# упущенное



## Interprete

Hello,

I'd like to know what упущенное exactly means. Does it refer to anything that can be considered 'lost' (time, opportunity, business)? Or when it is used alone, does it refer to specifically time, or specifically an opportunity, etc. ?

Here is the sentence where I found this word:
эти ноу-хау применялись не столь широко. Реализация подобного проекта – возможность наверстать упущенное.
It refers to a very new technology used for the first time in Israel.

Thanks.


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## Maroseika

Упущенное here is the substantivated adjective. In general, it doesn't mean anything concrete, just something that could not be achieved without new technology. What exactly - may be clear from the context. But hardly this is time.
Наверстать время and наверстать упущенное время are set expressions, so omitting время would sound weird. Упущенное may refer here either to something mentioned before, or to a wide range of matters, not realizable before.


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## Rosett

In the given context, it means "упущенное (технологическое) отставание".


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## Maroseika

Rosett said:


> In the given context, it means "упущенное (технологическое) отставание".


I'm afraid this is a kind of oxymoron. Упущенное отставание means опережение. But it might presume упущенные возможности для развития.


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## Rosett

Maroseika said:


> I'm afraid this is a kind of oxymoron. Упущенное отставание means опережение.


in English - maybe, but not in Russian. We actually say that in Russian, even officially,  meaning it's standard Russian.
Your own city's website declares:
"Jul 1, 2015 - «Таким образом, мы буквально за два-три года наверстаем упущенное отставание по объектам соцкультбыта в Новой Москве."


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## Maroseika

Rosett said:


> «Таким образом, мы буквально за два-три года наверстаем упущенное отставание по объектам соцкультбыта в Новой Москве."


Упущенное отставание means "missed retardation", while what's meant is the contrary. So this is just a speech mistake - in any language.
A real shame for the city's website, indeed.


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## Rosett

Maroseika said:


> Упущенное отставание means "missed retardation", while what's meant is the contrary. So this is just a speech mistake - in any language.
> A real shame for the city's website, indeed.


"Упущенное отставание" means "lagging behind since quite a while," or "a backlog that hasn't been timely addressed." This may sound redundant and somewhat bookish, but never contrary. 
"Упущенный" got at least two meanings, you believe me or not.


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## Maroseika

Rosett said:


> "Упущенное отставание" means "lagging behind since quite a while."


I'm afraid I have to disagree, it doesn't mean anything like that. Maybe other natives help us?


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## Rosett

Maroseika said:


> I'm afraid I have to disagree, it doesn't mean anything like that.


Government and municipal sources throughout the Russian Federation disagree with you.
Пресс-служба Администрации Смоленской области - НОВОСТИ
Mar 29, 2011 - ... в этом году не только войти в график, но и наверстать упущенное отставание».
г. Шумерля Чувашской Республики » Основные итоги социально-экономического ...
В течение I полугодия эти негативные факторы в машиностроении планируется преодолеть и наверстать упущенное отставание.
Газета Новгородского муниципального района. Издаётся с 15 декабря 1918 года
Наверстать упущенное отставание в последующие месяцы было трудно. Но положительные подвижки в отрасли все-таки произошли.

Other sources, like sports, financial, technology news, offer you a great number of undeniable examples.


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## Vadim K

Maroseika said:


> I'm afraid I have to disagree, it doesn't mean anything like that. Maybe other natives help us?



I would say that it is a real speech mistake which uses sometimes in Russian. I have heard this phrase many times, starting since my childhood.


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## Q-cumber

"Наверстать упущенное отставание" doesn't make any sense to me. This isn't a valid construction.


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## Maroseika

Rosett said:


> Government and municipal sources throughout the Russian Federation disagree with you.


Rosett, mistake is mistake no matter who and how often makes it. 
Упустить отставание means only one thing (although quite fancifully expressed): stop lagging. Concequently, наверстать упущенное отставание means resume lagging.
Of course, all those you are referring to, presume the opposite.


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## Rosett

Maroseika said:


> Упустить отставание means only one thing (although quite fancifully expressed): stop lagging.


Actually, "упустить отставание" isn't fsnciful, and it means that the backlog wasn't addressed in a timely fashion (possibly, due to  negligence or to a lack of knowledge or of resources, i.e., accumulation of backlog was "упущено"), or "упустить момент, когда началось отставание".

You may want to call it ellipsis that is quite common in spoken language, but this was official language of all the levels of authority in the USSR. If you were there at that time, you can't deny it.

In the Soviet time, this was a very popular and plausible official explanation of various economic mishaps and setbacks, in a typical context as if in the following:

"Коротко изложив ход выполнения плана, директор по производству отметил *отставание* от графика. Поставил задачу второй смене наверстать *упущенное отставание* (_упущенное_ = _overlooked_, or _not timely addressed_) и перешёл к заслушиванию отчётов начальников цехов и служб. Генеральный директор слушал и делал какие-то пометки в блокноте."

I can only déplore the fact that the foreros participating in the topic are not aware of the above.

However, the learners of Russian reading this thread should be aware, if they encounter this expression.



Vadim K said:


> I would say that it is a real speech mistake which uses sometimes in Russian. I have heard this phrase many times, starting since my childhood.


Probably, you've never realized that in "наверстать упущенное отставание" they catch up with the backlog, not with "упущенное".



Q-cumber said:


> "Наверстать упущенное отставание" doesn't make any sense to me. This isn't a valid construction.


I couldn't believe that you've never heard or never read Отчетный доклад Центрального Комитета КПСС XXIII съезду Коммунистической партии Советского Союза.


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## Maroseika

Rosett said:


> Actually, "упустить отставание" isn't fsnciful, and it means that the backlog wasn't addressed in a timely fashion (possibly, due to  negligence or to a lack of knowledge or of resources, i.e., accumulation of backlog was "упущено"), or "упустить момент, когда началось отставание".


I'm afraid none of your links allow such exotic interpretation. Each of them tells about lagging not as a suddenly discovered, but a problem and there is nothing about missing the moment when it apeared.

Well, I guess this expression is evidently erroneous for the majority of natives, and this information would be useful for the Russian learners.


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## Rosett

Maroseika said:


> I'm afraid none of your links allow such exotic interpretation. Each of them tells about lagging not as a suddenly discovered, but a problem and there is nothing about missing the moment when it appeared.
> 
> Well, I guess this expression is evidently erroneous for the majority of natives, and this information would be useful for the Russian learners.


Where did you find the majority?
I understand that a few expressions, including this one, may not be clear enough and they may sound ridiculous because they were originally specific to different time periods and are not convivial. Should you encounter other official documents of those time, you may be even more surprised, as if with "безродные космополиты".
The expression "(наверстать) упущенное отставание" is undoubtedly valid and is fairly present in the news:
"Изначально монтаж пролетных строений планировалось осуществлять только с правого берега, но «чтобы наверстать упущенное отставание, мы начали монтаж тремя потоками: с правого берега, с левого и с воды в середине реки», пояснил Ильинов."


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## Q-cumber

I think all of them actually meant "наверстать допущенное отставание" or so. This construction is an obvious stylistic error. Let's not mislead the learners about it.


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## metaphrastes

I would be bold enough to state that dictatorships very often distort official written language, since they are grounded on fear (and the imitation of hierarchical superiors, even of their errors, is always a sure path for survival) and no love for truth and accuracy. Then I would take with a grain of salt every seeming linguistic "unanimity" on official texts of Soviet Union as well all garbage language born from Western dictatorship of political correctness. Those are cases where the argument of authority may be specially fallacious, and it seems better to weigh the matter on the merits of arguments themselves.


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## Rosett

Q-cumber said:


> I think all of them actually meant "наверстать допущенное отставание" or so. This construction is an obvious stylistic error. Let's not mislead the learners about it.


Then you should reach to the administration and newsmakers in Kaliningrad, Moscow, Nizny Novgorod, Chuvashia, Krasnoyarsk, etc, as per the above, and teach them some Russian.

"Допустить отставание" is understood as "упустить момент, когда отставание началось(, и позволить отставанию накопиться до заметной величины)", or, metonymically, "упустить отставание", hence, there's "упущенное отставание".

This is a very common contraction in standard Russian, that should never mislead the learners who may encounter this one and similar metonymic constructions elsewhere.


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## Rosett

metaphrastes said:


> I would be bold enough to state that dictatorships very often distort official written language, since they are grounded on fear (and the imitation of hierarchical superiors, even of their errors, is always a sure path for survival) and no love for truth and accuracy. Then I would take with a grain of salt every seeming linguistic "unanimity" on official texts of Soviet Union as well all garbage language born from Western dictatorship of political correctness. Those are cases where the argument of authority may be specially fallacious, and it seems better to weigh the matter on the merits of arguments themselves.


There's nothing to do with dictatorships in the ideological way you described it. Contrarily, dictatorships are very strict on language issues, they establish language standards and watchdogs, and often forbid even minor grammatic and stylistic deviations from the standard language to preserve its sacredness as if in religious texts. 

Russian language started to degrade essentially in the later 80's when the communist dictatorship and language watchdog grip started to loosen. However, "упущенное отставание" remains in place in spite of such degradation.


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## Vovan

"Наверстать упущенное отставание".

We've got "*наверстать упущенное*" (1) -> to catch up with what you've missed (or been missing).
_Хочу уже наверстать упущенное - устала жить в одиночестве.
Наверстать упущенное будет вряд ли возможно своими силами, так что лучше не пропускайте ни одного дня занятий с преподавателями!
_​We also have "*упущенное отставание* (в развитии чего-либо, кого-либо)" (2) -> someone's lagging behind which has been largely ignored.
As Rosett said, there's a few Russian verbs with "-пуст-" that may have a rather similar practical meaning with words like "a problem" -> упустить (see also "упущение"), допустить, попустить, пропустить.

As for combining the two, the phrase is possible, in my opinion. But I also agree with the others in that what results might be considered illogically funny to some people (or rather, logically?). And I can't recommend this usage to anyone at all.



> Собянин пообещал: «Таким образом, мы буквально за два-три года наверстаем упущенное отставание по объектам соцкультбыта...


Mr Sobyanin is the Mayor of Moscow, by the way...


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## Rosett

Vovan said:


> We also have "*упущенное отставание* (в развитии чего-либо, кого-либо)" (2) -> someone's lagging behind which has been largely ignored.
> As Rosett said, there's a few Russian verbs with "-пуст-" that may have a rather similar practical meaning with words like "a problem" -> упустить (see also "упущение"), допустить, попустить, пропустить.


We can also say *запущенное отставание* (worse than simply упущенное), mostly appropriate in the medical and educational contexts:
"Хотя по другим предметам дела шли несколько лучше, но это не спасало, а только усугубляло моё крайне запущенное отставание по математике."


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## metaphrastes

Rosett said:


> dictatorships are very strict on language issues, they establish language standards and watchdogs, and often forbid even minor grammatic and stylistic deviations from the standard language


Fair enough, I agree on that 
My only point is that dictatorships create their own standards, often making violence against sound thought and the original meaning of words, in order to implant their ideology. I consider this a twisting that has no origin in looseness or laxity (as it may happen and already happened through history) but in the opposite extreme of arbitrary control. But this is not relevant to the thread, whose intrinsic matter I am evidently in no conditions to discuss with you - I would just expect arguments from authority to be taken with a grain of salt and not as the ultimate word.
Besides that, I bow before your knowledge on Russian and bow out from the discussion, too, as inept to any further consideration.


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## rusita preciosa

*Mod note: the discussion is drifting way off topic that has been fully explored. The thread is now closed.*


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