In Russian speech there are many amusing stable expressions that are good both as a good-natured joke and as a good-natured censure. A vivid example of this is the “booty with a pen”. Where did this phraseological unit come from? What does a person want to say, using it? What words are appropriate to replace the phrase, for example, in business, official speech? We will try to answer all the questions by analyzing several versions of the origin of the funny expression.
What does booty with a pen mean?
In various dictionaries, this phrase is referred to as vernacular, disapproving, vulgar, contemptuous, and even offensive. So what does a booty with a pen mean? Here are a few meanings:
- An awkward person, unskilled, unsuitable for any particular activity, or for work, real life in general. The one who does not succeed, everything falls out of hand.
- Someone causing disapproval, annoyance.
- Sly, dodgy type.
- An disapproving statement is about a man. By pen is meant the organ of the male reproductive system.
- Something useless, non-functional.
- Children's ice sledges with a handle, visually similar to this part of the human body.
- Expression of one’s negative attitude towards someone or something: a specific person, action, result of work, as well as the general state of affairs.
- An incomprehensible event or an unpredictable person.
- In a professional environment, the slang expression that characterizes the mediocre writer, journalist.
- Octopus.
Synonyms of expression
Phraseologism "butt with a pen" can be replaced by the following words and stable expressions:
- sad sack;
- nonsense;
- booty on wheels;
- hare with a pen.
The origin version is mathematical
There is an opinion that the authors of the phrase "butt with a pen" are mathematicians. All this is explained by specific professional slang.
The fact is that a doubly connected surface in this medium is called a sphere with a handle, a triple connected surface is called a sphere with two handles, etc. Therefore, some are inclined to assume that in the hearts of some scientist called such an object a booty with a handle. Colleagues picked up a ridiculous statement, and it became stable and common.
German origin version
To explain the expression, we need to go back to the sad pages of German history - the days of fascism. Under A. Hitler, the Imperial Labor Service has existed since 1934. In its direction, every citizen had to work six months.
And what does the expression "booty with a pen"? Workers were given a paramilitary uniform with certain insignia. Her subject was a strange-shaped cap with a visor pressed in the middle. Workers nicknamed her Arsch mit Griff, which in German means a priest with a pen.
The origin version is fabulous
Someone believes that the origins of expression are in the old ironic English epic. We retell its contents. In the terrible winter cold, an old man and granddaughter gather brushwood in the forest. Leaning over the next twig, the girl notices a little fairy. Pitying the unfortunate people, the sorceress invited her granddaughter to fulfill any three of her wishes.
The girl said she wants summer to come now, and that the meadow was filled with flowers and berries. Her second desire was that all her friends in elegant clothes would gather here. And the third - so that the organ-grinder with a little monkey appears in the forest: he will play cheerful music, to which the children will dance.
Three swings of a magic wand and a clearing miraculously transformed at the request of a girl! But the fairy did not forget about the old man. She rebuked him, saying that he was already 70 years old, and in his life he had nothing like that, his wife was pushing him, he and his granddaughter were unhappy. The sorceress offered to fulfill one of his every desire. The old man, thinking, sighed and said: "Yes, it went all in the ass!"
And what? The wish was fulfilled! A huge priest appeared in the clearing, in which the meadow and flowers, and the organ-grinder with a monkey disappeared. That's just the tool did not fit entirely. All that remained was to stick out the handle from the barrel organ. And so the expression "booty with a pen."
The philosophical version
Proponents of this version suggest a bit of speculation. Maybe a priest with a pen is something worthless, useless, because there is only one pen?
And it is very curious. If a booty is understood as an object that has now become useless, maybe the whole thing is really in the pen? When there were two of them (for example, in a pot, frying pan, bag, bag, basin), the thing was valuable and functional. And as they broke, broke, lost one holder, then the object turned into a useless contraption, which can only be called a booty with a pen in our hearts.
Specific version
Proponents of this hypothesis offer us to turn to the rigid traditions that existed among prisoners. In particular, to tattooing. If in ordinary life each of us can decorate the body with an image that he just liked, then the opposite is true. In a prison environment, each tattoo has a meaning, tells about its owner. And not always do it voluntarily.
As for our expression, its origins here are too cruel and sad. If a person appeared in the community of prisoners who did not deserve the trust of the collective, could not stand up for himself, was convicted of an article that others consider unworthy, he could well be subjected to sexual violence. So that everyone who he meets on the journey of life knows about what happened, he would receive a tattoo on a certain part of his body depicting a pen. Sometimes the drawing was even applied to the face and visible areas of the skin.
Working version
There is also a version that a booty with a pen mockingly called people working with papers and documents. That is, constantly holding a pen. But why the priest? The explanation is simple: if you look at such an employee from behind, you can see only this part of the body and the handle.
However, then the expression changed its meaning a little. In Odessa, for example, a booty with a pen was called a cunning, dodgy person.
Phraseological Version
Consider the latest version of the expression. According to her, phraseologism was formed from another stable expression - "hands from the priests grow." Hence the man who does the job sloppy, not trying, after the sleeves, began to be called booty with a pen.
So we looked at all the versions and meanings of the popular and nowadays expression. Some of them are comic, and some are truly historical, worthy of attention.