Films about cowboys are a storehouse of vivid impressions. They interweave the historical background, colorful characters, a memorable story with elements of an action movie and a detective story. But the most interesting thing is to watch the brave heroes, who can easily cope with firing from a revolver, riding horses and with such an unusual instrument as a lasso. This noticeable rope with a loop causes sincere delight and a desire to repeat at least part of the tricks shown on the screen. Where did the original item come from and why is it named that way?
Language difficulties
A stumbling block for beginners in the Wild West is translating into Russian. Throwing a lasso on someone is a lasso. The terms sound differently and seem to be completely unrelated to each other. Why did this happen? The concept under study was formed on the basis of French lasso, which appeared as an attempt to transcribe Spanish lazo. The original was the Latin "loop" or laques. Actual in the XXI century synonyms for them are:
In the Russian language, the verbs associated with the capture are derived precisely from the second word. Regardless of the definition used in relation to the fishing tool itself.
Rope story
This is not only about the inventory of artists on modern rodeos. Initially, they mean a long rope up to 30 m long with a specially arranged loop at the end. The rope is usually braided from belts, wool or horsehair to obtain a sufficient density of material: this helps to avoid pulling at the time of the throw. The word "lasso" appeared in the Spanish-speaking colonies, spread from South America. Used in relation to Aboriginal weapons:
- for catching horses;
- when hunting for buffaloes;
- used in battle.
After throwing, the rope stretches, and the loop tightly tightens around the neck, preventing the victim from escaping. Similar gears were found in the countries of the Ancient East, were used by almost all nomadic peoples of Asia, who were forced to regularly catch livestock.
Today the emphasis has shifted. In Mexico and the USA, the organic part of the culture is the “cowboy sport” lasso, where tricks with the lasso rotation demonstrate the participant’s agility and endurance, his ability to control every movement of the rope.
In everyday communication
Hearing the original term on the streets of domestic cities is not easy. Some contemporaries do not even suspect the existence of such a concept, others only read or saw in Westerns. Therefore, the “lasso” is an element of the romantic image of a dashing American guy. Only occasionally can you hear a familiar word when discussing a support option in figure skating, but such a specialized definition is even less common.