Grandfather Fir

The basic, most convoluted form of this dialogical phraseological unit looks like this: “ - Who? - Grandfather Fir! ".

Philologist Galina Mandrikova notes that the function of phrase-replies to questions is to reject the interrogative remark as inappropriate and is often used when you do not want to answer the question. In addition, response phrases often serve to replace taboo obscene language, that is, they perform the function of euphemisms ^[1] .

• Vasily Grossman in the novel Stepan Kolchugin, written in 1937-1940:

Martha once said:
- The customer came, gave work.
- Who? - immediately excited, asked Stepka.
- Well, who is the grandfather of Fir. Calls - She looked at the boy and, threatening her finger, added: - You only remember one thing, Stepka, that I told you that time.

- Grossman V.S. Stepan Kolchugin. Part 1. - M .: Goslitizdat, 1937. - 192 p.

• Victor Avdeev in the novel “In Our Yard” in 1940:

“ Leaving the door to the closet open, Filka approached closer and, gathering his courage, asked:
- Who are you?
“Grandfather fir,” the red grinned . ”

- Avdeev V.F. In our yard. - M.: Soviet writer, 1940. - S. 201.

Unlike the English " old grandfather Kohl ", the name "Grandfather Pihto" (as well as other proper names from phraseological units: Kudykina Gora , Tsar Gorokh, chasing calves Makar, Eniky Benik, etc.) does not stand any more a wide context, the “fragment” of which it could be. However, for modern culture this is not an obstacle, and it gradually creates such a context for Santa Claus. An important factor in this process is the fact that Santa Pihto, in the form of a name and association with the New Year tree, is affected by the image of Santa Claus .

The image of Grandfather Pihto penetrates children's literature: in 1973, V. M. Shugaev published a fairy tale about Grandfather Pihto ^[2] , and in 1998, Galina Kiyashko published a book of fairy tales for children in poetry called "Grandfather Fir" (Ukrainian. "Dіd Pіkhto ") ^[3] .

Grandfather Pykhto acts as the main character in the story “Visiting Grandfather Pykhto” written by Andrei Almazov for teenagers.

In adult literature, it is used as a symbol of "namelessness": in 2000, the Permian writer V. A. Kirshin released a cycle of prose under the same name ^[4] .

“ Hero ... An adult, quite sane, he cannot answer a simple question:“ Who are you? ” Well, he does not know who he is. And where his homeland does not know, lost. And where his happiness got lost ... He is looking for ... He is “Grandfather Fir”. It is natural and inevitable in the bedlam of our life today . ”

As a symbol of “originality”, “Russianness”, the image of Grandfather Pikhto was used in an ironic poem by Alexander Sokolov, combining allusions to Pushkin’s “There are miracles, the devil wanders ...” and a synthesis of obscene and uncensored ^[5] :

“Russia is a good country!
Here a horse grazes in a coat.
Here I was born, lived and died
The famous grandfather Fir! ” ^[6]

In the novel by Yevgeny Lukin, “We rolled your sun” (1997), written in the genre of ironic fiction, “old grandfather Pykhto Tverdyatich” was withdrawn as a character.

Particularly active, Grandfather Pihto penetrates New Year’s mass culture - he is a frequent character in New Year’s children’s matinees and holiday performances ^[7] . Most often depicted as a conditionally "Russian" mischievous old man with a green ("fir") beard. It draws closer to evil spirits, primarily with Leshim , for example, in the script of Olga Babaeva: “ Grandfather Fihto is a summer forest man . In the summer he keeps order in the Siberian taiga, in winter he sleeps in his hole ” ^[8] .

Similar ideas penetrate into educational and cognitive literature. For example, the author of the "educational" section of the children's publication "Class Journal" quite seriously tells the children's audience:

“The northern peoples believed that Grandfather Pikhto lives in the taiga. Forest spirit like our devil. He strictly monitors the order in his possessions. In winter, trample paths in deep snow, so that it was easier to walk for firewood. Lost hunters helps to find the way home. It was he who taught people how to build warm yurts. But Grandfather Fihto is good only to those who protect nature. Those who break trees, litter and set fires in the forest will face severe punishment. ” ^[9]

On the site “Nanny. Roux »the author of an article about riddles for children reports similar information in its fantasticness to an adult audience:

“ We still call Lesha the secret name“ Grandfather Pihto ”, fearing that he would do something wrong, and when we go mushrooming, we will not lead him into a dense forest .” ^[ten]

However, the erotic origin of the image sometimes appears today, for example, in a scene from a speech by the KVN team “7-40” (VSTU):

“ - Katya, I know - you have someone!
- Ah, he knows about Vasya ... And who?
- Who-who, Grandfather Fihto!
“God, he knows about his grandfather ... ” ^[11] .

• Bondarenko V.T. Grandfather Fikhto in Karaganda after a rain on Thursday (on reciprocal remarks in dialogical speech) // Facets of the word. Sat scientific Art. to the 65th anniversary of prof. V. M. Mokienko / Resp. ed. M. Alekseenko. M., 2005.S. 30-33.
• Bondarenko V.T. About Ded Pikhto and some others (phraseology and discourse) // Problems of semantics of linguistic units in the context of culture (linguistic and methodological aspects). International scientific-practical conf. (March 17-19, 2006). M., 2006.
• Bondarenko V.T. Response phrase-replies in Russian dialogical speech // Russian at school. 2004. No. 6. S. 75-77.
• Golev N.D. Beating tabooism in Russian linguistic folklore. Game rhyming // "Evil bark obscene." Sat Art. / Ed. Zhelvis V.I. M., 2005.S. 324-327.
• Mandrikova G. M., Naryadnova L. S. Who is Grandfather Fir? (Response phrases: the problem of allocation and definition) // Phraseological readings of the memory of prof. V.A. Lebedinsky. Issue 4. Kurgan, 2008.S. 92-94.
• Mandrikova G.M. Where from? - From the camel! (Or why answer phrases are needed) // Phraseologism in the text and text in phraseology (Fourth Zhukov readings): Materials of International. scientific symposium. May 4-6, 2009 / Ans. ed. V.I. Makarov. Veliky Novgorod, 2009.P. 333—336.

• Santa Claus
• Fir
• Horse in coat