Weather vane (political). Meaning, origin, examples of the use of phraseological units

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Winged words, phraseological units. Meaning, history of origin, examples of use

Winged words, phraseological units

Directory / Winged words, phraseological units

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Weather vane (political)

Tolstoy A.K.

Phraseologism: Weather vane (political).

Meaning: An unprincipled person who easily changes his principles and beliefs, conformist, opportunist (contempt.).

Origin: The expression became popular in Russian socio-political vocabulary largely due to the famous quatrain by Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875), which he wrote as a free transcription of the poems of the German poet Heinrich Heine: "The sky is cloudless, there is no wind in the morning ... // In large weather vanes stick out in difficulty: // No matter how they guess, they won’t achieve it in any way, // In which direction should they turn? It was used to address unprincipled, corrupt politicians who easily changed their beliefs and positions. Sometimes these "political weathercocks" were contemptuously referred to as "members of the K.V.D. party" (an abbreviation meaning "where the wind blows").

Random phraseology:

To die is to sleep.

Meaning:

About an attempt to escape from reality, an escape from a hated environment.

Origin:

From the tragedy "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Hamlet's monologue (act. 3, yavl. 1) translated into prose (1837) by the writer, journalist, historian and critic Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy (1796-1846).

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