom friend is the origin of phraseological units. They say, “A bosom friend,” but why is he a bosom friend? And in general, what kind of word is “Bosom Friend”? Bosom friend: the meaning of phraseology

This expression, unlike many phraseological units, has a rather direct meaning (compare with the expressions: “eat a dog”, “tongue on the shoulder”, “headlong”).

From the Tatar word kadyk (solid, protruding) came the well-known word “Adam’s apple”, from which, in turn, came the expression “to lay behind the Adam’s apple” or “to pour over the Adam’s apple” - that is, to drink and drink. And the word “bosom” began to mean that friend with whom these drinks take place, with whom one spends time and has intimate conversations relevant to the activity. Traditionally, it is customary to organize drinking parties with people of similar character and mind, with long-time friends and good friends. So this expression came to mean a drinking comrade, otherwise a drinking companion.

But the Russian language would not be Russian if dynamic semantic transformations did not occur with established expressions. Perhaps this phrase originally had an ironic or mocking meaning, but there is not a Russian-speaking person who would not put into the expression “bosom friend” something completely different in relation to a friend - warm, friendly, real and reliable.

It is enough to refer to the dictionary of synonyms and this will become obvious.

Here are just some synonymous designations of this phraseological unit:

intimate,
old/old,
sincere,
close/nearest,
cordial,
sincere,
best friend,
inseparable,
loyal,

The fluidity of word meanings and changes in semantic load, characteristic of the Russian language, have led to the fact that now it is absolutely no shame to call just good or even best friends “bosom friends,” and these can be not only people, but also animals.

Simple sometimes Iron. or Shutl. Close, sincere friend, buddy. BMS 1998, 169 ... Big dictionary Russian sayings

- (buddy, girlfriend), well-wisher, buddy, benefactor, confidante, brother-in-arms, brother, comrade. A close friend, sincere, bosom, intimate, sincere, unchanging, old. Friends, buddies. Friends before the first fight. We are friends, I am with him... ... Synonym dictionary

Dictionary Ushakova

1. FRIEND1, friend, plural. friends (friends obsolete), friends, husband. 1. A close friend, a person connected with someone through friendship (also applies to women). Intimate friend. Bosom friend. Heart friend. Sincere friend. “The happy one has enemies... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

- [sh], bosom, bosom. Only in the expression: bosom friend or friend (colloquial fam.) close, sincere. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 … Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

bosom- bosom friend bosom buddy... Dictionary of Russian Idioms

Books

Falling in love with your best friend (audiobook MP3), Galina Kulikova. “Love between childhood friends is like an exhausted horse laden with old memories...” says Victor. His longtime friend Tatyana, and now almost his wife, is sure of the opposite: “Than... audiobook
Moby Dick, or the White Whale (abbreviated), Herman Melville. In 1851, when the American writer, sailor and traveler Herman Melville first published his novel, his contemporaries did not understand or appreciate it. Only in the 20s of the twentieth century did historians...

“Don’t have 100 rubles, but have 100 friends,” says folk wisdom. And indeed, friends are our real wealth. Surely you also have a friend with whom you can go through thick and thin, who is ready to share joys and sorrows with you, with whom you just want to be close. These are the ones they say “bosom friend”. And no matter how long you have known each other - whether you grew up in the same yard or met at your last job, true friendship, although tested by time, is still measured by sincerity.

The word “bosomboy,” although ancient, is still widely used today, and it refers to both a friend and a girlfriend. It can often be heard as Everyday life, and from TV screens, in songs and in films. Vladimir Vysotsky wrote a poem about Vitka Korablev’s bosom friend, Indian director Vinod Mehra made a film of the same name, Vladimir Savich dedicated a story to such friends.

Faithful, devoted bosom friends are worth their weight in gold. But can every comrade be called that? And are there really bosom friends, because, as you know, many people question their very existence?

To answer these questions, it is necessary to decide on the terminology, or more precisely, the etymology of the phraseological unit “bosom friend”.

What secrets does the explanatory dictionary reveal?

The word “bosom” is medieval and carries a deep meaning. In the old days, it was believed that the human soul was located in the depression in the neck (just above the collarbone, right under the Adam’s apple). It is not for nothing that the word “bosom” meant “to kill by strangulation,” or “to take by the soul.” And bosoms were comrades who were close in spirit and who, hand in hand, were ready to walk together to the grave. It was about them that they said “one soul for two.”

What about bosom friends? An interesting observation is that the Adam’s apple in women is not as pronounced as in men, which means that the cavity under the Adam’s apple appears smaller. Maybe this is why the judgment about the superficiality of female friendship arose? It is worth noting that this is nothing more than a guess. But who knows, maybe tomorrow linguists will be able to substantiate or refute this point of view.

However, there is an alternative authoritative opinion about the origin of the famous phraseological unit. There is a version that the word “bosom” comes from the Old Russian “kochedyk” (in common parlance “Adam’s apple”). This was the name of a special awl for weaving bast shoes. Therefore, a bosom friend is a comrade who walked “in the same bast shoes.” They were also said to be “connected by one thread.”

A fly in the ointment of bosom friendship...

It happens that the phrase “bosom friend” has a negative connotation. Some people call those who like to drink together that way. And for good reason. It turns out that in the Tatar language the word “Adam’s apple” was used to refer to the process of drinking alcoholic beverages. It is quite possible that it was the Tatars, who passed through Russian lands in the 12th-14th centuries, who introduced this phraseological unit into our speech, which became synonymous with the domestic “drinking buddy”.

But it is worth noting that no matter in what sense this phrase is used, no matter what connotation it has, in any case we are talking about mutual friendship.

Take care and appreciate your friends and girlfriends, reliable, loyal, proven over the years, respect their opinions and do not refuse them help if you can afford it. The emotional support that you are ready to provide to each other is of considerable importance. It’s not without reason that people say: life is hard without a friend.

It's nice when you get a chance to destroy this or that myth. There is a popular belief that a bosom friend is someone with whom you can have a good drink and talk about life. Is it so? Let's find out.

A scattering of options

Perhaps this is a rare case when the origin of an expression gives rise to so many different versions. Let's list them to make it easier for the reader to understand:

Drinking buddy. This is the most popular version, and most people are still sure that this is the case. What is there to hide, our people love to drink, and the one with whom it is best to do this is worth its weight in gold.
Lapti. The Adam's apple was also the name for the tool used to make bast shoes. In other words, two people have one Adam's apple: they are from the same family.
In Rus', great importance was attached to the Adam's apple because, according to beliefs, it protected the throat. And the throat, speaking modern language, multifunctional: they speak, eat, drink. Therefore, a bosom friend is someone with whom you can share all this, that is, eat, drink and talk. And again, this version refers us to the theme of the feast.

But thanks to the dictionary, there is another possibility.

Most likely version

Whatever one may say, I would not like to believe that everything is closed and locked on the topic of vodka. Here you need to analyze the vernacular, where “kady” is equal to “when”. Thus, an “old friend” comes out. This is precisely the meaning of the phrase “bosom friend.” True, the most common version of the origin of the expression is still the one that is more alive among the people. In other words, only that friend with whom he has drunk many buckets of alcohol can be considered a bosom. Of course, we don’t want to believe in the truth of such an interpretation, but suddenly it was so. In any case, since we're talking about about ancient times, it is up to the reader to decide which side to join.

There are so few true friends

Be that as it may, no matter on what basis such a person appears, bosom friends are trusted unquestionably and unconditionally. And this is another argument, albeit not a rational one, in favor of the “sober” origin of the expression. Drinking buddy, when people have already left a certain state consciousness, it is unlikely that anything can be trusted. Especially if you practice in this matter often.

Friends who went through fire, water and copper pipes, in life you will gain very little. Maybe no more than three, and that's at best. Usually there are one or two of these.

After we have revealed all possible options for the origin of a phraseological unit, it’s time to answer main question: “What does bosom friend mean?” It's spiritual close person. My friendship with him goes back years or decades. But mental kinship here is the primary distinguishing feature.

Contents of the article:

The Russian language contains at least 10% borrowed words and expressions. This is a normal phenomenon for a country that since ancient times has been open to contacts with its neighbors, expanding its borders, annexing territories and itself being subject to attacks from outside. The phrase “bosom friend” appeared in the speech of the Russian people during the era of the Tatar-Mongol conquests and is of Turkic origin. The meaning has changed over time.

Steppe roots of the word "Adam's apple"

The word "kadyk" comes from Tatar language, which belongs to the Turkic group. This group also includes:

Turkish;
Uzbek;
Kazakh;
Kyrgyz;
Turkmensky and others.

In the XIV-XVI centuries the word came to Rus'. The original meaning of “hard, strong, protruding”, which was used to describe objects, was lost in the process of transfer. The Adam's apple began to be called the protruding part of the throat in men.

At the same time, the expression “ pour over Adam's apple", which meant " drink, get drunk" And my bosom friend and I had a good and fun time in the tavern. It is worth noting that only men have an Adam’s apple, so the expression was not used in relation to women.

Soul between collarbones

There is a more mystical version of the origin of the phraseological unit “bosom friend”. In Rus' they believed that the human soul lives in the hollow between the clavicle bones and is protected by the Adam's apple. Therefore, the expressions arose “to take by the soul”, “to strangle” - to grab by the neck under the throat.

A bosom friend was a person with whom they felt safe and close in spirit.

Folk etymology

The ideas described above are based on research by linguists and ethnographers. In addition to them, people have come up with two more versions, which are based on the consonance of words:

In ancient times, Adam's apple was abbreviated as kochedyk - an awl for weaving bast shoes. Bosom friends are those whose bast shoes are made using one Adam's apple, kindred spirits.
In speech, the word “when” is often shortened to “kada”. Accordingly, a friend whom you no longer remember when you met, an old one - a bosom.

In the dictionary V.I. Dahl also contains the verb “ make friends", which means "to cut one's throat, to commit suicide."

Bosom friend: the meaning of phraseology

Based on the examples of use and interpretations listed above, we will compose list of meanings of the phrase “bosom friend”:

Drinking buddy, drinking buddy;
A close person with whom we went through fire, water and copper pipes;
A kindred spirit, an understanding, a warm friend, a like-minded person;
Someone you've known for a hundred years.

The expression has existed for more than three hundred years and is still used in our speech.

Synonyms and usage

Despite ancient history and a long period of use, the expression “bosom friend” refers to colloquial, familiar language that is not often found in literary works.

Along with it, similar phrases are used in speech:

Heartfelt, intimate;
Friends do not spill water;
Soul mate;
Companion, associate;
It’s like the devil tied him up with a string;
Sidekick, kent, brother.

Russian language is rich catchphrases, apt phrases that decorate our speech. Bosom Friend refers to just such phrases. Using the example of the history of this phraseological unit, we see how meanings change, intertwine and create a context in which people continue to use words three hundred years later.

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