# "свечкодуйка"



## Redram

I wonder if anyone could enlighten me: Is there an English counterpart of "свечкодуйка," "бабка-свечкодуйка"? "Candle blower" doesn't work for me!


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## Maroseika

Wouldn't it be more natural if we ask you, as an English native, about the most natural English word for this Russian actual? If only you understand what it means, of course. Do you, by the way?


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## gvozd

Redram said:


> I wonder if anyone could enlighten me: Is there an English counterpart of "свечкодуйка," "бабка-свечкодуйка"? "Candle blower" doesn't work for me!



Maybe not. Like balalaika, babushka, matryoshka


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## covar

А что это всех попёрло выяснять про "бабку-свечкодуйку"?


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## lectrice

Это отсюда - ?
_...Если вас при входе в церковь 
Встретит *бабка-свечкодуйка *
И сурово пожурит вас 
За отсутствие платка, 
Не спешите пререкаться! 
Неспроста она вас пилит, 
Не хватает ей общенья, 
Надо бабку пожалеть! ...
_http://aa-ksantino.livejournal.com/210228.html

here _*бабка-свечкодуйка  - *_is pejorative - _old woman in orthodox church taking care of candles lit before the icons _(???)


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## covar

Это от преподобного Андрея Кураева

Просто уже 4 года прошло, и вдруг все кинулись переводить на английский. Странно.


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## rusita preciosa

church rat (as in mall rat or gym rat)?


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## LilianaB

An older, devoted woman who assists with extinguishing candles after the service in church. A devoted follower who assists with church maintenance.


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## covar

Redram said:


> "Candle blower" doesn't work for me!


Why not?
There are the following words in the English-Russian dictionary:
candle-lighter  -  церковный прислужник, зажигающий свечи
candle-holder  -  церковный прислужник, держащий свечу


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## LilianaB

This has nothing to do with gifted or not gifted: this is what this colloquial term means.


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## covar

LilianaB said:


> This has nothing to do with gifted or not gifted: this is what this colloquial term means.



What do you mean?


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## LilianaB

See #9. This term just means an older religious woman helping in church.


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## Maroseika

LilianaB said:


> An older, devoted woman who assists with extinguishing candles after the service in church. A devoted follower who assists with church maintenance.


Свечкодуйка has nothing to do with this. She doesn't assist at the mass officially, just sitting their all the day and  extinguishing candles shortly after the one has fired it or even before he leaved - in order to ecomomize candles and use them again after remelting. They use to hiss at the people in the church and pester with different remarks, so in general this is not a church term, this is a mocking and somehwat pejorative word.


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## LilianaB

They are not paid by the church to do it, but they help to maintain the church, don't they? It is slightly pejorative, or colloquial at least. I don't know why they would be hissing. I have never seen anyone hiss in any church, anywhere in the world. It basically means what I said. I never said she took any part in the mass or was a part of the church structure. They are just very religious women who spend most time in church and help to maintain it, sometimes.


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## covar

На русском сотворить насмешливо-уничижительное слово легко. А как его сотворить на английском?
old woman blowing out the candles - ???


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## rusita preciosa

candle-blowing old biddy


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## covar

If someone describes an old woman as an *old biddy*, they are saying in an unkind way that they think she is *silly* or *unpleasant*. [INFORMAL, *DISAPPROVAL*]

Грубовато. (Дословно "старая курица")


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## Maroseika

LilianaB said:


> They are not paid by the church to do it, but they help to maintain the church, don't they?


Not paid.



> It is slightly pejorative, or colloquial at least. I don't know why they would be hissing.


Try enter a Russian church in mini or walk clicking you spike heels during a mass and you'll know why.
Actually, this is not a word of the literary language, but rather an occasionalism that is quite clear to anyone acquainted with our churches at least superficially. This is very Russian phenomenon and therefore cannot be translated in any language adequately. It always ought to be explained.


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## LilianaB

I would not think they would even let you enter a Russian Orthodox Church in a mini skirt. It is against the protocol. 
Why would anyone want to wear a mini skirt to church? So maybe they are right. This must be something really old, like from Tolstoy's times, isn't it? Do these women like clean floors and arrange flowers before some holidays?


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## Maroseika

LilianaB said:


> I would not think they would even let you enter a Russian Orthodox Church in a mini skirt. It is against the protocol.
> They cannot forbid, it's your right. But they will hiss and grumble.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Why would anyone want to wear a mini skirt to church?
> 
> 
> 
> Why not, actually? Well, bareheaded or in trousers.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> So maybe they are right. This must be something really old, like from Tolstoy's times, isn't it? Do these women like clean floors and arrange flowers before some holidays?
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> I don't think so, many times I noticed young people preparing churches for the holidays. But these women are quite different.
Click to expand...


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## LilianaB

Were they there in the communist times? Mostly in villages, I guess, right?  I would think they were a phenomenon from Pre-Revolutionary Russia. I might have seen some women like that in some movies, not necessarily Russian, mostly Italian about Sicily, I think.


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## Maroseika

LilianaB said:


> Were they there in the communist times?


Sure, there were.


> I would think they were a phenomenon from Pre-Revolutionary Russia.


I think this is proper Soviet phenomenon, hardly possible in the past and consequenting from the low share of those who know how to behave in the churche. In the past everybody knew this from little and could not do anything wrong from the point of view of such zealous churchwomen.


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