IlyaShpitser comments on Rationality Quotes November 2014 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: elharo 07 November 2014 07:07PM

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Comment author: IlyaShpitser 20 November 2014 04:32:45PM 2 points [-]

Is there a russian word for "fun?"

Comment author: timujin 23 November 2014 06:28:58PM *  0 points [-]

Веселье. It's a bit closer to "joy" or "merry-ness", though. Why?

Comment author: IlyaShpitser 23 November 2014 06:31:13PM *  1 point [-]

Lots of other words seem to be used in similar contexts, e.g. 'prikol,' 'klyevo', maybe even 'pizdyetz' (some may be archaic, it's been a while since I had been immersed in Russian), but none of them seem to be exactly right. I think it's weird that there is no exact isomorphism from such a basic English concept.

Nobody uses the word Веселье in colloquial Russian in this sense, but people use "fun" in colloquial English all the time.

Comment author: timujin 25 November 2014 04:17:05PM 2 points [-]

I came to realise, that I use the word 'fun' in its original English pronounciation (фан) quite a lot in Russian speech, as do my peers. It seems that we have just adopted it.

Comment author: IlyaShpitser 25 November 2014 04:18:27PM *  1 point [-]

That's interesting, thank you. Russian has adapted a lot of English vocabulary in the internet age.


There is actually a bit of sneaky cultural warfare in this. After all, it's not just language that is being adopted. Language is just the audible tip of a cultural iceberg.

Comment author: Bugmaster 09 December 2014 04:28:29AM 0 points [-]

I think that "прикол" is closer to "amusing" than to "fun". "клёво" is more like "cool". And I always thought that "пиздец" was universally bad, something akin to "game over, man ! game over !" -- but words do change over time...

Comment author: IlyaShpitser 09 December 2014 05:57:10PM *  0 points [-]

I have seen the word пиздец used after surviving a near miss, or witnessing a particularly daring and successful stunt (?as an exclamation of relief?). As I said, none of them are exactly right.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 22 November 2014 03:53:48PM 0 points [-]

In Russia, state has fun with you.