Less than PC Russian

The domino revolutions in the Middle East got me thinking about the word “Arab” (арап), along with some other less-than-politically-correct Russian colloquialisms. Even if one never intends to use such terms, it is important to understand their meaning and usage.

Quite often in Russia someone will blurt, “Ты на арапа меня не бери!” (“Don’t try to pull a fast one on me!”) This idiom jumped into the Russian mainstream from thieves’ slang some time ago, and now брать на арапа has become a multipurpose idiom. It means to act rudely and arrogantly (i.e. грубо и нагло), to exert pressure, often by way of a ruse. It can also mean to cheat in card games, to force a suspect to plead guilty on false evidence. Nice general translations are “to pull a fast one” or “to take someone for a ride.”

But what do Arabs have to do with it? In fact, nothing. This old word арап (note that it ends with a п not a б), according to Ushakov’s authoritative dictionary, has two meanings. АРАП 1. Негр, вообще чернокожий 2. Плут, обманщик, пройдоха. (1. A negro, a black. 2. A rogue, a rascal.)

It turns out that, in the second meaning, aрап is just a distorted version of the ancient Russian word “воропъ” (or врапъ) which means - “налёт, нападение разведывательного отряда” (a raid, an incursion). In Russian chronicles one will also find the synonyms as наворопъ, навропъ, наврапъ (to pillage or loot). Note also the equivalents for брать на арапа: заправлять арапа or запускать арапа, which means to cheat, to fool someone.

Another ethnically un-PC verb is выцыганивать/выцыганить, which has the word цыган as its root. It means “to beg for something,” “to cheat someone out of something,” or “to get something for free.” The historical basis for this verb is that gypsies in Russia were – and, sorry, still are – notorious for all sorts of thievery and cons. In fact, in tsarist Russia, it could be said that gypsies were the unsurpassed конокрады (horse-thieves). Thus the famous song of Яшка Цыган (Yashka the Gypsy) from the movie Неуловимые мстители (Elusive Avengers):

Выглянул месяц и снова
Спрятался за облаками
На пять замков запирай вороного
Выкраду вместе с замками

The moon showed up and again
Hid behind the clouds
Secure your black horse with five locks
And I’ll steal him and the locks as one

And in the film Место встречи изменить нельзя (The Meeting Place Shall Not Be Changed), when investigator Sharapov protests, saying he has no romantic interest in one Varya, his Ukrainian colleague Pasyuk offers a witty retort (in Ukrainian): “Та я и бачу, шо тебе до неё никакого дила, як тому цыгану до лошади!” (“Yeah, right, I could tell you couldn't care less about her - just like a gypsy about a horse!”)*

Similarly, the pejorative цыганщина (gypsification) refers to something that is sugary or melodramatic, like songs or novels, or to characters who are hot-tempered and passionate.

An uninvited Tatar

Of course, one of the best-known proverbs that fails the PC test is Незваный гость хуже татарина (an uninvited guest is worse than a Tatar). This too has historical roots, though deeper ones, dating to the time of the Tatar yoke (1237-1480). Old grievances are long forgotten, and mores and times have changed, but proverbs live on. Just be sure not to use this proverb when dealing with someone bearing the name of Khabibulin, Khusainov or Tarpischev. You might break more than ice.

Personally, I am not so concerned about being PC. I like to use the full palette of my русский язык. For instance, if I were to write about the aforementioned revolutions, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that Khaddafi заправлял арапа both to his own people and the international community for quite some time. And I would add that the said international community behaved something like an uninvited татарин, and only just saved face after managing to выцыганить a resolution through the UN Security Council.