Letter Zyu
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Letter Zyu () is a Russian
phraseme A phraseme, also called a set phrase, fixed expression, multiword expression (in computational linguistics), or idiom, is a multi-word or multi-morphemic utterance whose components include at least one that is selectionally constrained or restri ...
, meaning the contortion of the human body into a strange, improbable, hunched shape. This is a relatively new
idiomatic expression An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a figurative or non-literal meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiomatic expression's meaning is different from the lite ...
, dating from the 1970s or 1980s, which has come to acquire a variety of other meanings in the process of becoming more widespread.


History


Origin

A hypothesis for the origin of the phrase was offered in an article in the journal "Russian speech" by A. V. Zelenin, who believed that it originated from films about
Zorro Zorro ( or , Spanish for "fox") is a fictional character created in 1919 by American Pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashin ...
, the hallmark of which were the letter Z, and had spread in the 1970s and 80s among college students. According to Zelenin, the letter zyu was created by replacing the last two letters of the British English name for the Latin letter Z with the letter "
Yu (Cyrillic) Yu or Ju (Ю ю; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script used in East Slavic and Bulgarian alphabets. In English, Yu is commonly romanized as or . In turn, is used, where available, in transcriptions of English letter (in ope ...
". Zelenin believed that this change occurred under the influence of the Greek letters Mu and Nu, the phonetic form of which, in his view, bemused students. However others disagree with the association with Zorro, claiming that the letter 'Z' itself reminds a person kneeling in a bent position.


Later usage

Zelenin wrote that, initially, in 1980s, the phrase "the letter zyu" denoted the strangely bent position of the human body that was widespread among car owners in the Soviet Union who spent a lot of time repairing their cars. Later, toward the end of the 1980s, the phraseme entered into the lexicon of dacha owners and came to mean long-term work in a kneeling position on the ground. This usage, without reference to the dacha or
automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
s, became widespread not only in the spoken language, but also in the press and in literary language. In the process of evolving into an idiomatic expression, the phrase became distanced from its original meaning, "resembling the letter Z," and came to mean curvature of any kind. The expression is now used to refer to any object that is found in a curved, strange state. In the mid-1990s, the expression penetrated into journalism, undergoing bizarre semantic transformations. According to Zelenin, "the letter zyu" contained significant potential and in the near future would be widespread in phraseological textbooks and dictionaries. However, the expression "the letter zyu" can be found only in the lexicon of speakers living in large metropolitan areas in Russia and, to a lesser extent, in some countries of the former
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. Thus, the Ukrainian idiom ''(zignuty) yak letter zyu'' ("(bent) like the letter zyu") attracted the attention of the
Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...
N. F. Umantseva. In Russian-speaking communities of foreign countries outside the former Soviet Union, the expression is not popular. According to A. V. Zelenin, this is due to the fact that Russian people surrounded by the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from ...
are less likely to discover the possibility of a different,
ironic Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...
take on the letter Z.


Other meanings

The large variety of meanings taken on by the expression was due to a shift in semantic emphasis from the second word, "zyu," to the first word, "letter." Zelenin characterized this as the "actualization of the first, nominative, element of the combination." By a transfer of meaning, "the letter zyu" began to denote illegible handwriting, a mysterious character, or just scribbles. In the ''Great dictionary of Russian proverbs'' of Mokienko and Nikitina, there is an alternative meaning of the expression: there, the letter zyu is described as school jargon, a playful nickname for a math teacher. A related, new slang phrase is also found there: the "clumsy zyu," which denotes a strangely dressed man. There is a popular computer program Bukva zyu ("Letter Zu"), intended for the transliteration of English letters and their combinations in Russian letters.


Zyuganov and letter zyu

The first syllable of the surname of
Gennady Zyuganov Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (; born 26 June 1944) is a Russian politician who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and served as Member of the State Duma since 1993. He is also the Chair of the Union ...
is actively used as a source for his nicknames. In 1999, Dmitry Bykov published an article on the political career of G.A. Zyuganov, entitled "The Letter Zyu". In this article, he writes about Zyuganov as a loser politician, in particular noting that his name associates with the "zyu", a
radiculitis Radicular pain, or radiculitis (from the ), is pain "radiated" along the dermatome (sensory distribution) of a nerve due to inflammation or other irritation of the nerve root (radiculopathy) at its connection to the spinal column. A common form ...
pose". On Zyuganov's 65th birthday, trade unionists presented him with, among other things, a depiction of "the 34th letter of the
Russian alphabet The Russian alphabet (, or , more traditionally) is the script used to write the Russian language. The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters: twenty consonants (, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ), ten vowels (, , , , , , , , , ) ...
– the letter Zyu" (see illustration). Zyuganov said on this occasion: "The alphabet shall be kept intact, and this letter will be used only on holidays."


Literature

*


Notes and references

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em Russian-language idioms