# Овощ (to be unconsious)



## stunaep

Can someone understand this joke to me?


> Алло! Это бесплатная доставка овощей? Доставьте пожалуйста меня из бара домой!


I understand it literally as


> Hello! Is this a free delivery of vegetables? Please take me home from the bar!


But there must be some meaning I do not understand.. Can овощей mean a drunk person or something?


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## Soroka

Black humor:  calling himself "a vegetable", i.e. brain dead. Не смешно.


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## Vadim K

Since not long ago the word *vegetable* has also meant a dorky or nerdy person in Russia. I think it has been used as comparison beetween *vegetables* (which is believed not to be thinking object) and *animals*.


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## Maroseika

Since rather long ago овощ was medical low colloquial for a permanently unconscious person, mostly due to a trauma or innately. He doesn't feel or sense anything, hence figuratively the name for a blind drunk or even dead tired one.


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## esperansa

When we call someone "овощ", this means no thought processes exist in one's head, whether temporarily or on a permanent basis.


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## kloie

T





Maroseika said:


> Since rather long ago овощ was medical low colloquial for a permanently unconscious person, mostly due to a trauma or innately. He doesn't feel or sense anything, hence figuratively the name for a blind drunk or even dead tired one.


This is like in English,we call people vegetables,when they can't walk anymore.


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## Maroseika

kloie said:


> T
> This is like in English,we call people vegetables,when they can't walk anymore.


But they still can see, hear and think? In this case, it's not exactly like in Russian.


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## Vadim K

Maroseika said:


> But they still can see, hear and think? In this case, it's not exactly like in Russian.



I have heard that kind of people were called as a plant (растение).


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## esperansa

kloie said:


> T
> This is like in English,we call people vegetables,when they can't walk anymore.


We don't call people "овощ" in Russian, if they can't walk anymore. We have other words for such people, namely "колясочник" or figuratively "прикованный к постели".


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## Maroseika

Vadim K said:


> I have heard that kind of people were called as a plant (растение).


Yes, растение as well. However вести растительный образ жизни usually means just passive lifestyle.


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## Word Eater

I would say that to call a disabled person with mental illness "овощем" is rather rude and I personally would avoid using this word.


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## 0hisa2me

Just to confirm that in English a vegetable refers to someone who cannot walk, talk or carry out most other human functions alone. So it sounds like it's the same as in Russian. It's also rather rude, but is still used in newspapers, for example, to describe Michael Schumacher's condition.


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## esperansa

0hisa2me said:


> Just to confirm that in English a vegetable refers to someone who cannot walk, talk or carry out most other human functions alone.


Hi.
Would you call _Stephen Hawking " _a vegetable_? _Let's set aside political correctness.

Hawking suffers from a rare motor neurone disease, that has gradually paralysed him over the decades.
He now communicates using a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-generating device.


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## 0hisa2me

No, I don't think he would be called a vegetable, because he interacts with people, he can understand, speak and write, even if it is with the help of technology.


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## Drink

0hisa2me said:


> No, I don't think he would be called a vegetable, because he interacts with people, he can understand, speak and write, even if it is with the help of technology.



You could say that without his equipment, he would be a vegetable.


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## Soroka

Drink said:


> You could say that without his equipment, he would be a vegetable.


No, you could not. With or without equipment "Stephen Hawking is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein".
To call somebody like Hawking a vegetable is preposterous.


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## Drink

Soroka said:


> No, you could not. With or without equipment "Stephen Hawking is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein".
> To call somebody like Hawking a vegetable is preposterous.



I was talking about English. In English, you could. Keep in mind, Hawking can't move or communicate in any way without his equipment. What goes on in his mind becomes irrelevant.


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## 0hisa2me

A 'vegetable' is someone in a vegetative state, which implies an absence of practically all mental activity. The fact that Stephen Hawking needs technology to communicate surely doesn't mean he has no mental activity. I've never come across anyone referring to him as a vegetable, whereas for victims of serious traffic accidents, for example, the newspapers use the term quite often.


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## Maroseika

By the way, I've just realized how Russian овощ might have obtained this sense (excuse me, if this was evident for others): vegetative state (вегетативное состояние) > vegetable > овощ, i.e. it might be English calque.


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## Drink

0hisa2me said:


> A 'vegetable' is someone in a vegetative state, which implies an absence of practically all mental activity.



Actually, that's not quite what a vegetative state is. In fact it's not completely clear what exactly goes on in the brains of people in vegetative states.



0hisa2me said:


> The fact that Stephen Hawking needs technology to communicate surely doesn't mean he has no mental activity. I've never come across anyone referring to him as a vegetable, whereas for victims of serious traffic accidents, for example, the newspapers use the term quite often.



Of course no one would refer to him as a vegetable, because he does in fact have his equipment that allows him not to be a vegetable.


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