Death

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

What are some Russian euphemisms for death? In English, if we want to be polite, we can say "pass on" or "pass away," or "gone to a better place."

We also have negative/joking ones, like "kick the bucket," "buy the farm," "pushing up daisies."

How, besides using умереть or погибнуть, can you say "die" in Russian?

Comments

[otello.livejournal.com]

дать дуба
приказать долго жить
двинуть кони
откинуть коньки
склеить ласты

[lucky-lr.livejournal.com]

умереть-отойти-упокоиться-преставиться

negative/joking: откинуть копыта(откинуться), склеить ласты

[hope1972.livejournal.com]

отправиться в мир иной
уйти ногами вперед

[gabria.livejournal.com]

скончаться
отправиться к праотцам
отправиться на небеса
отойти в мир иной
почить в бозе (устаревшее)

[the-waste.livejournal.com]

slightly negative:

подохнуть
окочуриться
загнуться

[xxiunicorn.livejournal.com]

сыграть в ящик

[r-t.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of those like "преставиться", "уйти из жизни", "уйти в другой мир", "скончаться", "свести счеты с жизнью" and of course slangy, joking and sometimes rude expressions: "отбросить коньки", "склеить ласты", "сыграть в ящик", "окочуриться" - these are not euphemisms, on the contrary, I'd call them dysphemic.

Actually, there is not such a taboo in Russian. Most people use умереть and it's not considered inpolite or offending. These euphemisms are commonly used in written speech, books, articles. Also "преставиться" has a religious accent.

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

I remember my host mother once using сдохнуть when I was sick... :)

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

Are these all considered "nice" or are they jokey ones?

[la-paloma.livejournal.com]

joking:"приказать долго жить"

[ilia-yasny.livejournal.com]

Some people say: "Его (её) больше нет", "Его (её) не стало". My grandma, for example, never says "умер" about her relatives, she prefers "не стало".

There is also a prison slang verb "прижмуриться", and the dead man is, correspondingly, "жмурик".

[ex-exchange-154.livejournal.com]

polite: отойти в мир иной
уйти из жизни
we usually use "сдохнуть" or "подохнуть" talking about animals.

[mivlad.livejournal.com]

Very polite.

[gabria.livejournal.com]

скончаться, уйти из жизни - rather official and serious;
почить в бозе - serious, almost out of usage novadays;
отправиться к праотцам - can be considered as jokey;

отправиться на небеса -
отойти в мир иной - both are neutral and nice.

[ex-solar-leo857.livejournal.com]

уйти из жизни is the most polite i think

[gera.livejournal.com]

This is from "Двенадцать стульев" (http://www.lib.ru/ILFPETROV/author12.txt) (The twelve chairs), a Russian classic.

(There's an Engish translatio (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0810114844/qid=1124455154/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6763544-2911257?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)n too).

[uncle-becher.livejournal.com]

I was just going to post the same one :)

[suku-vse.livejournal.com]

Одеться деревянным бушлатом. (very rare, but in case you find it in the literature about prisons)

Но будут веселы они или угрюмы
Но надо будет выбирать и выбор труден
Мы выбираем деревянные костюмы.
Люди, люди, люди ...


(Высоцкий, song from the "Intervention" film, where he plays a man from revolutionary underground who prefers death to treason.)

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

very amusing

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

сдохнть is the normative word when speaking about an animal. When it is said about an human, it sounds rude.

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

"свести счеты с жизнью" means to commit suicide.

[r-t.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh...
Yeah, you're right. Just came to mind among the others. :)

[r-t.livejournal.com]

Huh? I wouldn't use the word "nice" in this context.

[suku-vse.livejournal.com]

Well ... I have the very, very Jewish mother one can imagine - and one of her favorites was -

Да чтоб ты сдохла!

So, it doesn't mean that you host mother used it because she didn't care, sometimes Russians behave strange and use strong words ...

[suku-vse.livejournal.com]

Odessa talking


Сема, пей кефир - чтоб ты сдох! Тебе нужно поправляться!

(It's a joke, but it's also the way people used to communicate with kids in my family.)

[wire-shock.livejournal.com]

...but what's to be borne in mind: plain 'умереть' is perfectly polite in Russian. You don't necessarily have to smoothen it.

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

She was trying to cheer me up. You know how you shock people sometimes to make them laugh.

[lovimoment.livejournal.com]

Maybe so, but death is sort of like sex and lying: one of those categories of life that always produces interesting and colorful turns of phrase. :)

[mooze.livejournal.com]

that's the classic one, everyone studying Russian need to read it. lots of history of the 1920th there too. you'd be amazed that capitalism was thriving in the heart of the Soviet Republic

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

oh really?

[mooze.livejournal.com]

definitely. there's a sequel to it, called "The Golden Calf" (Золотой теленок). I can try to find a link to it, in Russian though

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

lol I own the book already
brought it with me when I left the "old coutry"
I agree that it's great
but I think a lot of humor in it is cultural and foreigners (even the ones who learn russian) wont quite understand it

t.

[mooze.livejournal.com]

one can't get much info on you having the book or not just by looking at your userpic:)))
as far as humor is concerned, that's definitely advanced reading. I re-read it twice a year and still haven't got tired of it:))

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

oh obviously my user pic is too subtle ;)

and i would go beyond that -- even if you understand all the words; some humor, and especially satire, requires more intimate familiarity with the culture;

[mooze.livejournal.com]

agree, our heritage is like an ingrown toenail - you can never quite pull everything out on the open, some is always hidden:)))

[roman-v-m.livejournal.com]

Even the most of native Russian speakers don't know that the idiom 'уважать себя заставил' used by Pushkin in "Евгений Онегин" in XIX used to mean 'to die' :)

[tushan.livejournal.com]

no shit?

[freezeburn.livejournal.com]

ha-ha-ha :)