What is the meaning of the saying "take water to offended people"?

You do not need to study the numerous pages on the Internet devoted to this saying for a long time to be convinced of the amazing variety of its interpretations, sometimes very contradictory. Many bewildered people ask a question, enter into a dispute, seeking an explanation of the saying "They carry water to offended people."

Why exactly "offended"

Does the meaning of the adage “They bring water to the offended” hint that the “offended”, that is, people deprived of something, always get the hardest and most ungrateful work? By the way, in the case of such an understanding, the saying is taken for granted, as a banality. Or is it a kind of warning for these same "offended"? And why is it their lot to carry water, and not, say, chop wood or cut down wood?

And how does this correspond to the statement of the classical Explanatory Dictionary of S. I. Ozhegov that the expression “carry someone on water” means abusing his docile, kind character, burdening with tedious and not prestigious work?

Proverb or saying

But before you begin to clarify the meaning of the saying "They take water to offended people," does it not hinder to clarify what is being said: a proverb or a proverb?

Even in this matter, it is not so easy to achieve clarity. But these are different concepts.

To be precise, the proverb is a concise, rhythmically organized folk saying with an instructive meaning. A proverb is a truncated or underdeveloped proverb, which, as a rule, does not constitute a complete sentence. Example: “The devil is on the cakes”.

It is necessary to imagine that any common expression, whether it is a proverb or a saying, exists (walks between people) as a kind of living entity. That is, it changes with them and with time, therefore, it can acquire a new meaning that is different from the original.

150 years old vocabulary change

“Water is taken to the offended” - the meaning of the saying, and its lexical composition has changed since it was recorded in 1867 in the Explanatory Dictionary of V. I. Dahl “Proverbs and sayings of the Russian people”. “Angry water is carried on a stubborn horse” - that’s how it sounded 150 years ago.

How did “angry” turn into “offended” and how do they differ from them? It turned out that many of our contemporaries do not feel the difference here and perceive these words as synonyms.

An angry, angry, even angry - this is a person out of emotional balance. (Compare: “An angry man doesn’t ride with pots” or even “An angry man doesn’t ride with pots”). Linguistic experts bring the word "angry" together with the word "heart" - to scribble, to do something in the hearts, that is, in haste, thoughtlessly. And according to Christian ideas, the heart is a place of concentration of anger, one of the seven deadly sins.

Angry or angry

The meaning of the proverb "They take water to the offended" has one more meaning. If you dig deeper the root base of the "angry" and angry, it turns out that the "anger" in its origin is related to the word "fire". How to put out the fire? It is filled with water.

This is how an ancient and very deep explanation of the saying "They carry water to the offended" is revealed. And in everyday understanding, she expressed a warning, good advice to a man who was soon angry - to change her behavior, to dampen her ardor. At the same time, the understanding that being a water carrier was a hard lesson and not one of the most honorable ones was also lifted.

Water museum

And the explanation of the proverb “They carry water to offended people” at the exposition of the Water Museum in St. Petersburg does not stand up to criticism at all. It comes down to a simple illustration of everyday circumstances: rude, impolite water carriers that offend people are punished by forcing them to work for free. One might think that for some reason water carriers among all city workers were particularly intolerant (and where is the written evidence of this?) And the police had to specifically monitor and punish them.

The “legend” that the unscrupulous distributors of water replaced the high-quality water, drawn from the full-flowing and clean Neva, with the muddy vodka from Fontanka or the Moika for profit, gave them the same hasty writing. It would not hurt the authors of such legends to take into consideration the idea that water was transported not only in St. Petersburg.

Word transformation

But how did the transformation of the angry into the offended come about? The fact is that the word "angry" is in the same synonymous row with the word "touchy". And logically, this is understandable: after all, unreasonably angry, angry, hot-tempered solely because of a bad nature, a person easily becomes resentful for no apparent reason.

And here again we have to talk about the linguistic hearing loss of our contemporaries, about the inattention to the semantic nuances of the form of the word.

“Touchy” is a character trait of a person who is inclined to be offended, regardless of whether there is a reason for this. "Offended" - this is the one who knowingly offended, humiliated. And why should this man, already injured, be offended once again - to carry water on him?

Not a man, but a horse

The meaning of the saying "they take water to offended people" is sometimes transferred not to a person, but to a horse. Indeed, you cannot take water to a place on a hot horse; you will scatter along the road. Peaceful, mostly old horses or geldings, that is, “offended”, are suitable for this work. In Russian literature, the phrase "water nag" was often used in the meaning: driven, exhausted by overwork.

Criminal jargon

But closer to the truth are those scholars of modern speech who point to the widespread introduction of the criminal world vocabulary into the spoken language in recent decades. In the jargon of criminals, “offended” (or “omitted”) is a homosexual prisoner of the lowest reputation.

The meaning “Water is carried on the offended” here already comes close to the proverb “Water is taken on the fools” or “Water is carried on the offended by the devil”.

So, when we say “They carry water to angry people” (and this option has not yet been completely disused), we want to make someone understand about its excessive “anger” - inappropriate pride, ambitiousness. We kind of urge a person to be more modest in his own interests.

But the meaning of the saying "they take water to offended people" will be different. He simply states that the one who has been ignored by the fate and attention of people and who has come to terms with this, has an unsweetened fate. Neighbors will not be slow to take advantage of this. That is, it is closer to the interpretation given in the dictionary of S. I. Ozhegov, although the dictionary gives only the proverb “carry water”.

Try comparing these two options. The latter looks flatter, less interesting in literary terms.

Modern semantic nuances and historical heritage

There are many other variants of the proverb that are not so widespread: “they carry water” on “fools”, on “stubborn”, on “good”, on “trusting”. Unlike the original, there are no negative values, there are also positive characters - “good”, “trusting”.

It is curious that the expression “carry water” as part of a proverb has turned into an independent phraseological unit, and it takes on different semantic connotations. So, a working, hardworking, physically strong person is characterized by his ability to "carry water." And sometimes this phrase sounds ironic: "Yes, you can carry water on it!"

A proverb (or proverb), being a stable phrase, is not something unambiguous given once and for all. It connects us with the historical origins of our culture, but remains vibrant and somewhat changeable.