Many probably were told: “Well, maybe stop fooling around?” The meaning of phraseology is considered today, as well as its synonyms. We will also discuss whether doing nothing is useful or harmful to life.
Origin. First hypothesis
There are two main versions of the appearance of phraseology. One is very popular, the other is rare. Soviet children remember well that there was such a tumbler toy. How many do not drop it, nothing will come of it. Imagine that a person devotes hours and even days to this. What is he doing? Right, messing around. Because in his occupation there is no sense. This is one answer to the question, where did the expression “fool around” come from.
We will reveal the meaning of phraseology a little later, while we need to clarify some more details. How is a tumbler toy related to a fool? This question is fairly easy to answer. Who is considered to be an almost national hero, a favorite character in many fairy tales? Of course, Ivan is a fool, who is only nominally called poor-minded. So usually the narrator of a fairy tale speaks of him in order to simultaneously confuse the listener and engage in intrigue. Without it, there is no point in listening or reading. And there is a toy similar in principle to a tumbler, only it is called a vanka-vstanka.
From here a simple associative connection grows, even a whole logical chain: "a tumbler - a vanka-vstanka - Ivan the fool". The next step is the stable expression that we are considering. Next, we have to explain the meaning of phraseology "fool around." Origin, nevertheless, we will skip ahead.
Another version
Next in line is another hypothesis. In Russia, large objects, such as vegetables, were called fools. And their senseless dragging from place to place was called "fool around." By the way, in this sense, we, modern Russians, are very close to the roots: large objects, not necessarily vegetables, are called “fools” in our country.
Which version to believe? This question is worth asking historians. In principle, both options are eligible. Both the tumbler and vegetables were in Russia for a long time, Soviet children found only a new modification of the famous device. Therefore, let the reader choose it here. And we move on to the meaning of phraseology “fool around.”
Meaning
It turns out that the expression has two meanings, as well as versions of origin. On the one hand, this is what they say about the obviously meaningless work that people are engaged in. And on the other - about frivolous behavior. And rumors are circulating that the first and second meanings are related. That is, a person who is busy with meaningless business, behaves stupidly and generally unreliable comrade.
Moreover, the subject of the act is well aware of the seriousness of the lesson. This is an important point, because there are idioms about work in which work is meaningless by the absence of a result. We will talk about them after synonyms.
Examples of the first value can be selected as many as you want. In social networks there are a huge number of unpretentious toys aimed at absorbing time. But what is there, even sitting on social networks is an illustration of the phraseological meaning of “fool around.” Publics with gifs, pictures, quotes - all this is fed by the time of people, which could be started up for something more productive.
True, sometimes communities with quotes consist of famous phrases from classics. The latter motivate people to become familiar with the source of such precise and subtle definitions. Accordingly, the level of education of the population is growing. This means that there are different “interest clubs”: some devour time and energy, while others, on the contrary, teach the bright, the good, the eternal.
About social networks, as well as about the Internet space as a whole, it is impossible to say that this is stupidity, no use - one harm. It is not true. As always, there are forces of good and evil, or rather, meaning and nonsense.
Synonyms
The reader would like to know, in addition to the meaning of phraseology “to fool around”, also synonyms for him. This time there will be no shortage of them. We selected two types of substitutions: in a word and a similar steady speech turnover. First expression:
- beat the bacilli ;
- count the raven;
- spit on the ceiling.
Now the words:
- sit back;
- loaf;
- filon;
- clown around;
- to shake.
All replacements try to convey a simple truth: a person is wasting time. But, as the reader probably understands, everything is relative. Sometimes a life-long business grows out of a hobby. But for an outside observer, as a rule, an authoritative adult, a child or teenager wastes his strength in vain.
For example, take gamers. Generally speaking, video games are fun, but now some make good money on it. The attitude to actors and comedians is not worth remembering, right? Thus, any activity that is incomprehensible to the environment is a fooling around. We examined the origin, synonyms and meaning of phraseology “fool around”. Interpretation awaits us ahead.
“Sifiv labor” and “monkey labor” are not synonyms of the object of study
We promised to expand the thesis that there is a fundamental difference between when a person is busy with perfect nonsense and when his efforts become nonsense, because no one needs the results of his work. But it is precisely such a state of life that phraseological units put into the headline speak of.
The myth of Sisyphus and Krylov’s fable are different in tone and perceived sensation. But the plots are united by the seriousness of the work of both one character (Sisyphus) and another (Monkey). After all, none of them has fun. Sisyphus knows that his work is meaningless, but nevertheless inevitable, and Monkey does not even know this and sincerely believes that her works are no different from the efforts of the peasant.
This is probably why Sisyphus is a tragic figure who stands at the center of the philosophy of the absurd. A striking representative of the latter - Albert Camus, a Nobel laureate in literature in 1957, wrote an excellent essay on Sisyphus. And Monkey became the heroine of the Russian stable phrase. And these different characters are united by the linguistic situations of the use of those phraseological units in which they are central figures. Although there are semantic shades between them.
If we remember where the meaning of phraseology “to fool around” comes from, we will understand: a conditional fool enjoys meaninglessness and idleness. He has no desire to somehow deceive himself and show that his work means something (like Monkey), and even more so he is not a tragic figure like Sisyphus.
Doing nothing is good
It has been shown by life practice, as well as by some scientists, that the brain needs a break from productive work. That is, sometimes a person should play a fool a little, because it will have a beneficial effect on his future successes. It’s another matter that some movie stars cannot relax with the help of skiing and reading books in a hammock, but they go all the way to loosen their grip, as it seems to them, of the meaninglessness of life. But let's not talk about sad things.
The best rest is a change of activity
I remember the film "Love by the rules and without." In it, the hero of Jack Nicholson, driven to an extreme and pre-infarction state, goes to the island to lie there in a hammock and not think about anything. Then he realizes that such a pastime will not give anything. He is embarking on a journey into the past and is looking for his former girlfriends.
What does this example teach us? To the fact that the best rest is a change of activity. By the way, if someone was next to Harry Sanborn (Nicholson’s hero), he could well remember the meaning of the phraseology “fool around”, the definition of which we gave a little higher. Indeed, for an outside observer, there is no sense in digging in the past.
Fooling around as a protest
All people, one way or another, must work for the good of society. For some , intellectual work, and for others, physical. But for everyone, work is not only a field for realizing abilities, but also an opportunity to “pay” for free time. And given that money is not easy to get, on the one hand, it’s rather strange to spend a weekend on nonsense, and on the other, it’s quite natural. Indeed, now only the iron is humbly silent about the need to leave the comfort zone, otherwise people stayed there.
Productivity is preached in everything, for life is short and death is near. But if you do not succumb to mass hypnosis and think, the following will come out: productivity in a society fixated on money is measured only in arbitrary units that it brings to a person. In other words, a vicious circle is formed: a person works, then spends his free time to be better as a specialist. Thus, he works even more, free time, not subject to professional activity, is reduced - rest ceases to exist as a category.
On the one hand, these are the modern realities of a specialist caught in the iron grip of Western civilization, and on the other, under such conditions, fooling around can be regarded as a protest against the existing order of things, as one of the few acts of genuine freedom. When a person is wasting his time meaninglessly, he slaps a public taste.
True, it’s better to read literature, dive into art without any purpose, than, for example, spend time gossiping (although they are extremely entertaining at times), reading the yellow press, or sorting out relationships on the Internet. Remember: for the majority, everything that does not concern work directly is nonsense.