Phraseological combinations reflect the life or concepts of a certain social environment in a certain era no less vividly than individual words. Some of them then adapt to the new ideology that replaces the old views and change their meanings;
others are handed over to the archives as unnecessary during the general reform of everyday life or a sharp change in culture. In modern Russian the expression muslin young lady little used. To many it seems archaic. However cf. in the article by M. Butkevich “In a girls’ school” (“Izvestia of the Soviet Department of Labor of the USSR” dated January 8, 1944, No. 7 (8309): “We do not at all strive to make our Soviet girls muslin young ladies
. The task of girls’ schools is to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroism in the name of the motherland.” Expression muslin young lady Now it’s not clear to everyone. It seems to have come from pre-revolutionary life. It is curious that in Ushakov’s dictionary (1, p. 1359) this expression is not interpreted quite correctly, at least not accurately. Here we read: “ Muslin young lady or
young woman
(ironically outdated) - a cutesy girl with a limited outlook who received a patriarchal upbringing.” This expression is more correctly defined in the “Dictionary of the Russian Language” by S. I. Ozhegov (1949): “a cutesy girl with a bourgeois outlook” (p. 275). Meanwhile, in the 60s, in which this expression was formed and for which it was typical, a completely different meaning was put into it. S. V. Panteleeva recalls the following scene from her life: “... the guest came up and, calmly wiping his glasses, looking carefully with narrowed, myopic eyes, said: “If you had pulled yourself together even a little, you would not have decided to what you will later call an action The task of girls’ schools is to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroism in the name of the motherland.” muslin “. In the 60s" or
lady In modern Russian the expression, “were terms of contempt for advanced female youth, implying superficial, secular and undeveloped women” (Panteleev, p. 647). There is no doubt that nicknames muslin ladycame from a democratic environment and developed on the basis of popular usage. V.I. Dal in his “Explanatory Dictionary” does not cite these expressions, but points out: “
kitty and. among the people, a dandy who walks in muslin” (1881, 2, p. 111).
Almost for the first time in literature, the expression muslin girl appeared in N. G. Pomyalovsky’s story “Pittish Happiness” (1861). It was applied by the emancipated landowner Lizaveta Arkadyevna Obrosimova to the provincial noble girl Lenochka: “ Muslin girl!... it’s a pity to look at such girls - amazing, pathetic emptiness!... They read Marlinsky, - perhaps they read Pushkin too; they sing: “I loved all the flowers more than the rose” and “The blue dove is moaning”; They always dream, they always play... Nothing will leave deep marks on them, because they are incapable of strong feelings. They are beautiful, but not very beautiful; one cannot say that they are stupid... certainly with a birthmark on the shoulder or on the neck... light, lively girls, they love to be sentimental, deliberately burr, laugh and eat goodies... And how many of these poor people we have, muslin creatures! (Pomyalovsky, 1912, 1, pp. 104-105). Compare: “I tried to develop it... At least to understand whether it could develop. There are natures that are untouched, but what about these? Muslin girl, darling girl! (ibid., p. 106);
“It’s a pity, he felt unbearably sorry for this poor girl... stupid, muslin girl... (...) it is destined that what will come out of her is not a human woman, but a woman woman” (ibid., p. 199).
D.I. Pisarev in the article “The Novel of a Muslin Girl” wrote: “To the type of good-natured muslin girl All women who are not distinguished by a strong and brilliant mind, who have not received a decent education and at the same time who are not spoiled and not confused by the noise and bustle of the so-called secular life, are suitable. These women have developed only one ability, which nature itself takes care of, namely the ability to love. The whole fate of such a woman is decided unconditionally by those whom she loves” (chapter 9). A very colorful discussion about muslin young ladies in N.V. Shelgunov’s article “Women’s Idleness” (1865): “I assume, first of all, that you muslin young lady - You don’t claim me for this name, because it doesn’t belong to me. - As muslin young lady , you chase moths, pick flowers, weave wreaths out of them, make bouquets of fragrant wildflowers and inhale their aroma for a long, long time, as if your soul needs something and this something is sitting in your bouquet, which you and you squeeze it, and press it to your heart, and smell it until you forget yourself” (Shelgunov, 2, p. 203); "But suppose you don't, and the city young lady (...) you are the same way... wasting your energy on various useless things, producing nothing but losses” (ibid., p. 204); “For clarity of example, I assume a country where there are only two people: doing nothing In modern Russian the expression and one working person. I assume at the same time that the working person does not want The task of girls’ schools is to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroism in the name of the motherland.” was dying of hunger. What economic relations will be established between them? muslin young lady, getting up late in the morning - why shouldn’t she sleep for a long time when there is no need to get up early? - she will order the working person to bring water in a jug and wash herself only because it is generally not customary for men to give girls wash. After this, the young lady orders tea with cream and various delicious rolls and cookies to restore the strength lost by sleep, and goes to the meadow to run and pick flowers (...)” (ibid., p. 207); “It would be more profitable for the working person economically if muslin young lady did not exist at all; everything he did would then go exclusively to satisfying his needs (...) With muslin same consumer the working man was exactly like the worker who prepared a gun charge for your miss. All the cream that he skimmed, left himself with liquid milk, all the dresses that he sewed, flaunting himself in the blades, all the rolls and gastronomic subtleties that he concocted, supplementing himself with rye flatbreads, went to give muslin young lady strength only to crush the grass and pick flowers” (ibid., pp. 208-209).
. muslin young lady with 60s XIX century firmly entered into the language of Russian fiction and journalism, as well as into the colloquial speech of the intelligentsia. From N. S. Leskov in “The Islanders” (chapter 8): “Or maybe we have no one to love? Full-breasted models, or what? or six-pound bills of sale?! or muslin young ladies?. From P. D. Boborykin in “Disintegration”: “I can read everything, understand everything and do not intend to feign naivety. This was before muslin young ladies"(Boborykin 1897, 4, p. 7). At Vsev. Krestovsky in the novel “Panurgovo Herd” (Part 1, Chapter 22): “Here it is, nature, and it showed! You are rubbish, mother, as I see!.. Muslin rubbish! The same Vsev. Krestovsky in the novel “Egyptian Darkness” (chapter 17): “...Our former teacher of physics and mathematics, Okhrimenko... says that... we were taught the same rubbish, which we should quickly forget and start learning again (.. .) It's sour You should keep this aside if you want decent people to respect you.”
From D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak in the novel “Mountain Nest” (1884): “...Annenka is so stupid that it costs nothing to deceive her. After all, she was watching you here all the time, and you had no idea? - This was still missing! Nothing is more boring than these muslin young ladies who don’t understand anything... After all, she herself sees that she’s tired, but there’s no point in leaving” (chapter 28). In Mamin-Sibiryak’s story “The Muslin Young Lady” (1889): “Zinochka’s frivolity was known to everyone, and Brzhozovsky called her to his face muslin young lady "(chapter 1). In D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak’s story “Not That...” (1891): “What am I thinking about, Efim Ivanovich? But about this: why am I not a real young lady - so white, so naive, so helpless, so meek. After all, this has its own poetry, that is V muslin young lady such The task of girls’ schools is to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroism in the name of the motherland.” who doesn't even know how water boils. If I were a man, I would fall in love with just such a young lady, so that she would be all mine, look with my eyes, hear with my ears, think with my thoughts” (chapter 6). From A.I. Kuprin in “Moloch”: “I am too weak and, I must tell the truth, too
for struggle and for independence...” (chapter 6). little used. To many it seems archaic. However cf. in the article by M. Butkevich “In a girls’ school” (“Izvestia of the Soviet Department of Labor of the USSR” dated January 8, 1944, No. 7 (8309): “We do not at all strive to make our Soviet girls In the memoirs of S.I. Lavrentieva “Experienced” we read about the 60s: “Together with the youth - men, our women, who before in the old days there were hawthorns in the towers, sat behind mothers and nannies, and hay girls, were also excited hoops, and later sat with white hands, (as Pomyalovsky nicknamed them) behind a horde of serf servants...” (Lavrentieva, p. 39). “...My sister and I were not doing nothing muslin young ladies
who don’t know how to kill time” (ibid., p. 41). The task of girls’ schools is to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroism in the name of the motherland.” So the expression The task of girls’ schools is to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroism in the name of the motherland.”, put into wide literary circulation by N. G. Pomyalovsky in the 60s, became entrenched in intellectual speech and in journalistic style as a caustic and ironic characterization of the female type, nurtured by the old noble culture. But gradually, with changes in social life, the expressive colors in this expression fade, and already at the beginning of the current century it is relegated to the archives of Russian literary speech, although it sometimes appears in the wide arena of the general literary language. However, by the end of the 19th century. the need and opportunity for the growth of such individual branches from the image dries up as expressive expressions:, sourness muslin rubbish
etc. Published along with notes on words trend And, fad,
malice, innovation trend steamship, negligent, as part of the article “From the history of modern Russian literary vocabulary” (Izvestia OLYA AN SSSR, 1950, vol. 9, issue 5). These notes in the article are preceded by a general introduction (see commentary to the note “ Winnowing And And"). The archive contains a manuscript on 9 sheets. Here it is printed according to the text of the publication, verified and clarified from the manuscript. About the expression In modern Russian the expression see also in the article “Case. Man in a Case." - IN. L.
The expression “muslin young lady” in our time refers to a sentimental, shy, dreamy, easily vulnerable girl. In Rus', this name denoted a patriarchally educated, narrow-minded and overly cutesy person.
This phraseological unit originated in the 19th century. Then a muslin young lady was called a “dark”, uneducated, secular, superficial lady who was very far from all these newfangled “things” for the 19th century, in the form of the struggle for women's equality, emancipation and independence from men.
If we open V. Dahl’s explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, then it mentions muslins, who are popularly called dandies who walk in muslin.
What is muslin?
Kisey is a special lightweight cotton fabric. It can be classified as what fashionistas call “gauze fabrics”. This material is woven in such a way that the cotton threads do not fit tightly to each other, but leave a small gap between them. As a result of such weaving, the material turns out to be surprisingly light and airy. Few people know that in almost any of our homes there is a certain amount of muslin, gauze fabric - this is ordinary gauze.
The very first mention of the expression “muslin young lady” can be found in the work “Bourgeois Happiness” (1861) by N. G. Polyakovsky
“A muslin woman!... it just breaks my heart to look at these coquettes, what a pitiful, amazing emptiness!... They read Pushkin, perhaps they read Marlinsky, and they sing: “The blue dove is moaning” and “Among all the flowers, I loved the rose the most.” They constantly dream about something, play with something... there is hardly anything in the world that would leave a deep mark on them, since they are not born for strong passions... It’s hard to even imagine how many of these muslins we have. , poor young ladies!"Use of the phraseological unit "muslin young lady" in literature
"... Anya is such a fool, because it’s very easy to deceive her. She was waiting for you here all this time, and you didn’t even imagine? - But not this! There is nothing worse than such muslin ladies who don’t understand anything and don’t know anything understand... After all, she understands that she has become unnecessary, but there is not enough understanding to leave."
("Mountain Nest" by Mamin-Sibiryak)
“You know, I can read everything, everything is clear to me and I won’t pretend to be a naive fool. These used to be muslin young ladies.”
("Disintegration" Boborykin)
“Have you ever thought that maybe we simply have no one to love? Busty models, or what? Or fat merchants? Or maybe muslin young ladies?”
("Islanders" Leskov)
"...like a muslin young lady, you run after butterflies, pick your own flowers and weave wreaths from them, collect small bouquets of beautiful wildflowers and smell their scent for a long time, as if you need something hidden in this fragrant bouquet that You either press it to your heart, or squeeze it, and inhale their aroma until you forget yourself."
("Women's Idleness" Shchelgunov)
“Perhaps the image of a charming and timid muslin girl will suit any woman who is not distinguished by a sharp and strong mind, who has not received a decent education, and at the same time who is not confused by the bustle, noise and flair of the so-called social life.”
("The Romance of the Muslin Girl" by Pisarev)
Monkeys like muslin young ladies humor
For the first time, the phraseological unit “muslin girl” appeared in literature in Nikolai Pomyalovsky’s story “Pittish Happiness” (), where it is pronounced by the emancipated landowner Lizaveta Arkadyevna in relation to the provincial noble girl Lenochka: “ After all, it’s a pity to look at such girls - amazing underdevelopment and emptiness!.. They read Marlinsky, - perhaps they also read Pushkin; they sing: “I have loved all the flowers more than a rose” and “The blue dove is moaning”; They always dream, they always play... Nothing will leave deep marks on them, because they are incapable of strong feelings. They are beautiful, but not very beautiful; it cannot be said that they are very stupid... certainly with a birthmark on the shoulder or on the neck... light, lively girls, they love to be sentimental, deliberately burr, laugh and eat goodies... And how many of these poor muslin creatures we have!...»
Apparently, the decisive role in the popularization of this phrase belongs to the critic Dmitry Pisarev, who wrote in response to Pomyalovsky’s story the article “The Novel of a Muslin Girl,” first published in 1865 in the magazine “Russian Word”.
Thanks to these publications, the “muslin young lady” became firmly established in the language of Russian fiction and journalism already in the 1860s. In the memoirs of S.I. Lavrentyeva “Experienced” we read about the 1860s: “Together with the youth - men, our women, who before in the old days there were hawthorns in the towers, sat behind mothers and nannies, and hay girls, were also excited hoops, and later sat with white-handed, muslin young ladies (as Pomyalovsky nicknamed them) behind a horde of serf servants...<…>... My sister and I were not muslin young ladies doing nothing, not knowing how to kill time.”
“The Muslin Young Lady” is mentioned in their works: Nikolai Leskov - in “The Islanders” (1866), Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak - in the novel “Mountain Nest” () and the stories “The Muslin Young Lady” () and “Not that ...”, Sofya Kovalevskaya in the story “Nihilist” (1884).
V.I. Dal in his “Explanatory Dictionary” does not give the expression muslin young lady, but points out: “ muslin f. popularly, a dandy who wears muslin"(1881, 2, p. 111).
The expression was not forgotten during Soviet times. Thus, in the “Dictionary of the Russian Language” by S. I. Ozhegov (1949), the expression is interpreted as “a cutesy girl with a bourgeois outlook.” However, a person unfamiliar with the etymology of the expression could perceive such an expression as “jelly young lady.” This mistake is played up by the writer Eduard Uspensky in the children's book “Uncle Fyodor, the Dog and the Cat” (1976).
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Notes
An excerpt characterizing the Kiseynaya young lady
Boris quietly walked out the door and followed Natasha, the fat boy angrily ran after them, as if annoyed at the frustration that had occurred in his studies. Of the young people, not counting the countess's eldest daughter (who was four years older than her sister and already behaved like a grown-up) and the young lady's guest, Nikolai and Sonya's niece remained in the living room. Sonya was a thin, petite brunette with a soft gaze, shaded by long eyelashes, a thick black braid that wrapped around her head twice, and a yellowish tint to the skin on her face and especially on her bare, thin, but graceful, muscular arms and neck. With the smoothness of her movements, the softness and flexibility of her small limbs, and her somewhat cunning and reserved manner, she resembled a beautiful, but not yet fully formed kitten, which would become a lovely little cat. She apparently considered it decent to show participation in the general conversation with a smile; but against her will, from under her long thick eyelashes, she looked at her cousin [cousin] who was leaving for the army with such girlish passionate adoration that her smile could not deceive anyone for a moment, and it was clear that the cat sat down only to jump more energetically and play with your sauce as soon as they, like Boris and Natasha, get out of this living room.
“Yes, ma chere,” said the old count, turning to his guest and pointing to his Nicholas. - His friend Boris was promoted to officer, and out of friendship he does not want to lag behind him; he leaves both the university and me as an old man: he goes into military service, ma chere. And his place in the archive was ready, and that was it. Is that friendship? - said the count questioningly.
“But they say war has been declared,” said the guest.
“They’ve been saying this for a long time,” said the count. “They’ll talk and talk again and leave it at that.” Ma chere, that’s friendship! - he repeated. - He is going to the hussars.
The guest, not knowing what to say, shook her head.
“Not out of friendship at all,” answered Nikolai, flushing and making excuses as if from a shameful slander against him. – Not friendship at all, but I just feel a calling to military service.
He looked back at his cousin and the guest young lady: both looked at him with a smile of approval.
“Today, Schubert, colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, is dining with us. He was on vacation here and takes it with him. What to do? - said the count, shrugging his shoulders and speaking jokingly about the matter, which apparently cost him a lot of grief.
“I already told you, daddy,” said the son, “that if you don’t want to let me go, I’ll stay.” But I know that I am not fit for anything except military service; “I’m not a diplomat, not an official, I don’t know how to hide what I feel,” he said, still looking with the coquetry of beautiful youth at Sonya and the guest young lady.
The cat, glaring at him with her eyes, seemed every second ready to play and show all her cat nature.
- Well, well, okay! - said the old count, - everything is getting hot. Bonaparte turned everyone's heads; everyone thinks how he got from lieutenant to emperor. Well, God willing,” he added, not noticing the guest’s mocking smile.
The big ones started talking about Bonaparte. Julie, Karagina’s daughter, turned to young Rostov:
– What a pity that you weren’t at the Arkharovs’ on Thursday. “I was bored without you,” she said, smiling tenderly at him.
The flattered young man with a flirtatious smile of youth moved closer to her and entered into a separate conversation with the smiling Julie, not noticing at all that this involuntary smile of his was cutting the heart of the blushing and feignedly smiling Sonya with a knife of jealousy. “In the middle of the conversation, he looked back at her. Sonya looked at him passionately and embitteredly and, barely holding back the tears in her eyes and a feigned smile on her lips, she stood up and left the room. All Nikolai's animation disappeared. He waited for the first break in the conversation and with an upset face left the room to look for Sonya.
– How the secrets of all these young people are sewn with white thread! - said Anna Mikhailovna, pointing to Nikolai coming out. “Cousinage dangereux voisinage,” she added.
“Yes,” said the countess, after the ray of sunshine that had penetrated into the living room with this young generation had disappeared, and as if answering a question that no one had asked her, but which constantly occupied her. - How much suffering, how much anxiety has been endured in order to now rejoice in them! And now, really, there is more fear than joy. You're still afraid, you're still afraid! This is precisely the age at which there are so many dangers for both girls and boys.
“Everything depends on upbringing,” said the guest.
“Yes, your truth,” continued the Countess. “Until now, thank God, I have been a friend of my children and enjoy their complete trust,” said the countess, repeating the misconception of many parents who believe that their children have no secrets from them. “I know that I will always be the first confidente [confidant] of my daughters, and that Nikolenka, due to her ardent character, if she plays naughty (a boy cannot live without this), then everything is not like these St. Petersburg gentlemen.
“Yes, nice, nice guys,” confirmed the count, who always resolved issues that confused him by finding everything nice. - Come on, I want to become a hussar! Yes, that's what you want, ma chere!
“What a sweet creature your little one is,” said the guest. - Gunpowder!
“Yes, gunpowder,” said the count. - She hit me! And what a voice: even though it’s my daughter, I’ll tell the truth, she will be a singer, Salomoni is different. We hired an Italian to teach her.
- Is not it too early? They say it is harmful for your voice to study at this time.
- Oh, no, it’s so early! - said the count. - How did our mothers get married at twelve-thirteen?
- She’s already in love with Boris! What? - said the countess, smiling quietly, looking at Boris’s mother, and, apparently answering the thought that had always occupied her, she continued. - Well, you see, if I had kept her strictly, I would have forbidden her... God knows what they would have done on the sly (the countess meant: they would have kissed), and now I know every word she says. She will come running in the evening and tell me everything. Maybe I'm spoiling her; but, really, this seems to be better. I kept the eldest strictly.
What is a "muslin young lady"? How to spell this word correctly. Concept and interpretation.
MUSIN YOUNG LADY MUSIN YOUNG LADY Phraseological combinations reflect the life or concepts of a certain social environment in a certain era no less vividly than individual words. Some of them then adapt to the new ideology that replaces the old views and change their meanings; others are handed over to the archives as unnecessary during the general reform of everyday life or a sharp change in culture. In modern Russian, the expression muslin young lady is rarely used. To many it seems archaic. However cf. in the article by M. Butkevich “In a girls’ school” (“Izvestia of the Soviet Department of Labor of the USSR” dated January 8, 1944, No. 7 (8309): “We do not at all strive to make our Soviet girls muslin young ladies. The task of girls’ schools - to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroic deeds in the name of the motherland.” The expression muslin young lady is now not understood by everyone. It seems to have come from pre-revolutionary life. It is curious that in Ushakov’s dictionary (1, p. 1359) this expression is not interpreted. quite correctly, in any case, inaccurately. Here we read: “A muslin young lady or girl (ironically obsolete) is a cutesy girl with a limited outlook who received a patriarchal upbringing. This expression is more correctly defined in S.I.’s Dictionary of the Russian Language.” . Ozhegova (1949): “a cutesy girl with a bourgeois outlook” (p. 275), in which this expression was formed and for which it was typical, S.V. put a completely different meaning into it. Panteleeva recalls the following scene from her life: “... the guest came up and, calmly wiping his glasses, looking carefully with narrowed, myopic eyes, said: “If you had pulled yourself together even a little, you would not have decided to do this.” you will later call it an act of muslin.” In the 60s, “muslin young lady or mistress” were terms of contempt for advanced female youth, implying superficial, secular and undeveloped women” (Panteleev, p. 647). There is no doubt that the nicknames muslin young lady, muslin lady came from a democratic environment and developed on the basis of popular usage. V.I. Dal in his “Explanatory Dictionary” does not cite these expressions, but points out: “Kise?ynitsa w. among the people, a dandy who walks in muslin” (1881, 2, p. 111). Almost for the first time in literature, the expression muslin girl appeared in N. G. Pomyalovsky’s story “Pittish Happiness” (1861). It was applied by the emancipated landowner Lizaveta Arkadyevna Obrosimova to the provincial noble girl Lenochka: “A muslin girl!... it’s a pity to look at such girls - amazing, pathetic emptiness! ... They read Marlinsky, and perhaps they also read Pushkin; they sing: “I loved all the flowers more than the rose” and “The blue dove is moaning”; They always dream, they always play... Nothing will leave deep marks on them, because they are incapable of strong feelings. They are beautiful, but not very beautiful; it cannot be said that they are stupid... certainly with a birthmark on the shoulder or on the neck... light, lively girls, they love to be sentimental, deliberately burr, laugh and eat goodies... And how many of these poor, muslin creatures we have! » (Pomyalovsky, 1912, 1, pp. 104-105). Compare: “I tried to develop it... At least to understand whether it could develop. There are natures that are untouched, but what about these? A muslin girl, a darling girl!” (ibid., p. 106); “It’s a pity, he felt unbearably sorry for this poor girl... the stupid, muslin girl... (...) it was destined that she would not become a human woman, but a woman-woman” (ibid., p. 199 ). D.I. Pisarev in the article “The Novel of a Muslin Girl” wrote: “All women who are not distinguished by a strong and brilliant mind, who have not received a decent education and at the same time are not spoiled and not confused by noise and bustle, fit the type of a good-natured muslin girl. so-called social life. These women have developed only one ability, which nature itself takes care of, namely the ability to love. The whole fate of such a woman is decided unconditionally by those whom she loves” (chapter 9). The discussion about muslin young ladies in N.V. Shelgunov’s article “Women’s Idleness” (1865) is very colorful: “I assume, first of all, that you are a muslin young lady - you do not claim me for this name, because it does not belong to me. - As a muslin young lady, you chase moths, pick flowers, weave wreaths out of them, make bouquets of fragrant wildflowers and inhale their aroma for a long, long time, as if your soul needs something and this something is sitting in your a bouquet that you squeeze, and press to your heart, and smell until self-forgetfulness” (Shelgunov, 2, p. 203); “But suppose that you are not a muslin rural young lady, but a city young lady (...) you are in the same way... wasting your energy on various useless things, producing nothing but a loss” (ibid., p. 204); “To make the example clear, I assume a country where there are only two people: a muslin young lady doing nothing and one working person. At the same time, I assume that a working person does not want the muslin young lady to die of hunger. What economic relations will be established between them? A muslin young lady gets up late in the morning - why shouldn’t she sleep for a long time when there is no need to get up early? - she will order the working person to bring water in a jug and wash herself only because it is generally not customary for men to give girls wash. After this, the young lady orders tea with cream and various delicious rolls and cookies to restore the strength lost by sleep, and goes to the meadow to run and pick flowers (...)” (ibid., p. 207); “It would be more economically profitable for a working person if the muslin young lady did not exist at all; everything he did would then go exclusively to satisfying his needs (...) Under the muslin consumerism, the working person was completely similar to the worker who prepared a gun charge for your miss. All the cream that he skimmed, left himself with liquid milk, all the dresses that he sewed, flaunting himself in the blades, all the rolls and gastronomic subtleties that he concocted, supplementing himself with rye cakes, went to give the muslin young lady the strength only crush the grass and pick flowers” (ibid., pp. 208-209). The expression muslin young lady from the 60s. XIX century firmly entered into the language of Russian fiction and journalism, as well as into the colloquial speech of the intelligentsia. From N. S. Leskov in “The Islanders” (chapter 8): “Or maybe we have no one to love? Full-breasted models, or what? or six-pound bills of sale?! or muslin young ladies? From P. D. Boborykin in “Disintegration”: “I can read everything, understand everything and do not intend to feign naivety. These were previously muslin young ladies” (Boborykin 1897, 4, p. 7). At Vsev. Krestovsky in the novel “Panurgovo Herd” (Part 1, Chapter 22): “Here it is, nature, and it showed! You’re rubbish, mother, as I can see!.. Muslin rubbish!” The same Vsev. Krestovsky in the novel “Egyptian Darkness” (chapter 17): “...Our former teacher of physics and mathematics, Okhrimenko... says that... we were taught the same rubbish, which we should quickly forget and start learning again (.. .) You should put this musiness aside if you want decent people to respect you.” From D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak in the novel “Mountain Nest” (1884): “...Annenka is so stupid that it costs nothing to deceive her. After all, she was watching you here all the time, and you had no idea? - This was still missing! There is nothing more boring than these muslin young ladies who don’t understand anything... After all, she herself sees that she’s tired, but there’s no point in leaving” (chapter 28). In Mamin-Sibiryak’s story “The Muslin Young Lady” (1889): “Zinochka’s frivolity was known to everyone, and Brzhozovsky called her a muslin young lady to his face” (chap. 1). In D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak’s story “Not That...” (1891): “What am I thinking about, Efim Ivanovich? But about this: why am I not a real young lady - so white, so naive, so helpless, so meek. After all, there is poetry in this, that is, in such a muslin young lady who doesn’t even know how water boils. If I were a man, I would fall in love with just such a young lady, so that she would be all mine, look with my eyes, hear with my ears, think with my thoughts” (chapter 6). From A.I. Kuprin in “Moloch”: “I am too weak and, to tell the truth, too muslin a young lady to fight and to be independent...” (chapter 6). In the memoirs of S.I. Lavrentieva “Experienced” we read about the 60s: “Together with the youth - men, our women, who before in the old days there were hawthorns in the towers, sat behind mothers and nannies, and hay girls, were also excited hoops, and later sat as white-handed, muslin young ladies (as Pomyalovsky nicknamed them) behind a horde of serf servants...” (Lavrentieva, p. 39). “...My sister and I were not muslin young ladies doing nothing, not knowing how to kill time” (ibid., p. 41). Thus, the expression muslin young lady, put into wide literary circulation by N. G. Pomyalovsky in the 60s, was strengthened in intellectual speech and in journalistic style as a caustic and ironic description of the female type, nurtured by the old noble culture. But gradually, with changes in social life, the expressive colors in this expression fade, and already at the beginning of the current century it is relegated to the archives of Russian literary speech, although it sometimes appears in the wide arena of the general literary language. However, by the end of the 19th century. the need and opportunity for growth of such individual branches from the image of a muslin young lady, such as expressive expressions, is drying up: muslinness, muslin rubbish, etc. Published along with notes on the words trend and fad, malice, innovation, steamship and negligent, negligence, as part of the article “ From the history of modern Russian literary vocabulary" (Izvestia OLYA AN SSSR, 1950, vol. 9, issue 5). These notes in the article are preceded by a general introduction (see the commentary on the note “Trends and Fads”). The archive contains a manuscript on 9 sheets. Here it is printed according to the text of the publication, verified and clarified from the manuscript. For the expression muslin young lady, see also the article “Case. Man in a Case." - V.L.
Good afternoon
My name is Daria Ryabchenko, and today I would like to present to your attention a project on the Russian language “History of the Word”.
Of course, our language is constantly developing and, often, using various words, phrases and means of expression in our speech, we do not even think about how this or that word came about and what its meaning is. But in more detail, using the example of Vinogradov’s article, I would like to consider the history of the phraseological unit “muslin young lady”. My choice is not accidental, since phraseological units are the most important and subtle tools in creating works of oral folk art and fiction. All these treasures are stored not only in countless libraries, but also in the secrets of our linguistic knowledge. It is important to know the meaning and significance. How to correctly use this or that phraseological unit? What is the history of the origin of this phrase?
It is known that in modern Russian the expressionThe task of girls’ schools is to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroism in the name of the motherland.”
rarely used. To many it seems archaic. It seems to have come from pre-revolutionary life. It's interesting thatthe meaning of the phraseological unit “muslin young lady” is completely different.
1. V.I. Dal in the “Explanatory Dictionary”
does not give this expression, but indicates:«
muslin
among the people, a dandy who walks in muslin.”
2. D.N. Ushakov in
The Large Explanatory Dictionary of the Modern Russian Language writes: “Muslin young lady or girl
(iron.·obsolete
) - a cutesy girl with a limited outlook who received a patriarchal upbringing"
3. And in Ozhegov’s dictionary “
Kiseynaya
young lady" takes on the following meaning:
a cutesy girl with a bourgeois outlook, not adapted to life.
In addition, they say that this expression comes from the name of a thin transparent material, which in the 19th century was called “muslin”. Only rich young ladies could afford such material. Airy dresses were made from it. Due to the fact that the material was very thin, it could be torn very easily, literally with one awkward movement. In addition, the pampered young ladies were so touchy that they were offended over trifles. And since it was as easy to offend a girl as to tear her airy muslin dress, they began to be called “muslin young ladies.”
In the 30s and 40s of the 19th century, a special style of behavior and a manner of dressing appeared, which later gave rise to the expression “muslin young lady.” This coincides with the timing of the new silhouette in clothing. The waist drops into place and is emphasized in every possible way by incredibly full petticoats. The new silhouette was supposed to emphasize the fragility, tenderness, and airiness of a woman. Bowed heads, downcast eyes, slow, smooth movements or, on the contrary, ostentatious playfulness were characteristic of that time. Fidelity to the image required that girls of this type coyly act at the table, refusing to eat, and constantly portray detachment from the world and sublimity of feelings. The plastic properties of thin, light fabrics contributed to the emergence of romantic airiness.The expression “Kiseinaya young lady”, or “Kiseinnitsa” at first meant only “dandy”.
Meanwhile, in the 60s, in which this expression was formed and for those to whom it was typical, a completely different meaning was put into it. Then "The task of girls’ schools is to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroism in the name of the motherland.”
or“. In the 60s"
“ were terms of contempt for advanced female youth, the name given to superficial, secular and undeveloped women.
But in literature the expressionmuslin girl
appeared for the first time in N. G. Pomyalovsky’s story “Pittish Happiness” in 1861. It was applied by the emancipated landowner Lizaveta Arkadyevna Obrosimova to the provincial noble girl Lenochka: “Muslin girl
!... it’s a pity to look at such girls - amazing, pathetic emptiness! - exclaimed the heroine.
The famous critic D.I. Pisarev in the article “The Novel of a Muslin Girl” wrote: “To the type of good-naturedmuslin girl
All women who are not distinguished by a strong and brilliant mind, who have not received a decent education and at the same time who are not spoiled and not confused by the noise and bustle of the so-called secular life, are suitable. These women have developed only one ability, which nature itself takes care of, namely the ability to love. The whole fate of such a woman is decided, of course, by those whom she loves.”
In a word, the expressionmuslin young lady with
60s XIX century firmly entered into the language of Russian fiction and journalism, as well as into the colloquial speech of the intelligentsia.
In the memoirs of S.I. Lavrentieva “Experienced” we read about the 60s: “Together with the youth - men, our women, who before in the old days there were hawthorns in the towers, sat behind mothers and nannies, and hay girls, were also excited hoops, and later sat with white hands,little used. To many it seems archaic. However cf. in the article by M. Butkevich “In a girls’ school” (“Izvestia of the Soviet Department of Labor of the USSR” dated January 8, 1944, No. 7 (8309): “We do not at all strive to make our Soviet girls
behind the horde of serf servants..." "...My sister and I were not doing nothinglittle used. To many it seems archaic. However cf. in the article by M. Butkevich “In a girls’ school” (“Izvestia of the Soviet Department of Labor of the USSR” dated January 8, 1944, No. 7 (8309): “We do not at all strive to make our Soviet girls
who don't know how to kill time"
So the expressionThe task of girls’ schools is to form and educate a brave, hardworking patriot, ready for heroism in the name of the motherland.”
, put into wide literary circulation by N. G. Pomyalovsky in the 60s, became entrenched in intellectual speech and in journalistic style as a caustic and ironic characterization of the female type, nurtured by the old noble culture. But gradually, with changes in social life, the expressive colors in this expression fade, and already at the beginning of the current century it is relegated to the archives of Russian literary speech, although it sometimes appears in the wide arena of the general literary language.
