A teaspoon per hour. “A teaspoon per hour... A teaspoon per hour

Takuan about the tea ceremony (cha-no-yu) “The principle of cha-no-yu lies in the spirit of the harmonious fusion of Heaven and Earth and is a means of establishing universal peace. Nowadays, people have turned the tea ceremony into a simple event associated with meeting friends, talking about worldly

Zay, are you awake? You're getting ready for work... Well, okay, love-kiss-bye.

After an hour and a half:

Well, are you at work? What are you doing? Mmm, you work... And I work. Okay, love-kiss-bye.

In one hour:

Zai, what are you doing? Are you having lunch? What do you have for lunch? Oh, did you buy a salad at the store? Which one? Vegetable? Tasty? Okay, love-kiss-bye.

In another hour:

Angrily, I throw my pen on the table and leave the office! And no, it’s not my girlfriend calling me, it’s my colleague calling her boyfriend. During a working day, I witness 6-8 of these, of course, meaningful and important conversations. Then a colleague complains that her man is indignant at the calls and that they laugh at him at work, saying he’s henpecked. I cautiously note that perhaps it’s really worth calling less often, to which I get “none of your business, don’t interfere in our lives,” only in a more polite form. Yes, with joy, I don’t care about you at all, but after a couple of days you yourself start crying again that the young man got away with it, doesn’t want to spend time with you, but only wants to have fun with his friends.

Taught by experience, I sit and silently nod sympathetically, thinking to myself that if you manage to bore me with incessant calls and discussions on the topic of how stubborn and selfish he is, then what is it like for a man living with you under the same roof. Involuntarily, you will try to run away from home anywhere, just to take a break from it.

Before I met this colleague, I thought that such girls were found only in jokes, but no - here sits a living example of a brain-eater girl, ready to harp on one single topic in conversations day after day: “I worry about him, but he doesn’t care about me.” appreciates."

Let me clarify, what exactly should be valued?

Well, - the colleague is indignant, - I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I play sports.

Ok, I say, aren’t you doing this for yourself?

What valuable things do you give to your man? Do you cook, wash, clean? Yes, but equally with him, dividing household responsibilities in half. Interesting time together? No, you constantly complain that your interests do not coincide at all. Warmth and comfort? Yeah, with eternal claims, “you don’t value me, you don’t love me.” Sex? Well, I don’t know, we haven’t discussed such intimate issues, I admit that you are a queen in bed... Although, wait, you just recently said that since he behaves so boorishly, he won’t get you in the near future. Money? No, his salary is many times higher than yours, and you have already wisely distributed that salary two months in advance, planning a week-long trip to your relatives, whom he does not like, but will get to know better and will definitely love! So why, why should he value you? He gets nothing from you except endless fraying of nerves and annoying phone calls!

The mood is terrible.

I don't want to do anything.

Whatever I try, everything falls out of my hands.

There is a desire to take over and fire everyone.

But where will I find new employees?

I explain, I tell, I ask, I demand.

They listen to me, and everything remains the same.

I remember how I did it back in the day.

One day he couldn’t stand it, he called the editor on duty Alla Vitalievna Perevalova (she went to my seminar for several years) and said: “That’s it! The newspaper ceases its life. Make an announcement about it."

And he fired all the employees. The newspaper believed and did not believe everything that was happening. My students worked there at that time: Sergei Paramonov, Vita Malygina, Maria Barabash, Vladimir Safronov and others.

Simon Lvovich Soloveichik

True, the next day Simon Lvovich Soloveichik, having calmed down, withdrew his order and returned the employees to the editorial office.

Today I could hardly resist doing the same.

Getting fired is easy, but later it will be difficult.

I'm tired of banging my head against the wall.

I'm tired of proving to everyone and everything that computer literacy is needed.

I'm tired of telling people to spend their time wisely.

I’m tired of proving the obvious: a culture of work is needed, including at the computer.

You can’t poke at the computer keyboard, typing a teaspoon per hour.

This is how we work, work - I’m talking about the process of creating a document, writing certain papers - ministers, their deputies, heads of main departments, clerks, teachers, doctors, directors, artists, journalists, writers, critics, archivists, librarians ( I’ll continue to list – I won’t finish by morning).

I’d rather look at the faces of the new soloists now and calm down.

Here they are, the faces.

But the truth is, they are good people. Thanks to them.

I absolutely love making other people happy. In this case, I myself feel joy. Often, when signing books, I write: “Make yourself and those around you happy more often.” But our officials, in my opinion, have a different slogan: “Make sure that whoever enters your office leaves upset.”

Yours, Vladimir Vladimirovich Shakhidzhanyan

P.S. Today, when I publish this diary (the end of September, and I’m writing about the end of March), everyone is talking about how libraries are coming to an end. For more than three years I persuaded Sergei Aleksandrovich Kapkov to give me any library. I promised to turn it into a very popular club in a short time, where smart, talented people would gather and gain intelligence. They promised me three years, but in the end they showed me nothing.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kapkov

I took this photo in the office of the Chairman of the City Duma, where we had a meeting with Sergei Alexandrovich, and in the presence of the head of the Moscow City Duma, Vladimir Platonov, he promised to quickly resolve all issues. Give it and forget it. And I didn’t decide anything.

Why do we live so poorly? Because we can promise to solve a small problem for three years, and then still refuse to solve it.

Bravo, Sergei Alexandrovich Kapkov! You haven’t worked for a long time, but your business lives on. Many leaders I meet give their word and forget about it.

The sweetest pleasure is to give pleasure to others.

Stanislaus Jean de Boufflet (1737 - 1815), marquis, French poet and politician

How many phraseological units do you know? Are their meanings clear and how many examples can you think of?

There are more than one and a half thousand phraseological units in the Russian language. And these are only those that have been studied by linguists. Their diversity cannot be conveyed, because phraseological units are used in everyday situations, they denote character traits, weather conditions, etc.

More often, other terms are used to define this phenomenon - they are called idioms, which is partly true. An idiom is a type of phraseological unit. This will be discussed a little later. Phraseologisms are often called catchphrases.

The famous Russian literary critic Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky, who lived in the century before last, spoke out about set phrases. He called them the “physiognomy” of the Russian language. Also, in his understanding, a phraseological unit is a speech instrument that is unique.

In this article you will add another Russian set expression to your collection of phraseological units - “a teaspoon per hour.” We have also collected synonyms and antonyms of this phrase for you.

What is a phraseological unit?

This is what we call stable expressions in linguistics, the meaning of which is derived from the sum of all the words included in it. In other words, a phraseological unit conveys meaning only if its composition is not violated.

This phenomenon differs from simple phrases. Linguists identify a number of characteristics by which they are usually distinguished. The most important thing is integrity. The same ability to function, that is, to convey meaning in language.

See for yourself with an example. In Russian, we know the phraseological unit “hang your nose,” which means “to be sad.” It came to us from the world of music, where it was used in its literal meaning. “Hang your nose on the fifth,” was the phrase. When playing, the violinists reached for the first string, the fifth, with their noses, which created a sad look. Later, this statement turned into a phraseological unit, which acquired its current meaning on the basis of a metaphor. Its meaning is available to us from dictionaries, since the imagery has disappeared over time.

Types

It is customary to divide phraseological units into groups. There are rather fuzzy boundaries between these types, since this linguistic phenomenon is complex and unstable.

• The first group includes those very idioms in which the words are firmly “grown” to each other. That's what they call - fusions. An example of this type is “beating the whistle.”
• The second group has more free forms. Words are diluted with pronouns, adjectives, etc. They are distinguished from adjuncts by the presence of imagery. This type is called unity. An example of unity is the phrase “fall into (someone’s/your/fraudulent) network.”
• The third group contains free phraseological units. Their name is combinations. They contain words that behave freely and can be changed. An example of this type of statement is "arch enemy."

Meaning

The phraseology “a teaspoon per hour” refers, rather, to unities. It has not lost its former imagery, so we don’t even need to use a dictionary to roughly understand its meaning.

One of the meanings of the phraseological unit “a teaspoon per hour” is “to act slowly.” This is what mothers say to their children when they take a long time to eat, get ready for school or do homework.

Another meaning is “hesitantly, with pauses.” In this sense, the phrase is used when a person delays doing something for a long time.

And another meaning of the phraseological unit “a teaspoon per hour” is an action performed with prescribed repetition. It is appropriate to use this phrase in this sense if a person is forced to go to a specific authority, draw up documents, etc.

Origin

Phraseologism came out of the field of medicine and entered speech with a different meaning based on metaphor. Initially they said, or rather, wrote, “a teaspoon in an hour.” As you may have guessed, this was an ordinary prescription with indications for the use of the medicine.

Here they give you a prescription and you are forced to sit and watch the time. An hour seems like an eternity! It is precisely these feelings of infinity of a rather short period of time that formed the basis of phraseological units.

A teaspoon is also an element through which imagery is achieved. The fact is that this cutlery is small in volume. An hour and a teaspoon together create the image of “doing it for a long time and a little at a time.”

Synonyms

“A teaspoon per hour” is not the only phraseological unit with which you can convey its meaning. View words and phrases with similar meanings and examples below.

Meaning "slowly":

• "It's one o'clock." The most commonly used phraseological unit in this meaning, which is associated with Russian striking clocks, which appeared in the 16th century.
• "At a snail's pace." It means “a little bit” and is based on association (turtle - slowness). Example: “On vacation, time passed at a snail’s pace.”
• "Pull the gimp." The last word was a thread made of metal, the production of which was long and boring. Example: “You’re dragging your feet again! Finally do your homework and be free!”
• "Like wet things burn." This rare phraseological unit best reveals its meaning in context: “When I first came to the office, I tried to keep up with my colleagues, but in the end I did everything slowly, like a wet thing burning.”

In the meaning of "repetition of action":

• "Hit one point." The expression is similar in meaning, but has a different connotation. Its meaning is “to repeat one action several times.”

Antonyms

“A teaspoon per hour” in the meaning “slowly” implies lexical units that are opposite in meaning. Meet some of them:

• "Headily." An expression known to everyone, because it is used most often. Derived from the Russian word “daredevil”, which was used to describe brave men.
• "At the speed of sound/light." Also a very popular expression. Based on the association (speed of sound/light - speed).

• "At full speed." The last word is a derivative of the adjective "quick", which means "quick".
• “You won’t even have time to blink an eye / and look back.”
• "By leaps and bounds." This is an interesting phraseological unit, directly opposed to the expression “a teaspoon per hour.” In one word you can convey the meaning like this: “superfast”.

Usage examples

Phraseologisms of the Russian language are inextricably linked with the culture of the people, including literature. Look through quotes from different authors and try to trace the functioning of the phraseological unit:

1. “The European market accepts it [Russian literature] a teaspoon per hour.” The sentence is taken from the detective novel by V. Rybakov “Gravilet Tsesarevich”. This implies a long “acceptance” of Russian culture in small portions by Europeans.
2. “Water flows through the pipes per teaspoon per hour.” From the work “New World” by S. Zalygin. The meaning of the phraseological unit “a teaspoon per hour” in this case is slowly. In this case, the action is not repeated, but proceeds without pauses.
3. “The sun only comes in fits and starts, a teaspoon per hour.” But here the action is repeated. Meaning is a slow process that repeats itself at certain intervals. The phrase sounds in the work of G. Alexandrov “Epoch and Cinema”.