Gesheft - what is it? This is the name of construction companies, pawnshops and the festival in Odessa. This is the witcher's sword in a popular game. Where did this word come to us, which became the slang of youth and the often used word of journalists?
Contrary to the Jewish roots of the concept of Gesheft, it appeared far from the Promised Land. There is no such word in Hebrew with a translation that would be correct. This is worth considering. There is no word with a translation corresponding to the meaning of the word "gesheft".
This word came to Yiddish spoken by European Jews. It turns out that it has German roots. It came to Russia with German merchants, who often spoke Yiddish. In Odessa, it has an original meaning and means “business”, “profit”. In modern Russia, it has acquired an ironic connotation; such words as “scam”, “kickback”, “bribe” have become its synonym.
What dictionaries say
Kuznetsov's dictionary defines the origin and meaning of the word:
- Gesheft - from the German "geschaft", which literally translates as "store", means a deal, a profitable business.
A dictionary of foreign words adds:
- Gesheft is a profit from a case requiring high ethics, selflessness. This is profit, speculation.
Synonyms are words: profits, barter, scam.
Word use
Gesheft is an integral part of common Odessa expressions :
- What is gesheft?
- Small gesheft.
- You never mentioned the gesheft.
- What a gesheft from him!
- He has a gesheft with that.
In a youth environment you can hear that someone is making a musical gesheft - playing weddings on a musical instrument. Everyone has their own gesheft: the official closes his eyes for something and gets a “lamb in paper”, the apartment broker makes a combination for a fee, even a thief can have a good gesheft. At the beginning of the last century, Odessa words poured into prison in Yiddish. The guards did not understand them, so there was a rapid spread of Yiddish in thieves' jargon. On it, the word "gesheft" means "profitable business."
Quotes from the classics
Gesheft is a colorful and capacious word that writers use:
- A.P. Chekhov uses it to describe the atmosphere of dishonest profits in the story “Champagne”: “Where is the drunken revelry, ... the triumph of the gesheft ...”.
- A.N. Rybakov, drawing the fussy and vain existence of one of the heroes of the novel "Heavy Sand", remarks: "His whole life was a gesheft."
Figurative meaning of the word
The figurative meaning of the word "gesheft" can have a derogatory connotation and is used in the names, definitions of journalistic investigations. So, “the genocide gesheft” refers to unscrupulous profit-taking, not always monetary, of unscrupulous politicians and businessmen. In this case, the word "gesheft" simply disguises the crime.
It is also used in an ironic sense. There is a joke about a mother with her son who walked around the market and bought vegetables. The son carried eggs in an armful. After a long bargain at the counter with tomatoes, the mother, having knocked down the price, tells her son to take the jubilee ruble out of her pocket and pay. Exorcised heat son puts his hand in his pocket and the eggs fall. The saleswoman says: “You force me to make a gesheft at a loss” and reduces the price.
Gesheft in Odessa
Starting as a weekend event, the hand-made festival in the coastal city was developed and continued. No wonder it was called Gesheft - these are actually small profitable deals, small investments that quickly and profitably paid off. In the range of souvenirs, the seller wrote an ad: “I am reducing the price. Haggle. " A trip to Gesheft is beneficial to both the seller and the buyer.
An entrepreneur from Odessa founded a club for communication between business people and also called him “Gesheft”. It can be seen from everything that the word in the city is taken as it was many years ago - meaning small-scale production, services, small benefits. Odessans say that in reality their Odessa language is real Russian, only earlier.
In fact, the word that was used in narrow circles of Odessa businessmen became slang in the territory of our country. Here is another example of how a language develops. Borrowing took place, and enriched speech with a capacious expression. Now the word is fashionable, and in the Ephraim dictionary it is listed as obsolete. That's what live speech means!