Proverbs of the Russian language are familiar to us from childhood. Intuitively, their meaning is clear to us, we use familiar idioms mainly in a figurative sense. The direct meaning of some original Russian words is already causing difficulties in interpretation. One such obscure term is tug. This word is quite common in classical literature. What does it mean?
Origin
Many Old Russian words originate from common Slavic roots - after all, both the culture and customs of our Slavic ancestors were similar. The Pre-Slavs lived in similar territorial and climatic conditions, used similar tools. It is not surprising that the names of similar objects in such an environment were almost the same. In various Slavic languages, the meaning of the word "tug" meant part of the harness - cowhide or horse; wide belt leading from the clamp to the cart.
The word "tug" and its synonyms
The word is closely related to the all-Russian root of the "bond" - to tie, knit. It also echoes the Russian dozen - which means strong, strong.
Only strong, healthy animals could carry luggage. So gradually the word was overgrown with synonyms: hefty, strong, powerful ... In modern literary speech, the word "ailment" has been preserved, as the opposite of "tug". This word in modern Russian is explained as weakness, illness.
Literal and figurative meaning
Gouges is a comprehensive concept that covers not only the movement of land cargo. In Russia, tug is a rope loop for oars that are used in boats or rowing vessels. But basically the name was used in the designation of land transport - it is not in vain that transportation by animal is now called horse-drawn. Of course, in Russia the labor of the people themselves was often used as draft power. A classic example of this is Repin’s bleak picture “Barge Haulers on the Volga”.
The picture shows how people pull the barge along the Volga using the same tug - though, at that time it was called a little differently. The working conditions were inhuman - it took 12-15 hours to pull the barges, and women and children worked on equal terms with men, and they received much less money. Burlaks were supposed to deliver the barge to their destination on time. If this did not succeed, all the pullers received only part of the earnings or did not receive it at all. Therefore, it was necessary to take up the tug with a firm goal: to complete the assigned work on time and to the end.
Tug in proverbs
Perhaps it was from the hounds that we came up with the expression “take up tugs” - this means starting to carry out hard, laborious work that cannot be abandoned halfway. Hence the numerous proverbs confirming this definition. The most common and popular of them is "took on a tug - do not say that not a dozen." This means: if you have already taken up some kind of work, then it must be completed to the end. Interestingly, in the days of V. Dahl, the proverb was explained in a slightly different way - this word needs to be kept. And now the proverb is more about an act than a word.