чертик

[serialcondition.livejournal.com]

hello,

I have a question about understanding a sentence I'm translating...

...лихорадочные спазмы, в которых тонет фабула, как чертики, появляются и исчезают герои

this is about Moskva-Petushki; the word чертик used here -- would it be a reference to the phrase "напиться до чёртиков"? Or is it something else? I'm at a loss.

thank you,
t.

EDIT: thank you everyone

Comments

[glorfindeil.livejournal.com]

I repeat again this is not a mistake. This is an old way for spelling this word. You can find this type of spelling in many books and dictionaries.

Welcome here (http://slovari.yandex.ru/art.xml?art=brokminor/42/42240.html&encpage=brokminor&mrkp=http%3A//hghltd.yandex.com/yandbtm%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A//encycl.yandex.ru/texts/brokminor/42/42240.html%26text%3D%25F7%25EE%25F0%25F2%26reqtext%3D%25F7%25EE%25F0%25F2%253A%253A767785%26%26isu%3D2) or here (http://slovari.yandex.ru/art.xml?art=dal/dal/03220/23700.htm&encpage=dal&mrkp=http%3A//hghltd.yandex.com/yandbtm%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A//encycl.yandex.ru/texts/dal/dal/03220/23700.htm%26text%3D%25F7%25EE%25F0%25F2%26reqtext%3D%25F7%25EE%25F0%25F2%253A%253A767785%26%26isu%3D2) or here (http://slovari.yandex.ru/art.xml?art=litenc/leb/leb-4091.htm&encpage=litenc&mrkp=http%3A//hghltd.yandex.com/yandbtm%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A//encycl.yandex.ru/texts/litenc/leb/leb-4091.htm%26text%3D%25F7%25EE%25F0%25F2%26reqtext%3D%25F7%25EE%25F0%25F2%253A%253A767785%26%26isu%3D2).

Of course im modern language such form is very rare but it's still correct.

P.S. Wikipedia is not an authoritative source of information... ;-)

[noser.livejournal.com]

The old spelling being in an explanatory dictionary is nothing surprising. I gave you a reference to a spelling dictionary. Good luck finding "чорт" in one of those.