Are You Out of Your Mind?

Among linguists there is a phenomenon called the “frequency fallacy.” This is when you think “suddenly everyone is saying X” but everyone has been saying X for decades and you’ve only just noticed it. Once you notice it, you pay attention to it and it seems that it is being said more and more. Actually, you’re just listening for it more and more.

My personal frequency fallacy concerns the antonyms адеква́тный and неадеква́тный (literally, adequate and inadequate). At some point I noticed a major shift in usage, and once I noted it, it seemed like the whole country was doing it.

At first glance these aren’t tricky words. They came to Russian from Latin via French in the eighteenth century and mean in Russian more or less what they mean in English: адеква́тный, адеква́тно (adequate, adequately) and неадеква́тный, неадеква́тно (inadequate, inadequately).

Адеква́тный can have the sense of being socially, morally or otherwise appropriate: Страна́ должна́ обеспе́чить адеква́тные и своевре́менные отве́ты на любы́е угро́зы безопа́сности госуда́рства. (The country must give appropriate and timely response to any threats to state security.) In some contexts it’s a bit closer to sufficient: Де́йствия в отноше́нии проти́вника должны́ быть адеква́тными, но разу́мными. (Responses to the enemy must be sufficient but reasonable.)

Or it can just mean normal, not extreme: Нет адеква́тной реа́кции со стороны́ госуда́рства, а в ча́стности, правоохрани́тельных о́рганов. (The state and in particular the law enforcement agencies react improperly.)

In youth slang, адеква́тный becomes адеква́т and can mean “nothing great, but not too bad”: “Кино́? Адеква́т. Мне бо́льше нра́вится пе́рвый фильм э́того режиссёра.” (“The film? It was okay. I like the director’s first movie better.”) Or it can mean sane, sober, functioning: “Е́сли ма́ма в адеква́те, то всё поймёт бы́стро.” (“If the mom has her head screwed on right, she’ll get it right away.”)

Adults also use адеква́тный to mean appropriate behavior: Он адеква́тно себя́ ведёт. (He’s behaving normally.)

Неадекватный may refer to anything that is inappropriate, like off-color language: Он ча́сто брал меня́ на перегово́ры в ка́честве перево́дчика, и приходи́лось соотве́тствовать и то́ну бесе́ды, и её ско́рости, и неадеква́тной фразеоло́гии. (He often took me to negotiations as an interpreter and I had to convey the tone of the conversation, its speed and the inappropriate expressions.)

It can also refer to something that is lacking: Оце́нка перево́да то́лько по его́ чи́сто литерату́рным досто́инствам, без учёта други́х фа́кторов бу́дет заве́домо неадеква́тной. (Judging a translation only by its purely literary virtues without considering other factors is clearly going to be insufficient.) Or otherwise inadequate: Диплома́ты, поли́тики и генера́лы оказа́лись неадеква́тны вы́зовам, кото́рые предъяви́ла пе́рвая мирова́я война́. (Diplomats, politicians and general were not up to the challenge of World War I.)

And неадеква́тный or its slangy version неадеква́т are also used to mean insane, nutty, or bizarre. Sometimes this is the assessment of a medical professional:  Неадеква́тный пацие́нт напа́л на врача́. (A delusional patient attacked a doctor.) But most of the time it’s an amateur assessment: Владе́льцы уча́стков ушли́ в неадекват и заломи́ли таку́ю це́ну, что у меня́ аж че́люсть отви́сла. (The owners of the property lost their friggin’ minds and named a price so high that my jaw dropped.)

The sea change in usage? A linguist points out that a decade or two ago the phrase, Он о́чень адеква́тный и вполне́ вменя́емый (He’s completely normal and absolutely in his right mind), would be a clinical assessment of normality — nothing special. But now it’s a compliment. Being адеква́тный went from neutral to highly positive.

So if someone calls you адеква́т, give him a high five.