Those who are important, no one loves. Because life is fragile and changeable, and what's the point of asking? In addition, everyone has self-esteem, beliefs, values, and people do not like it when one reduces the important components of another being to the level of dust. Therefore, we came up with many different offensive and funny names for too arrogant people, one of which we will consider today. We answer the question: swell - what is it?
Origin
When such words as multi-colored pebbles come across on the road, I immediately want to know their history. And we were not too lazy and rummaged in etymological dictionaries. And they found an entertaining history of the occurrence of this word in our language.
So, initially “swell” is a children's word that expressed a whole gamut of meanings:
Language, like man, has not achieved much - he constantly transforms the existing meanings. Therefore, it is not surprising that after some time the word acquired a different meaning - “toy” or “dressed as a toy”. Then (and this value is known to many) - "dressed woman", "impatient."
Interesting, huh? And even more interesting is this: why are words that first appear in the language at the time of their “youth” carry either a neutral or positive meaning, and then degenerate into something unpleasant? Do words really reflect or hint at human dynamics. When a person is young, he has a more or less tolerable character, but the older he gets, the worse his temper. But this does not happen to everyone, some with age, on the contrary, improve. The main thing is that our term is out of luck, and the next section will convince us of this.
Value
Let's start from the place and into the quarry, and then we will consider the interesting transformations of the studied definition. So, the explanatory dictionary says that swell is a person who is important, imagines a lot about himself. As we can see, and this must be noted right away, unlike the etymological dictionary, the sensible does not insist that the person who is called the swell must certainly be female. Over time, the noun has gained universal significance. That is, a guy spinning in front of a mirror can also be called a swell, and this will not be regarded as a stylistic mistake.
Soviet cinema comes to the rescue - Eldar Ryazanov's film “Office Romance” (1977). Remember that scene when Comrade Novoseltsev writes a letter of resignation? The boss and the subordinate have a scandal, and L.P. Kalugin calls Novoseltsev tsatsa. I do not want to believe that our illustrious screenwriters E. Ryazanov and E. Braginsky were poorly versed in Russian and put dubious remarks into the mouths of characters. Moreover, the meaning of the word “swell” recorded in the explanatory dictionary does not contradict our observations.
Synonyms
In order to more clearly imagine the content of a word, it is also necessary to select synonyms for it. If the reader courageously overcame the entire distance and now, having heard that there will be more synonyms, was horrified, then let him not be afraid: there will be no more than five of them:
- know-it-all;
- zadaka;
- proud man;
- arrogant
- imagined.
A wonderful list, and most importantly - it is perfect if someone does not understand the meaning of “swell”. But hopefully this did not happen. After all, we tried to clarify everything as best as possible so that all questions would disappear. And yes, as always in such cases, we warn: do not abuse the new knowledge that you have acquired. Still, swell is a curse.