# Russian: smurf (IT: puffi)



## Kraus

Hi! Is it true that in Russian smurfs are called simply "смурфы" and don't have a national name like in other countries (puffi, Schtroumpfs, Schlümpfe, pitufos, ecc.)? Or is their popularity still gradually raising so that in a few years they will be widely known in Russia as well?


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## Ptak

I don't know this word - *смурфы* (грамота.ру doesn't know it either). Actually, frankly speaking, I even didn't understand what you mean with "smurfs" (puffi, _Schlümpfe??_)...


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## Kraus

Hi Ptak! 
They are very nice and blue gnomes who have become popular in Italy in the '80s. I've been collecting their reproductions since then.

Here are some sites about smurfs: 

http://www.blueimps.com/
http://www.bluecavern.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smurfs
http://www.puffi.biz/


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## Ptak

Heh... I'm afraid we don't have any special word for them.  I think we'd call them just *гномики* (plur. from *гномик*, and гномик is a diminutive from *гном*). I.e. *gnomo* 



P.S. Anyway if even there is the word _смурф_ in Russian - there are very few people who know it.


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## jazyk

Russian Смурфы (Smurfy) or singular: Смурф (Smurf)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smurfs#The_Smurfs_in_other_languages


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## Ptak

jazyk said:


> Russian Смурфы (Smurfy) or singular: Смурф (Smurf)


It doesn't mean that the word is used.
There are many new foreign words in Russian language now, like for example... _мерчандайзер, _... well, I can't cite something more proper as an example right now... But the words like _смурф_ really don't mean anything for an average statistical Russian.


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## jazyk

The word doesn't mean anything, whether it's Russian, English or Portuguese. It's just the name of the cartoon. Maybe you're not acquainted with it or it's not that popular in Russia, but that's its name.


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## Maroseika

Does anybody know this word etymology? I wonder what meaning is primary - tale or criminal, since I found the following in my dictionary:

I I think the guy at the first window is a smurf — Я думаю, что тот парень, у первого окошка, отмывает деньги 
II I smurf for living — Чтобы заработать на жизнь, я отмываю грязные деньги мафии 
III I smurfed a fortune for a famous drug kingpin and got ten years up the river — Я отмыл целое состояние для одного главаря наркобизнеса и получил десять лет тюрьмы


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## Kraus

Thank you all very much for your contributions!  Unlike "smurf", in Italian "puffo/puffi" doesn't mean anything. Initially these gnomes were called "frilli" (a Genoese dialect word); the new name was invented by a journalist and the reading public liked it so much that it became a very common term. Sometimes there's nood to think up a non-existing word in translating a puppet's or a comics character's name. According to De Mauro Dictionary, "puffo" is:

1.celebre personaggio dei fumetti rappresentato come un piccolo gnomo azzurro, membro di una vasta comunità di simili, disegnato dal belga P. Culliford Peyo nel 1957, poi riprodotto in pupazzetti di gomma o plastica, chiamato in francese schtroumpf
*2*. nel linguaggio di tali fumetti, qualsiasi entità esistente o concepibile
*3*. estens., persona di piccola statura, spec. in quanto ritenuta candida e affettuosa

As you see, all these meanings derive from the first one.

Nor "Schtroumpf" has any meaning in French (and it's hard to pronounce it for them who speak this language) and its origin is accidental: one day its creator, Peyo, asked a friend of his for a salt cellar, but he couldn't think of the right word and he said "Hand me the... smurf". His friend replied: "Here you are the smurf. Once you've stopped smurfing it, smurf it back to me" and so on. The days after they took delight in translating in "Smurfese" Racine comedies, La Fontaine's fairy tales and some songs of the times. _("En 1958, j'étais un jour en vacances à la mer avec Franquin et, à table, je lui ai demandé de me passer quelque chose, sans en trouver le nom : "Passe-moi... le schtroumpf !". J'avais forgé ce terme sur le modèle de "un truc, un machin, un bidule"... Il m'a répondu : "Tiens, voilà le schtroumpf, et quand tu auras fini de le schtroumpfer, tu me le reschtroumpferas !" On s'est ainsi amusés à schtroumpfer pendant les quelques jours que nous avons passés ensemble, c'était devenu un gag pour nous. Nous consacrions nos moments de détente à traduire en "schtroumpf" des tirades de Racine ou des fables de La Fontaine, ainsi que des chansons à succès de l'époque. Ce qui donnait des résultats assez surprenants et tout à fait hilarants, du genre : "Maître Schtroumpf sur un arbre schtroumpfé tenait dans son schtroumpf un schtroumpf !...")_


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## Capybar

I've never heard this word, although Russian is my native tongue. I must confess however that I'm not particularly interested in cartoons or comics, so maybe speakers with more expertise in these fields would be familiar with that term.


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## Kraus

What amazed me it's not the fact that the word "смурф" is little known in Russia, but the fact that Smurfs are, because I've seen that, on the contrary, in Russia Donald Duck is very popular and comics are widely circulated. Well, Smurfs have a name for every country in Europe, save in Russia; and it's strange that a thing being successful in so many countries is almost unknown in Russia.


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## Capybar

Well, maybe kids or teens know this word very well! It's been a long time since I was a kid...


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## Ptak

Kraus said:


> What amazed me it's not the fact that the word "смурф" is little known in Russia, but the fact that Smurfs are, because I've seen that, on the contrary, in Russia Donald Duck is very popular and comics are widely circulated. Well, Smurfs have a name for every country in Europe, save in Russia; and it's strange that a thing being successful in so many countries is almost unknown in Russia.


Well, actually, these gnomes, in the pictures on the links you gave look really *very* well-known for me. We *do know* them. We know the cartoon. We just call a smurf *гном*. Just *гном*. Not смурф.


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## Kraus

So there's a Russian word for smurf: many thanks Ptak!


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## Outsider

Well, they call them "gnomes"...


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## Kraus

Are there any Russian sites about them?


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## palomnik

Check these out.  It seems that they have invaded Russia due to Nintendo.  Like Capybar, I ain't a kid any more, so I have no idea::

http://ar-cat.ru/index.php?s=%D1%81%D0%BC%D1%83%D1%80%D1%84%D1%8B


http://www.warhammer-forums.ru/index.php?showtopic=26283


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## Kraus

Thank you so much Palomnik for the links!


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