(Kap dochka) Khorosh gus'

[Robert A. Rothstein]

Jules Levin wrote:
> I wonder what the origin is?
> Consider a German (actually I know it from Yiddish) 'ganz gut', which 
> means both
> 'quite good' and 'the goose [is] good...'
> Could the Russian have originated in some cross-language joke?
    The dictionary _Russkaia frazeologiia. Istoriko-etimologicheskii 
slovar'_, compiled by Birikh, Mokienko and Stepanova (3rd. ed., 2005) 
suggests the following: "Blagodaria tomu, chto gus' v bukval'nom smysle 
vykhodit iz vody sukhim (voda skatyvaetsia s ego per'ev), slovo _gus'_ 
priobrelo perenosnoe znachenie 'lovkii, plutovatyi chelovek, proidokha'. 
Eto znachenie realizuetsia v slovosochetaniiach: _Nu i gus'! Khorosh 
gus'!" (p. 172).
    The phrase "v bukval'nom smysle" is an allusion to the proverbial 
comparison (in Russian, Polish and elsewhere) "kak s gusia voda," the 
English equivalent of which is "like water off a duck's back."
    Jules Levin's Yiddish example is part of a bit of joking dialog: If 
someone says (in Yiddish) "gants gut" (quite good/well), which is 
homonymous (in some, but not all, Yiddish dialects) with "gandz gut," 
the comeback line is "kachke nokh beser" (a duck [is] even better).

Bob Rothstein

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------