Grossman - Mama - teryat' v vese

[greniers at GEORGETOWN.EDU]

Paul Gallagher wrote:

As a cultural value, however, some communities think all weight gain is 
positive and all weight loss is negative. Probably a relic from the 
times when famine was much more likely to kill you than heart disease, 
diabetes, etc. in middle age.

Indeed.  The word "khudoi", of course, has both the meaning of low weight and of poverty/badness (plokhoi-khuzhe; sdelat' chto-to khudo-bedno, "'khudozhnik' ot slova 'khudo'", etc.)

Svetlana Grenier

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