What is chantrap? A rare word has recently become popular, but what it really means is hardly known to those who use it. Great bards often mentioned “chantrap” in their songs: Vladimir Vysotsky, Alexander Rosenbaum, Timur Shaov.
“... This is Chertanovo, not St. Tropez,
there is where to hunt chantrap. "
Definition of the word
Explanatory dictionaries (Dahl, Ozhegov, Fasmer, Efremova) interpret the word "chantrap" as a synonym for an insignificant, rude and boorish person from the lower layers of society, with a complete lack of manners. A miserable bunch of crooks, criminals and fallen people. Since the thirties of the twentieth century, street children have been called chantrap, hanging around the streets. It was forbidden to play with yard children, decent girls avoided them, and janitors and concierges, only seeing the chantrap, immediately drove her out of the yard.
Also, by this term they mean a mixture of something uncertain with low quality, a company of hooligans and unknown suspicious people.
Origin of the term
The most popular interpretation of the word “chantrap” is the version of the French tutors. After the defeat of Napoleon, many soldiers of the French army remained to live in Russia, hiring teachers as landlords. After all, the French language was then considered an indicator of education, involvement in high society.
In French, chantrap means "will not sing, not a singer": this is the verdict handed down by tutors who work in local parish churches as bandmasters. Children of peasants who did not have a musical ear or a melodious voice received such a sentence and remained left to their own devices, since most of them could not afford to go to school. Of course, they began to idly roam the streets, sometimes stealing sweets, fruits or small trinkets from merchants.
According to some versions of linguists, chantrap is a derivative of the ancient Czech “chantrock”, which meant a deceiver, a liar, while the “chantrock” came from the old German word “centrock”, which means deception.
Synonyms of the word
Erratic goal, scoundrel, trash and scum - these are all related words of chantrap, which further confirms the connection with the German origin of the word. In the same context they use the words: ragged, rogue and crooks, punks and bullying (from the word "bully"). The essence remains the same - chantrap. This is a collective word that incorporates any designations of people who are dishonest.
2010 film
In 2010, a talented director of Georgian origin Otar Ioseliani made the film of the same name - "Chantrap".
This movie was honored to participate in an out-of-competition program in Cannes and attracted great attention of critics and art lovers of this master. The film is about a freedom-loving artist who wants to live without the pressure of censorship and mass ideology. Under the influence of these feelings, he moves to live in the ideal, in his opinion, free country - France.
Some critics drew parallels with the director’s life, although the latter denies any similarities in the plot.