# горками



## Jervoltage

Greetings,

...или идти в столовую собирать миски со столов и сносить их горками в посудомойку...
Один день Ивана Денисовича

My translation: Or going to the mess hall to collect bowls from the tables and bringing them down to the dishwasher using a ?.

What does горками mean in this context, please?

Many thanks.


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## Drink

Jervoltage said:


> Greetings,
> 
> ...или идти в столовую собирать миски со столов и сносить их горками в посудомойку...
> Один день Ивана Денисовича
> 
> My translation: Or going to the mess hall to collect bowls from the tables and bringing them down to the dishwasher using a ?.
> 
> What does горками mean in this context, please?
> 
> Many thanks.



It means "in piles" (or "in heaps" or "in mounds"); it's not "using" anything, only indicating that a lot of dishes are grabbed at once.


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## Jervoltage

Drink said:


> It means "in piles" (or "in heaps" or "in mounds"); it's not "using" anything, only indicating that a lot of dishes are grabbed at once.



Many thanks - my dictionary only lists chute; buffet; cabinet; hill; zoom for горка; what would be the literal translation of горка here, please?


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## Drink

Jervoltage said:


> Thank you - my dictionary only lists chute; buffet; cabinet; hill; zoom for горка; what would be the literal translation of горка here, please?



the literal translation is hill/mound/heap/pile.


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## Jervoltage

I see. Thank you very much.


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## Nickle Sydney

It's probably off topic, but you're reading a really great book.  
I'm impressed.


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## Jervoltage

Boris Tatarenko said:


> It's probably off topic, but you're reading a really great book.
> I'm impressed.



 It is actually thanks to the kind help of forum members that I have dared to pick this book up! One day on and I am already one page through.


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## JSV

Jervoltage said:


> ...или идти в столовую собирать миски со столов и сносить их горками в посудомойку...



In Russian we have an idiom "*гора чего-то*", that means something structured as a hill/heap (heap of something).
*- Гора [грязной] посуды*  (photo: http://www.ustanowka.su/imgs/articles/posuda.jpg)
_- A heap of [dirty] dishes_

*- Гора мусора* (photo: http://byaki.net/uploads/posts/2012-04/1333652881_00.jpg)
_- A __heap __of garbage_

So in original sentenсe "*... сносить их горками в посудомойку...*", means  to take bowls, carry them to dishwasher and put them there as a set of  small heaps [of bowls] one near another.


And it could be figurative when "*гора*" means "*много*":
*- У меня еще гора дел*
_- A have a lot of things to do_


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## Jervoltage

Excellent - so горка is synonymous with гора here.


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## Drink

Jervoltage said:


> Excellent - so горка is synonymous with гора here.



Well it's the diminutive; горка usually refers to something smaller than гора.


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## Jervoltage

Drink said:


> Well it's the diminutive; горка usually refers to something smaller than гора.



Ah, that's what I thought!


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## JSV

To be more accurate "*горка*" is diminutive form of "*гора*".


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## Maroseika

Jervoltage said:


> Excellent - so горка is synonymous with гора here.


Not exactly, because горка here means an ordered pile, which actually is not very typical for this word. Usually it means a heap, like насыпать что-либо горкой: горка опилок, горка ягод etc.


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## Jervoltage

I see - perfect!


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## ayna123

Hell, excuse me for off-topic, but this is another proof that Mr. Solzhenitsin is weird hand. 
Normal writer would write стопками, not горками. About dishes.
Jervoltage, beware of being confused with Solzh's pearls.


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## Maroseika

ayna123 said:


> Normal writer would write стопками, not горками. About dishes.



Let me disagree. Тарелки, миски горкой far not a rare thing in the Russian literature:

Давали мне поднос с горкой тарелок и учили, как расставлять их на столе.  [А.С. Новиков-Прибой. Капитан первого ранга (1936-1944)] 
На рояле стояла горка тарелок с ножиком и вилкой поверх, среди кожуры от огурца.  [А. С. Грин. Фанданго (1927)]
Динка садится у входа в пещеру, печально смотрит на сложенные горкой миски, на черный, прокопченный котелок…  [Валентина Осеева. Динка (1959)]


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