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Glossary entry

Russian term or phrase:

delat\' смазь кому-то

English translation:

kiss so\'s ass, suck up to

Added to glossary by Clive Wilshin
Dec 12, 2010 15:44
13 yrs ago
Russian term

смазь

Russian to English Other Other
А в телевизоре — Путин, делающий вселенскую смазь Ларри Кингу.

http://www.ej.ru/?a=note&id=10621
Proposed translations (English)
3 +1 kiss ass
4 +1 epicly grilling
5 [total] smack in the face (see explanations)
4 concocts a very special goo to grease the globe in its orbit on L.K. terms
4 (telling him)a blatant lie
3 holding him for a suckah

Discussion

Kiwiland Bear Dec 22, 2010:
It is also a grey area in the sense that when you discuss a meaning or the word/expression, can it be taken as a disagreement with some suggested answer(s)? When I say it means this and not that, do I run the risk of the response been hidden?
Kiwiland Bear Dec 22, 2010:
But... we are also reprimanded when we disagree with another answer if we post our own too. So what's left? I see nowhere to post your disagreement then.
rns Dec 22, 2010:
Well, I'd dare say this whole discussion should be hidden as it (1) violates site rule 3.4 and (2) contains opinions, which should have been expressed by peer comments.
Kiwiland Bear Dec 22, 2010:
Look at the thread as you left it: The first two visible posts are responses to... to whom? Or what? All the rest pretty much as well. And if you are going to delete the whole thread - sorry, that makes no sense at all.
Kiwiland Bear Dec 22, 2010:
@Myron So how are we supposed to discuss the issue? This IS called discussion area. Note that even the author of the answer in question agreed with the comment.

On top of that, makes no sense whatsoever to hide the root post in a long discussion but leave the rest of it - a new reader will be left wondering what are they talking about?

To summarize, I'm afraid I have to disagree with your decision in this case.
Myron Netchypor Dec 22, 2010:
Dear Colleagues, please follow the Site Rule 3.4 As a moderator I would like to draw your attention to the Site Rule 3.4: "The only acceptable means of commenting on another's answer is by using the peer comment feature. Using the discussion area, the answer posting form or the answer explanation box to comment on another's suggestions is not allowed." I am sorry but all the discussion entries that break the rule 3.4 will be hidden.
Oleksiy Markunin Dec 21, 2010:
2 Clive Wilshin I think u should reconsider. My variant seems to be the wrong one.
Oleksiy Markunin Dec 21, 2010:
Hm, I'm a bit late for the show. However, on second thought, I see your point, Kiwiland Bear.

Проявлялись часто скверные бурсацкие обычаи вроде, например, «смази вселенской», когда какой-нибудь хулиган вдруг подходит к тебе и мажет своей грязной рукой по лицу, приговаривая: «Смазь вселенская».
http://rusvera.mrezha.ru/599/11.htm

I think we need to work with the whole "делать вселенскую смазь"

I think u r right, then "Putin is dissing him".
rns Dec 21, 2010:
"Someone moves his open palm with spread out fingers over the face of the opponent pushing him out and down." — will you provide quotes from the transcript, which would resemble that?
Kiwiland Bear Dec 21, 2010:
Looking at this transcript: Don't you see he's deriding the guy? This is anything BUT "kiss ass" quote - he shows the guy to be an absolute idiot... and the guy doesn't even realise it, happily takes the bait.

To look at the roots of the expression (apart from what Andrei B. already quoted): Traditionally, "смазь" is done like that: Someone moves his open palm with spread out fingers over the face of the opponent pushing him out and down. For more insult, they can also grab the opponent's nose between the fingers and pull it forward and down too. Obviously, this can be done only to the totally subjugated, defeated "opponent" if you can still call him that.

Hardly the picture of "подлизываться" don't you think?

P.S. don't want to get into personal discussion above - just the meaning of the expression here.
rns Dec 21, 2010:
A passage in the transcript supporting the selected answer:

PUTIN Can I ask you one question?

KING: Sure.

PUTIN I don't know why, but the King leaves the scene at the U.S. stage. Now, --

KING: I sometimes don't know why myself.

PUTIN At the U.S. stage and the U.S. mass media, there are many talented and interesting people, but still there is just one King there. I don't ask why he is leaving. But, still, what do you think? When shall we have a right to cry out, long live the King, when there will be another man who is as popular in the whole word as you happen to be?

KING: Thank you. Thank you. I have no answer. Vladimir Putin, prime minister of Russia.

TRANSCRIPT ENDS
rns Dec 21, 2010:
For the record "Mr. Clive Wilshin doesn't seem to even try to understand the actual (not superficial) meaning of what he translates, and much less any translation that disagrees with what he "thought it meant" — Andrei B, discussion post at 10:25 GMT+2, 21 Dec 2010.

"I hope it's obvious to the unbiased reader that I'm only following up on Mr. K. Bear's remark about a misunderstanding rather than launching any attack at all." — Andrei B, discussion post at 12:47 GMT+2, 21 Dec 2010.
rns Dec 21, 2010:
1. "смазь" has, among others, a meaning translated as "kiss ass"
2. The asker knows better — it's his translation, not yours.
Andrei B Dec 21, 2010:
With K. Bear... but I must put it more explicitly: this is not just a misunderstanding.
Mr. Clive Wilshin doesn't seem to even try to understand the actual (not superficial) meaning of what he translates, and much less any translation that disagrees with what he "thought it meant"
If you want my reasons, please look here
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/russian_to_english/other/4117597
and you'll see how I wasted a lot of time and words in a hot post-factum discussion to demonstrate why the answer accepted in that instance was as unacceptable as this one here.
Since no response followed from Mr. C.W., I got an impression he simply didn't care if he was right or wrong, but I wasn't 100% sure.
So, when writing my answer on this page (+ an extensive explanation including a brief critique of others), I didn't really expect to get through to him; I was rather doing a double check of sorts
Now I'm sure my first impression was correct
LanaUK Dec 20, 2010:
to Kiwiland Bear It IS a misunderstanding.That's why you should've disagreed with this particular proposed answer like you've guided everyone with the previous question of this asker,which has never been graded.
Kiwiland Bear Dec 20, 2010:
Sorry, but I have to register my disagreement: Note that all other suggested translations agree on general drift: Putin is playing the boss here. He's putting down Larry, deriding him, playing him for a fool (a suckah as I put it).

I believe this is the correct meaning. The answer you accepted is exactly the opposite and, I believe, totally wrong. If you think about that - Putin isn't exactly known for "kissing ass" to anybody, rather to the contrary. So it doesn't even make sense given the context.

Sorry again to raise the issue but I don't think we can simply ignore the serious misunderstanding like that.

Proposed translations

+1
1 hr
Selected

kiss ass

Putin, who tries to be an epic kiss ass to Larry King..or smth like that =)

http://goo.gl/wusVx - 2nd definition

СМАЗЬ, смази, ·жен.

2. То же, что смазка во 2 ·знач. (спец.). Смазь для машин.
http://goo.gl/FNqae

I think here it has almost the same meaning as "подлизываться"..
If "kiss ass" is too strong a word you can choose smth different
http://goo.gl/noq0N
Peer comment(s):
agree tschingite : Очень точное наблюдение!!!
2 hrs
Thanks =)
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "This is what I thought it meant, but couldn't find corroboration. Thanks."
3 hrs

holding him for a suckah

I would go with this version rather than regular "sucker" to stress the kind of social circles that expression comes from.
Something went wrong...
+1
9 mins
Russian term (edited): делающий вселенскую смазь

epicly grilling

шмазь шмась
— http://www.gramota.ru/slovari/argo/53_16544

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 mins (2010-12-12 15:55:02 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

or rather "epically grilling"

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 15 hrs (2010-12-13 07:31:21 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

не стесняясь, со смехом сделала спутнику «вселенскую смазь» все[й] пятерней.
— http://livasprava.in.ua/archive/index.php?option=com_content...

"Если б такой задрался, то получил бы "вселенскую смазь", несмотря на всё моё уважение к кодексу уличной жизни."
— http://lit.kz/print/books/nagibin-yurii/v-te-yunye-gody

Он каждый день ждал курьера... увы! на горизонте действительно взошла новая звезда, но не он, Сапиентов, был этой звездою, а какой-то Крестовоздвиженский или Ризположенский, одним словом, некто такой, кому он еще в семинарии неоднократно задавал вселенскую смазь.
— http://az.lib.ru/s/saltykow_m_e/text_0340-1.shtml
Peer comment(s):
agree cyhul
16 hrs
Something went wrong...
1 day 2 hrs

concocts a very special goo to grease the globe in its orbit on L.K. terms

.
Something went wrong...
2 days 3 hrs

(telling him)a blatant lie

В данном контексте "вселенская смазь" означает "вселенская ложь" , в своём интервью Ларри Кингу Путин нагло врёт, пытается обмануть всех и вся включая Ларри Кинга./смотри ГЛАВНУЮ ССЫЛКУ ВНИЗУ/
Sadly, I haven't found direct explanation of this idiom in any dictionary only by analising a big number of articles, here are some of them:
www.svobodanews.ru/content/.../2087489.html - Сохраненная копияЛитературная газета, о газете, Сайт "Литературной газеты ...
4 авг 2010 ... Были на самом деле, и задача наша – не превращать родную историю во вселенскую смазь цвета гуталина, а тщательно отделить в ней зёрна от ...
ГЛАВНАЯ ССЫЛКА
http://brightonbeachnews.com/rus/о-методах-путина-лги-в-глаз...
www.lgz.ru/article/13612/ - Сохраненная копия
www.newsland.ru/Blog/View/user/.../id/97067/ - Сохраненная копияСветлана Семенова / «Его одушевлял принцип со всеми и для всех»
4 фев 2010... литературы – от них вся эта «умная» мешанина, вселенская смазь и взвесь расходится и шире, запыливая и запудривая более массовые мозги… ...
www.zvezda.ru/gnosis/2010/02/04/fedorov.htm - Сохраненная копия
Грани.Ру // Культура / Эссе / Рубинштейн
24 авг 2010... эсэры, большевики - такая вселенская смазь, которую вы вешаете на Ленина. Взрыв на Аптекарском обществе устроили максималисты, ...
www.grani.ru/Culture/essay/.../d.181021.html - Сохраненная копия
Something went wrong...
3 days 24 mins
Russian term (edited): [вселенская] смазь

[total] smack in the face (see explanations)

smack in the face (figurative) = something that will humiliate someone, often when it is considered deserved; an insult
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/smack in the face

is closest in figurative meaning (and sounds similar!) to
"смазь вселенская" = "смазь всеобщая"
These words (from the slang spoken by seminary students) were introduced into literary Russian in the mid-19th century by N.G. Pomyalovsky in "Очерки бурсы" ["Seminary Sketches" (c) Cornell University Press 1973]
Description [ibid]:
"он забрал лицо Омеги в пясть, так что оно между пальцами проступило жирными и лоснящимися складками, и тряс его за упитанные мордасы и кверху и книзу"
key words:
- мордасы (pl.) = mug ~ face
- пясть = mitt ~ palm or fist
Explanation [ibid]:
"Несчастного окончательно унизили и оскорбили широчайшей смазью"
Смазь was usually forced on a novice, on a younger or weaker classmate, or as a punishment (e.g., on a loser in a game)
i.e. "делать смазь всеобщую / вселенскую" = forcefully humiliate and/or insult as if by causing pain to the victim's face without inflicting severe injury

смазка, подлизываться, blatant lie are no good in terms of meaning

grilling = kicking someone up the arse from behind whilst they are bent over (for example while tending the grill) and catching the genital area with the tip of ones shoe/boot
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grilling
as well as "kick ass"
being remotely similar, is no good either since it connotes the part of the human body opposite to the face

"holding him for a suckah" is somewhat equivalent, but it is about general attitude rather than a particular act

"А в телевизоре — Путин, делающий вселенскую смазь Ларри Кингу"
can be translated this way:
"And on TV, you see Putin's total smack in the face of Larry King"
Something went wrong...
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