Often in colloquial speech and in literature you can find the expression "friend of the city." What does it mean? Not everyone understands the meaning of this phrase. This is due to the adjective included in it. On the one hand, it has several shades of interpretation, and on the other hand, in the phraseology under consideration, it is used in a figurative sense. What this means is a “friend of the city,” will be described in the article.
Let's turn to the dictionary
To understand what this means - “friend of the city”, we carefully consider the interpretation of the adjective included in it.
In the dictionary, it is presented in two versions:
- The first one is sifted through a sieve. Example: “You can bake, for example, products such as kalachi from sieve flour.”
- The second is the one that is baked from sifted flour. Example: “The evening menu consisted of tea, sieve bread, and sometimes they also gave sausage.”
Next, consider the origin of the adjective.
Etymology
It comes from the noun "sieve", formed from the Proto-Slavic sito. The latter is a kind of sieve, a fine mesh stretched over a hoop. Or a metal sheet having small holes for sifting, sorting or filtering something. From the pre-Slavic language also come:
- Russian and Ukrainian, Bulgarian "sieve";
- Serbo-Croatian "sy̏to";
- Slovenian and Czech síto;
- Slovak and Polish sito;
- Lower Luzhsky syto.
The pre-Slavic sito comes from sēi-to, associated with the verb “sow”. And also it is compared:
- with Lithuanian síetas, which means “fine sieve”;
- Latvian siêts - “sieve”;
- Lithuanian sijóti and Latvian sijât, meaning "sift";
- the ancient Greek ἤθω in the meaning of "sift" and ἠθμός, which translates as "sieve".
Now we turn directly to the meaning of phraseology.
Sit friend
What does it mean? The dictionary says that this is a colloquial expression that can be used both in the form of neglect, and in the form of familiar, playful and laid-back appeal to someone.
Examples:
- Again this fellow friend came a little light and gets confused under his feet.
- Petka, my friend of the city, how glad I am to see you!
To better understand the meaning of the studied expression, we give synonyms for it. These include such as:
- old times;
- buddy;
- friend;
- old man.
Next, we consider what relation the phraseologism studied has to bread.
High quality product
The expression owes its origin to sieve bread. This appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. This is a high quality product. He was baked from flour sifted through a sieve. They could eat it both at lunch, and at dinner, as well as with cottage cheese and honey served for dinner. It is clear that people ate this bread with pleasure, so figuratively they began to call him friend. And later, “friend of the city” began to speak to friends, communication with which was a pleasure.
Sometimes such bread was called a pie, most likely because they put raisins in it. It was expensive, among the peasants it was known as a symbol of prosperity. He was not put on the table every day, but only for treating dear guests. It is possible that the phraseology in question was associated with a dear friend.
There is another version that is less popular among linguists. It is based on the fact that the sieve, together with the washing tray, was an indispensable attribute of prospectors, that is, gold miners. After the gangue was washed and screened out, it was in the sieve that particles of native gold remained. Therefore, the adjective "sit", used relative to a friend, means friendship of the highest standard.
Over time, phraseologism began to be rethought, as today sieve bread is rarely remembered. Now on the forums on the Internet you can read the wording, according to which "friend of the sieve" - this means an unreliable person through whom everything passes as through a sieve.
Today, the expression is more ironic, familiar shade, which should not be forgotten, using it in colloquial speech.