фиг

[irkin.livejournal.com]

Hello!

Once I had to explain the word "фиг" and its derivations to my friend who learned Russian. This word is widely used in Russian. I thought I'd post it here.

I'm not a teacher and you know how difficult is to explain things that you use all your life and do this by intuition :) So don't be very strict to me.



"Фиг" (or "фИга" or "кУкиш") is a gesture - your big finger is between the forefinger and the middle one, and all the others are in kind of a fist (I hope it's understandable :).
My dictionary gives me the following meaning: to cock a snook (at) or simply snooks. It means "I won't do that" or "you won't get it" or something like that. For example, "пойдем со мной" - "фиг тебе" (вот ещё, никуда я не пойду) accompanied with this gesture, "дай мне апельсин" - "фиг тебе, я сам его съем". But as I see it it's almost always a joke, a friendly gesture..

Other expression with this word are from slang.

ни фигА себе! it's an exclamation of surprise. Synonims: ничего себе!; обалдеть; с ума сойти, etc.

ни фигА without "себе" means "nothing". I.e.: "Помнишь? Да ни фига ты не помнишь" (с) from song of Zemfira.

до фигА on the contrary means "a lot of" - У меня дома до фига еды :) - I have a lot of food at home.

на фигА (нАфиг)? = Зачем? Hафиг тебе это нужно? - What do you need it for?

пОфиг (пОфигу) = всё равно, (I) don't care.

And probably as you already know one parts of speech can be done from others.

фиговый = not very good or bad.
:) There's a joke. Father asks his 3 year old daughter:
- Доченька, какое сейчас время года?
- Лето.
- Да какое же это лето? Hа улице снег и мороз..
- Вот такое фиговое лето :(
:)

офигеть (=обалдеть) - generally means to get surprised or even to get stunned. But it can mean other thing depending on the context. For example, I did something bad or unexpected, and someone says to me: "ты что, офигела??" :) = ты что, с ума сошла? (are you out of your mind?)

This word is almost universal :) Probably those are not all expressions when it's used. Maybe someone remembers more?

Comments

[notanaccount.livejournal.com]

> your big finger is between the forefinger and the middle one, and all the others are in kind of a fist

big finger? do you mean thumb?

[irkin.livejournal.com]

Oh. Sorry :) In Russian it's called "большой палец" (big finger) so I translated it literally.
I will correct that in the original post.

[notanaccount.livejournal.com]

hehe, weird. I hadn't learnt that yet ;)

[irkin.livejournal.com]

:) Why is it weird?
Though this finger isn't a biggest one, really :)

[irkin.livejournal.com]

Well.. It's a pity but it's seems you can't edit community posts.. :(

[togie.livejournal.com]

Posting in "learn Russian" and listening to Zemfira... nice..

[(Anonymous)]

Это слово очень продуктивно в русском языке. Примерно ТАК ЖЕ, как и (часто) заменяемое ИМ в "приличном" варианте речи (= эвфемизм) бранное слово "х**". Это, кстати, показывают те многочисленны примеры, которые вы приводите.

Есть, кстати, и синоним этого слова, обозначающий именно ту "комбинацию из трёх пальцев", о который упоминается в самом начале:

"кукиш" и глагол "показать кукиш" (кому-л.) to cock a snook (at)

Толян

[bobthedog.livejournal.com]

Well, a pretty good explanation. But your dictionary should've said "the fig." English folk were giving the "fig" until about the late 1700's, I believe. The fig has also been called "mano fico" or fig hand. In old Italy it was used as a symbol of sexual intercourse and was used to ward off the devil before it became used primarly in the vulgar sense. Sycophant, a word used in English, happens to mean someone that shows the fig.

I looked some of that up. ;)