"Was there a boy": where does this expression come from? Was it a boy? And where is the boy where the phrase

Often people try to embellish their speech with beautiful and vivid expressions, the meanings and origins of which are not fully understood. Catch phrases tend to somewhat modify their original meaning and context of use over time. As, for example, the meaning of the phraseological unit "was there a boy." In what cases today can it be used to show off a rich vocabulary?

Where does the phrase "was there a boy"

There are several historical versions of which boy we are talking about. According to one of them, Ivan the Terrible sent his wife to a distant monastery because she was barren. Suddenly the news came that the queen had given birth to a son. Boris Godunov, who at that time was already close to the tsar and did not want to lose his actual power, sent his people there to check. But upon arrival, it turned out that the newborn prince died a strange death as a result of an accident. And the phrase, which later became winged, was uttered by Boris Godunov in response to accusations of murdering the heir to the throne with a hint that the disgraced queen never had any child.

Over the years, it is no longer possible to verify the plausibility of this story. Therefore, it is believed that the book "The Life of Klim Samgin" is the true source of phraseology. In this novel by a Russian, and then a Soviet writer, one can find a more complete version of the expression - “Was there a boy, maybe there wasn’t a boy?” (part 1, chapter 1).

Was it a boy? (the phrase in full: was there a boy, maybe there was no boy) - remorse. The desire to forget, to expel from memory a shameful, low deed committed in the past. At least, M. Gorky in the novel "Life of Klim Samgin" where does this phrase come from, means precisely the painful from the inability to correct the awareness of guilt.

As a child, Klim Samgin and his friends went skating on the river. The ice under his friend cracked and he went under the water. Klim tried to help, threw him a belt

“Boris caught the end of the belt, pulled it and easily moved Klim along the ice closer to the water,” Klim, squealing, closed his eyes and let go of the belt. And opening his eyes, he saw that the dark purple, heavy water was clapping more and more often on Boris’s shoulders, on his bare head, and that small, wet hands, gleaming red, were moving closer, breaking off the ice. With a convulsive movement of his whole body, Klim crawled away from these dangerous hands, but as soon as he crawled away, Boris’s hands and head disappeared, only a black astrakhan hat swayed on the agitated water, lead pieces of ice floated and humps of water stood up, reddish in the rays of sunset. Klim sighed deeply, relieved, all this terrible continued for a painfully long time. But although he was stupefied with fear, he was still surprised that Lydia just now rolled up to him, grabbed him by the shoulders, hit him with her knee in the back and screamed piercingly:
“Where… where are they?”
Klim watched as the water, calming down, flowed in one direction, playing with Boris's hat, looked and muttered:
- She drowned him ... He shouted - let him go, scolded her. He broke the belt...
Lydia screeched and fell onto the ice.
The ice creaked under the skates, the black figures of people rushed towards the opening, a man in a sheepskin coat thrust a long pole into the water and yelled:
– Disperse! Fail. It's lumpy here, gentlemen, the machine was working here, or you don't know!
Klim got to his feet, wanted to lift Lida, but they hit him, he fell on his back again, hit the back of his head, a mustachioed soldier grabbed his arm and drove him across the ice, shouting:
- Chase everyone!
And the peasant, stirring the water with a pole, shouted something else:
- Educated gentlemen, dispose, but do not know the law ...
And Klim was especially struck by someone's serious, incredulous question:
- Yes - was there a boy, maybe there was no boy?
"Was!" - Klim wanted to shout and could not.
He woke up at home, in bed, in a cruel heat.

In the novel, Klim Samghin is puzzled by the question “was there a boy” many times.

“The horror experienced by Klim in those moments when red, tenacious hands, protruding from the water, moved towards him, Klim firmly forgot; the scene of Boris's death was remembered to him more and more rarely and only as an unpleasant dream. But there was something intrusive in the words of the skeptical man, as if they wanted to establish themselves with a funny, winking saying: “Maybe there was no boy?”

And a more trivial explanation is doubt about the existence of the problem itself.:

“Yes, Paleolithic art was not associated with magic. With this he was forced ... to agree .... But then he expressed not a new, but a bold idea: did art exist at all in an era so remote from us? "Was there a boy? Or maybe there was no boy ”(G. Gore“ The Mistake of Professor Orochev ”)

"Life of Klim Samgin"

Gorky considered this novel to be his best book. He created it from 1925 until his death in 1936. The book describes the events of 40 years of modern Russian history from the 80s to 1918. The main idea of ​​the novel is the designation of a person who only argues, but does nothing. “Samgin is the protagonist of Russian pre-revolutionary reality, a vulgar who knows everything about everything, but is not carried away by anything, knows nothing and secretly despises everyone; a victim of all fashionable fads - from the social to the sexual revolution, but not completely surrendering to any hobby, although he knows how to be right in any circumstances. The original title of the book is “The History of an Empty Soul” (Dm. Bykov “Was there Gorky?”) Was it a boy? Was it a boy?

“Yes, was there a boy, maybe there was no boy.”
It is used: in case of doubts about the presence of the object itself, which gave cause for concern, trouble (iron.).

Encyclopedic Dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M .: "Lokid-Press". Vadim Serov. 2003.

What does the phrase "was there a boy" mean?

This is a phrase from a novel Gorky "Life of Klim Samgin". The boy Klim went skating with two children, the children fall through the ice, the girl is saved, but the boy is not found. One of the phrases of the seekers strikes Klim: “Yes - was it a boy maybe there was no boy? In this case, it is an attempt to avoid unpleasant reality behind doubt.

The phrase has become winged and means a strong doubt of the questioner in the presence of the subject of the search.

Z v e n k a

The main meaning of the phraseological unit "Was there a boy" lies in ridiculous situations, which, nevertheless, occur quite often. People are worried about something, looking for something, trying to find the right way out, and then suddenly one of them says: “Was there a boy?”, That is, why are we here, what is the subject of our search, is it necessary we are doing, should we continue? And in general: was something lost or was it never there at all?

In Gorky's story "The Life of Klim Samgin" the protagonist was a witness and participant in the tragedy. A boy and a girl drowned. The girl was found and buried, but the boy was never found. And people began to doubt whether this missing boy was at the scene? That's where the expression came from.

Borisov Igor

The phrase appeared in "Time of Troubles". In the sixteenth century. Then Tsarevich Dmitry was slaughtered. A state commission was created to conduct an investigation into the death of the heir to the throne. By the way, the last of the Rurik dynasty. As usual in Russia until now, neither the customers nor the perpetrators of this high-profile crime have been found. The highest commission came to the conclusion that the prince, playing "knives", himself accidentally stabbed himself. They say he suffered, a disease of "epilepsy" (epilepsy). Well, in mockery of such conclusions, the phrase "Was there a boy?" began to walk around the Mother See.

"Was there a boy" - where does this phrase come from?

Stanislav trivailo

Was it a boy?

From the novel "The Life of Klim Samgin" (part 1, ch. 1) by Maxim Gorky (pseudonym of Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, 1868-1936). The novel contains an episode from the childhood of the protagonist. The boy Klim and his comrades - Boris Varavka and Varya Somova - were skating. Suddenly the ice broke, and Boris and Varya were in the water. Klim tried to save them, handed Boris the end of his gymnasium belt, but, feeling that he was being pulled into the water, he let go of the belt. The children drowned. When the adults learned about the misfortune, the search for the drowned began, and Klim heard “someone’s serious incredulous question” that struck him:

Was there a boy, maybe there wasn’t a boy. ”

It is used in case of doubts about the presence of the object itself, which gave

Cause for concern, trouble (iron.).

http://www.bibliotekar.ru/encSlov/a/2.htm

Maxim Yu. Volkov

From the history. Belongs to Boris Godunov. After the death of Tsarevich Ivan, Ivan the Terrible had only one heir - Tsarevich Fedor, but he was in poor health. Boris Godunov managed to marry his sister, Irina, to him. At that time, Ivan the Terrible was married to the beautiful Solomonia Saburova, but she turned out to be barren and could not give the king an heir. For this she was sent into exile, to a distant monastery. But a few months later the news came from there that Solomonia had a son - Tsarevich Dmitry. Ivan the Terrible instructed Boris Godunov to look into this matter. Boris sent his people to the monastery, but they soon returned and reported the terrible news that supposedly the baby had accidentally fallen on a knife (scissors) and died. Many then attributed the "accidental death" of the baby to Boris Godunov, as the most interested in such an outcome, since after the death of Ivan the Terrible, Irina became the queen, and Boris himself became the de facto ruler of Russia, as the brother-in-law of the weak king. In general, this is how it turned out later. When Boris was accused of killing a baby, he excused himself "Were there a boy?" In general. But until his death, Boris Godunov himself dreamed of "bloody boys" in his eyes. Until now, historians do not know whether Tsarevich Dmitry really was or not, or it was just Solomonia Saburova who so avenged the disgrace of Ivan the Terrible.

Where do the phrases "was there a boy", "a mishandled Cossack" come from?

http://www.bolshoyvopros.ru/questions/57687-otkuda-poshlo-vyrazhenie-a-byl-li-malchik.html
Could be limited to one Cossack. - 5 years ago

About the "mishandled Cossack".

Recall the first episode of the once-cult film "The Elusive Avengers". The film is divided into quotes. From there, the phrase "but the Cossacks are mishandled."

About the boy.

It is believed that this phrase belongs to Boris Godunov, who brought Ivan the Terrible the news of the allegedly accidental death of his newborn heir (it was beneficial for Godunov to have no more competitors to the throne except for his daughter's husband). It is still not known whether that heir was actually born.

Svet-max

"Was there a boy? Or maybe there was no boy?" - a phrase from the novel by Alexei Maksimovich Gorky "The Life of Klim Samgin"

"Mishanded Cossack", or rather "A Cossack is mishandled" - a phrase from the movie "The Elusive Avengers"

Z v e n k a

1. Phrase about a boy. In Gorky's novel "The Life of Klim Samgin", in its very first chapter, there is an amazing scene from the childhood of the main character. The children skating on the ice on the river began to play, and two of them fell into the icy water. And, unfortunately, they drowned. Boy and girl. Adults began to look for children. And one of them dropped this unsettling remark, which later became a phraseological unit: “Yes, was he, this boy? Or maybe there wasn’t a boy?”

2 .Phrase about the "mishandled Cossack". This is from the unforgettable movie "The Elusive Avengers". She later appeared in many films. For example, in "The meeting place cannot be changed."

These are the so-called "winged expressions" from a very good Soviet film and novel. This is about a Cossack girl from "The Elusive Avengers" and about a boy from Gorky's novel "The Life of Klim Samgin". Was there a boy - means an expression of uncertainty about something. And about the Cossack behind the elephant, this is the type when someone rubs himself into your confidence, but in fact he does it out of his personal (or other people's) interests. type of spy

0 Quite often, in everyday speech, people use vivid and figurative expressions, the meaning of which not everyone can correctly interpret. Today we will talk about one of these phrases, " Was there a boy?".
However, before continuing, I would like to advise you to read some more interesting news on the subject of phraseological units. For example, the phrase Better a tit in the hands than a crane in the sky; translation Enfant terrible, meaning Klin is kicked out with a wedge, which means From the fire to the frying pan, etc.
So let's continue whence the phrase Was there a boy? This is an incomplete quote, the full one sounds like this: "Yes, was there a boy, maybe there was no boy." Then the next question arises, who is the author? In fact, this phraseological unit appeared in the work of Maxim Gorky " Life of Klim Samgin", later the phrase was shortened, and it began to sound more ironic.

Was there a boy- means the speaker's doubt in the very fact of the existence of the object of discussion

This quote is in the first part, the first chapter of the novel " Life of Klim Samgin". This phrase is uttered by one of the characters in this work, expressing doubts about whether the boy actually drowned when he was skating. And the situation was as follows. On a cold winter day, Klim takes two children with him and goes to the ice-covered river. He was supposed to look after the children, but this is quite difficult to do, because the kids are very restless. There was a tragedy, two teenagers, a boy and a girl go to the bottom. After the search, only the body of the girl was found, and the boy seemed to have dissolved in the water.
It was this circumstance that made the hero wonder if there was a boy?

It is possible that Klim just made up a second child because he was under stress? Be that as it may, you need to familiarize yourself with the Russian classics in order to be aware when you are asked where the phrase comes from Was there a boy? Although, if you are used to stupid Hollywood scenarios, then know that all of Gorky's books are rather gloomy and hopeless.

Although, after reading about the suffering of heroes, the reader may want to change his life for the better, and will make every effort for this, and the literature of Maxim Gorky will be his incentive.

Today, this phraseological unit is used in cases where:

Discuss strangers with doubt.

They try to show their powerlessness, solve a problem or find something.

Express skepticism to their counterpart.

They try to show their doubt about something.

If you tell or affirm something, and the phrase " Was there a boy", then you have the right to get angry and demand additional

Was it a boy?
From the novel "The Life of Klim Samgin" (part 1, ch. 1) by Maxim Gorky (pseudonym of Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, 1868-1936). The novel contains an episode from the childhood of the protagonist. The boy Klim and his comrades - Boris Varavka and Varya Somova - were skating. Suddenly the ice broke, and Boris and Varya were in the water. Klim tried to save them, handed Boris the end of his gymnasium belt, but, feeling that he was being pulled into the water, he let go of the belt. The children drowned. When the adults learned about the misfortune, the search for the drowned began, and Klim heard “someone’s serious incredulous question” that struck him:
“Yes, was there a boy, maybe there was no boy.”
It is used: in case of doubts about the presence of the object itself, which gave cause for concern, trouble (iron.).

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• - From the novel "The Life of Klim Samgin" by Maxim Gorky. The novel contains an episode from the childhood of the protagonist. The boy Klim and his comrades - Boris Varavka and Varya Somova - were skating ...
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• - Cm....

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• - noun, number of synonyms: 2 her boy lover ...

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"Was there a boy?" in books

Boy Kny

From the book Polar Pilot author

Kny's boy I was taking the doctor to a distant winter quarters where there were sick people. When we arrived, the winterers asked the doctor first of all to help the boy Kna, the son of a local hunter. The doctor hurried to the patient. “I really like that you take care of the boy so much,”

Lena Sazonov (“The boy is frisky, the boy is cute ...”)

From the book Tenderer than the sky. Collection of poems author Minaev Nikolay Nikolaevich

Lena Sazonov (“A frisky boy, a cute boy ...”) A frisky boy, a cute boy, You listen to my speech: - You need to fit in with all your strength. To be healthy and full And not skinny like a skeleton, You need to eat with appetite Without a trace the whole dinner. Do whatever it says

Was it a boy?

From the book General Dima. Career. Jail. Love author Yakubovskaya Irina Pavlovna

Was it a boy? The verdict of the court on fifty-eight pages tells how books have been stolen from the Russian National Library for years by everyone who is not lazy. And who is too lazy - did not steal. But there were none. The mysterious disappearance of books from the library and their return there

"THAT" BOY

From the book Memories of Babel the author Utyosov Leonid

"Was there a boy?"

From the book Passion for Maxim. Gorky: nine days after death author Basinsky Pavel Valerievich

"Was there a boy?" A metrical entry in the book of the Church of Barbara the Great Martyr, which stood on Dvoryanskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod: “Born on March 16, 1868, and baptized on the 22nd, Alexey; his parents: tradesman Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov of the Perm province and his legal wife Varvara

"Was there a boy?"

From the book Passion for Maxim (Documentary novel about Gorky) author Basinsky Pavel Valerievich

"Was there a boy?" A metrical entry in the book of the Church of Barbara the Great Martyr, which stood on Dvoryanskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod: “Born 1868 on March 16, and baptized on the 22nd, Alexey; his parents: Maksim Savvatievich Peshkov, from the Perm province, and his legal wife, Varvara

"Was there a boy?"

From the book of Gorky author Basinsky Pavel Valerievich

"Was there a boy?" A metrical entry in the book of the Church of Barbara the Great Martyr, which stood on Dvoryanskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod: “Born 1868 on March 16, and baptized on the 22nd, Alexey; his parents: tradesman Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov of the Perm province and his legal wife Varvara

"THAT" BOY

From the book Near and Far author Paustovsky Konstantin Georgievich

"THAT" BOY A lot of people lived at Babel's dacha: Babel himself, his quiet and strict mother, the red-haired beauty wife Evgenia Borisovna, Babel's sister Mary and, finally, the mother-in-law with her little grandson. All this society Babel jokingly and irreverently called "caudle." And in one

CHAPTER EIGHT THE WOLF BOY AND THE PIE-BOY

From Kipling's book author Livergant Alexander Yakovlevich

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Boy!

From the book I'm always lucky! [Memoirs of a happy woman] author Lifshits Galina Markovna

Boy! I gave birth to my third son in our military hospital. Next to the hospital building was the only Orthodox church in the city of St. Gorazd. My son was born at about five in the evening, and the bells rang, calling for the evening service. About each of my children, I kept

Was it a boy?

From the book of Eduard Streltsov. Perpetrator or victim? author Vartanyan Axel

Was it a boy? Silence fell immediately, painfully long, dead, until the ringing in the ears. For seven years, they tried to convince us that there was no such person and football player - Eduard Streltsov. Everything connected with him is nothing but a bluff, a mirage, an optical illusion, a hallucination,

Boy Kny

From the book Heaven begins from earth. Pages of life author Vodopyanov Mikhail Vasilievich

Kny's boy I was taking the doctor to a distant winter quarters where there were sick people. When we arrived, the winterers asked the doctor first of all to help the boy Kna, the son of a local hunter. The doctor hurried to the sick man.

Boy "It's okay to start talking later - he's a boy!"

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From the book Russia and Germany: together or apart? the author Kremlev Sergey

Good boy - bad boy

From the book Consciousness: Explore, Experiment, Practice author Stephens John

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