Bulaestian idiom “мокрей як щур”: to the reconstruction of meaning
Bulaestian idiom “мокрей як щур”: to the reconstruction of meaning

Summary/Abstract: The Bulaestian idiom “мокрей як щур” in a word-by word translation means ‘wet as a rat’; it refers to a person who gets wet in a heavy rain. As a variant (but rarer), the speakers of Bulaestian dialect use “мокрей як меш”, i. e. ‘wet as a mouse’. The adequate translation of both variants in English has to give a meaning of “completely wet”. The Ukrainian special dictionaries include neither “мокрий як щур”, nor “мокрий як миш”. The meaning of “completely wet; soaked to the skin” is conveyed by some other idioms in the Ukrainian language. However, “мокрий як щур” is known in a Ukrainian dialect (the Krasilov district of the Khmelnitsky region). Thus, we cannot exclude that it exists in some other Ukrainian dialects as well. The Russian language speakers know the idiom “мокрый как мышь” with the same meaning of “completely wet”. The idiom “mokry kaž myš”, identical to Russian “мокрый как мышь”, is known also by Upper Lusatian language speakers. It makes us suppose that the idiom has a for-Slavic origin. Slavic *ščиrъ ‘rat’ is absent in the Russian language. However, there is a well-known Russian щурёнок ‘young pike (Esox lucius)’ (word translation ‘small щур’). Thus, we can suppose the existence of Russian щурёнок ‘young pike (Esox lucius)’ as a reason for the appearance of Slavic idioms like “мокрей як щур”/“мокрей як меш”. Some ancient inter crossing of semantics between different Slavic lexemes *ščиrъ (and *aščerъ‘lizard’, also) could provoke the appearance of some new meanings.

• Details
• Contents