“Work through the sleeves”: the meaning of phraseology

Today we’ll talk about the stable expression “through the sleeves”. The meaning of phraseology is directly related to the history of Russian clothing.

A bit of history

What is a sleeve? This is a piece of clothing that covers (in whole or in part) our hands. In ancient civilizations, this element in the suit was completely absent. Europeans introduced fashion to it in the 12th century. Since then, the sleeve began its victorious march around the world. Gradually, he became one of the main decorations of the costume. Fashion designers of the XV-XVI centuries came up with dresses with interchangeable sleeves. Such an innovation made it possible to dress up, change costumes at a lower cost. In Russia, the sleeves of the shirts were traditionally quite long. In men, they usually covered the first phalanx of the thumb. And the fair sex did wear a suit, the sleeve in which reached almost a meter and a half. At the wrist, the tissue was collected with spectacular folds. In holiday dresses, the sleeves were so long that they were fastened with special bracelets. The girl who went out to dance unfastened the bracelet. Her hands became like the wings of a fairytale bird.

Of course, doing daily work in such a suit was extremely inconvenient. Want to argue - you need to roll up your sleeves. In comfortable clothes you can work hard without sparing your strength. We say about such an employee that he is doing something “rolling up his sleeves”, that is, actively, persistently, with great zeal.

“After the sleeves”: the meaning of phraseology

A stable expression opposite in meaning appeared in Russia . It began to mean a careless, irresponsible attitude to work, a desire to do everything in a nutshell, sloppy, with sloth, that is, "through the sleeves." The meaning of phraseology today is clear even to a child, since it has become truly winged. It is actively used by writers in literary works, teachers at school and parents for educational purposes. Careless, lazy people, after their sleeves, read, write, study, relate to their duties, sew, build, manage - in a word, do any work.

additional information

From a grammatical point of view, the word “later” is an obsolete form of a short participle from the verb “lower”. Today we would say "lowering our sleeves", using the germs. Since idioms do not require punctuation, we do not mark the stable expression “across the sleeves” on the letter with a comma (the meaning of phraseology in this case does not matter).

Synonyms

You can choose synonymous turns to the expression “work through the sleeves”: do something negligently, carelessly, carelessly, sloppy, dishonestly, with laziness, with coolness, anyhow , through the stump-deck, playful-goof, somehow, if only untied; hacking; to be lazy; work from under the stick.

Analogs in other languages

It is always interesting to conduct a comparative analysis of existing analogues of a particular phraseology in other languages ​​of the world. So, instead of the expression “do through the sleeves”, the Englishman will say That work with the left hand - “work with the left hand”. If you are right-handed, any work done with your left hand will indeed cause difficulties, and the result will be unsatisfactory. Try to sew a button with your left hand, write a letter, cut out an even paper figure!

Language studies suggest that the word “left” in many dialects was often associated with something bad, unfortunate, even devilish. By the way, before the appearance of Leskov’s story, a left-handed person was called just an inept worker, who fell into pieces. But the writer managed to put a completely different meaning in the name of the Tula master. By the way, among the Russian synonyms of the phraseologism under consideration, there is also such: “how to do with the left foot”. It has an even more negative connotation of meaning. The point is that the work is performed so poorly as if the person acted not with a hard-working right hand, but with little suitable left foot.

Other peoples also have such a concept - “work through the sleeves”. A synonym for expression in the Belarusian language is “Work like a wet garyts” (work as if it burns wet). The following expressions were also used: “Work as if you don’t hold hands” (do as if with your own hands), “Work as good as you can” (do it with your eyes closed), and also as “Sarvark adrabljats” (work off scarvarok - a kind of corvée in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwealth) .

Shades of meaning

It is often difficult for a person who is not a native speaker to understand the exact meaning of idioms. Working through the sleeves is not the same as beating the buck, playing the bucket or sharpening the hair. These phraseological units are quite close, but the second means complete idleness, the third means engaging in empty unnecessary business, and the fourth means idle chatter. And the winged expression we are considering implies that a person is doing work, although badly, somehow, without a twinkle and desire, sloppy. It should be accurate when using persistent phrases.