Probably the most common use of the word "gray" in simple colloquial vocabulary occurs in combination with the nouns "mare" or "gelding" (the latter denotes a castrated stallion).
If you don’t know what characteristic the adjective expresses, it is completely incomprehensible - how poor animals stood out among the other relatives, deserving such a frequent mention. What does the word "gray" mean? Is this a feature of appearance or physical condition? Perhaps such an animal should be sorry or, conversely, be wary?
First of all, gray is a suit.
Despite the fact that the characteristic applies to people, the most frequent use still occurs when talking with the mention of animals, usually horses.
Various dictionaries of the Russian language explain this adjective as follows: gray is a color, coat color is gray or dark with an admixture of gray, ashy, often whitish, completely devoid of pigmentation hair.
Equestrians will also call the gray-haired black (black) horse with gray hair and a possible admixture of dark gray and gray hair. In the process of growing up and living the animal, the amount of white hair will be added.
There is also a species of fox called the Sivodushka - it appeared due to the crossing of ordinary and silver foxes, its value in relation to them will also be arithmetic average - approximately in the middle.
In relation to people's hair color, this word is also used, but much less often. With this use, it should be attributed to vernacular, folk expressions. The meaning of the word "gray" in this case will be similar to the previous ones and refers to hair color. It can be used in relation to a person with gray hair.
How a horse becomes a siva
A gray horse can be born dark, often black, but usually already interspersed with gray hair on its face and stomach, and their number will increase during the growth and maturation of the animal, which will gradually give it a gray color with a dark tint. Later, almost all hair may lose pigmentation.
This horse is often confused with sulfur, and those not related to the equestrian world - with white.
It was noticed that the mane of gray horses is usually thick and reaches a large length, it can be either light or dark, even black.
It is believed that gray horses are picky and unpretentious in food.
In the line of other stripes, civet can be placed between gray and chal. An animal is considered to be small, the hair on the trunk of which contains a large amount of white hair, and the head and legs most often have a color characteristic of the breed as a whole, but there are exceptions.
Phraseologisms with the word
This is primarily "lying like a gray gelding" and "bullshit."
There are several versions of the origin of these stable expressions, but they are mainly associated with two directions of thought:
- gray horses, despite a certain value due to their color, proved themselves not particularly smart in Russia;
- ambiguous, hard-to-describe coloring and deceptive early gray hair in a young animal were considered unusual and strange, absurd.
Also in popular culture there is an expression with the word "gray" - this is an analogue of the well-known proverb "Gray in the beard - demon in the ribs."
It sounds as follows: "Sivizna in the beard, the devil in the legs."
In addition, in Russian folklore there are many sayings, sayings and riddles with the mention of gray horses, but many of them have lost relevance in connection with a change in life, including the rural population.