(no subject)

[costumier.livejournal.com]

hello all...

i was with some friends today, and one asked me what "t.A.T.u." actually stands for. i know that "TATY" in russian means something like "this girl loves that girl"... it got me thinking though: is "TATY" an acronym? does "t.A.T.u." acutally stand for something, or are the periods just for looks?

anybody know?

[also posted in codetatu]

Comments

[irkin.livejournal.com]

It doesn't mean anything like "this girl loves that girl" :)
Тату in Russian is the short form of татуировка (tattoo).

I think periods in English version of the name are just for looks..

[karakal.livejournal.com]

Yes, generally it means 'tattoo'. Yet in case of these girls, it may be a double entendre, meaning also 'this girl loves (or even f*cks) that girl'.

[costumier.livejournal.com]

really?? i downloaded a clip of them when they first appeared on US mtv, and lena said that in russian, 'тату' means "this girl loves that girl"...sorry! :-s

hmmm...i downloaded the clip from www.onlytatu.com, but the site seems to be down...

[costumier.livejournal.com]

hmmm.... so it's both literal and connotative?

[irkin.livejournal.com]

:) Ah, I forgot, there really is a joke about the name тату. Та means feminine "that" and ту is feminite "that" in accusative case. The action is not clear :) But it's rather implied carnal love..

[karakal.livejournal.com]

In any other context, you could never think that this word means anything other than 'tattoo'. But taking into account this act's teenage lesbian image...

[costumier.livejournal.com]

i see... :-D

[costumier.livejournal.com]

ah, there's the explanation i was looking for...

many thanks! :-)

[lancewilliam.livejournal.com]

Hey... I don't have Cyrrilic scrypt, but every single place I've looked they've said it was a shortening of "Ta lyubov tu" (She loves her)... I don't know any Russian myself... but that's what I've always seen

Re:

[costumier.livejournal.com]

excellent! thanks!!! :-]

[costumier.livejournal.com]

oh...

"та любов ту" maybe??

[yers.livejournal.com]

lyubit/любит, not lyubov' which is a noun

[yers.livejournal.com]

it would be любовь, but like I said in another comment, the verb is любит

I agree with karakal, though: "in any other context, you could never think that this word means anything other than 'tattoo'"

[costumier.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH :-)

ok...so:

любовь (lyubov) = love (as in "the love between two people")

while

любит (lyubit [wouldn't it be pronounced lyubeet?]) = to love (as in "she loves her")

yes?

it would be любовь, but like I said in another comment, the verb is любит

I agree with karakal, though: "in any other context, you could never think that this word means anything other than 'tattoo'

[yers.livejournal.com]

um... rather more complicated than that, as verbs are conjugated.

the infinitive is любить.
and the present tense goes

я люблю (I)
ты любишь (thou)
он/она/оно любит (he/she/it)

мы любим (we)
вы любите (ye)
они любят (they)

there is no rational explanation for the stress shift :)

Re:

[lancewilliam.livejournal.com]

that too ^^;

many thanks...

[costumier.livejournal.com]

excellent! thank you so much! as of yet, that's the best lesson in russian that i've been given...