# профигурять



## pimlicodude

From Solzhenitsyn:


> Другим – как Ф. Дану или О. Нахамкису – ещё только предстояло крупно профигурять, в Семнадцатом году.


профигурять is found very rarely on the Internet. Multitran says фигурять means "to show off, play the dandy". One of the readers of the audiobook versions of Two Hundreds Years Together reads this as профигурировать, which means "to appear, figure as", and it seems this might fit the context better. Is профигурять an error here, or are these words variants of each other (and so: dictionary definitions that show them to have different meanings are just wrong?).


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## GCRaistlin

Вероятно, имеется в виду, что они показали себя значимыми фигурами в событиях 1917 года.


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## splinny

pimlicodude said:


> Is профигурять an error here, or are these words variants of each other


Probably an evolution of a loan word


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## nizzebro

As I understand фигурять, it goes from card games, as well as козырять where the former is about court cards and the latter about trump ones. In either case, the subject demonstrates some advantage (which is real, not fake).
So it is not so unnatural, to use it only as "show their significance".
'Про-' does not add anything, being a regular evential pattern "all the way through" as applied to a time period in the sense of "having that activity".


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## MIDAV

A very weird word in any event. He could have said _профигурить _or _пофигурить _for example, also weird words but they would sound a lot more sound to me. And no, they are not synonymous with _фигурировать_, none of them. And I agree that _профигурировать _would fit the context better.


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## nizzebro

MIDAV said:


> He could have said _профигурить _or _пофигурить _for example,


What do these mean? I've never come across _фигурить _in any form, unlike _фигурять - _which, even if outdated, basically slangy, and is used here not in a way one would expect - still has a connotation inside it, applicable for the original phrase.


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## MIDAV

nizzebro said:


> What do these mean?


I don't know what _фигурять_ means either. It's only the context that makes it half way understandable. 

Now, insert any verb derived from _фигура_ and you get the same "meaning" whatever that means in this case. And _фигурить_ obviously has the huge advantage of being formed along the regular lines of the Russian language.


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## nizzebro

MIDAV said:


> Now, insert any verb derived from _фигура_ and you get the same "meaning" whatever that means in this case. And _фигурить_ obviously has the huge advantage of being formed along the regular lines of the Russian language.


Variation of suffix vowels and the stress anyway affects the meaning through aspectual and other associations. If you consider the stress in your version as фигУрить - to me, it has some near-transitive sense like to draw figures or make shape; and, if it is фигурИть, it is no less odd than фигурЯть in the sense of regular lines you mentioned - as a combination of a "non-native", "formal" noun stem with a "native"  stressed ending.
Anyway, all that is only my subjective opinion - but, фигурять is at least in use, in a meaning related to personal appearance.


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## Maroseika

I think фигурять is the same as фигурировать - show one's worth, just the former bearing negative connotation: flaunt, show off. The only thing Solzhenitzyn introduced is unusual prefixal form, quite clearly expressing his attitude to these persons future role.


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## Kalaus

In this context (specifically, in the text written by Solzhenitsyn who liked playing with words and intepreting them in his own way), "профигурять" means something close to "have their 15 minutes of fame", "become a significant figure for a short time", "rise to and fall back from fame in a short period of time". The prefix "про-" (appr. meaning: "through") changes the verb to perfective and adds a sense of momentariness, shortlivedness (is this even a word?) to the action/event.

This meaning is made obvious by the wider context:

"*Одни* *казались очень значительными на короткий период в узком кругу*, как Александра Соколовская, оставшаяся в истории лишь тем, что была первой женой Троцкого и матерью двух его дочерей. <...> *Другим *– как Ф. Дану или О. Нахамкису – *ещё только предстояло крупно профигурять*, в Семнадцатом году."


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## Kalaus

Just to add: the "про-" prefix is a productive one, meaning it is actively used in formation of "new" words and word-forms. Such words are not always included in the dictionaries — only when the addition of a prefix/postfix/suffix changes the meaning of the word.


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## pimlicodude

Kalaus said:


> In this context (specifically, in the text written by Solzhenitsyn who liked playing with words and intepreting them in his own way), "профигурять" means something close to "have their 15 minutes of fame", "become a significant figure for a short time", "rise to and fall back from fame in a short period of time". The prefix "про-" (appr. meaning: "through") changes the verb to perfective and adds a sense of momentariness, shortlivedness (is this even a word?) to the action/event.
> 
> This meaning is made obvious by the wider context:
> 
> "*Одни* *казались очень значительными на короткий период в узком кругу*, как Александра Соколовская, оставшаяся в истории лишь тем, что была первой женой Троцкого и матерью двух его дочерей. <...> *Другим *– как Ф. Дану или О. Нахамкису – *ещё только предстояло крупно профигурять*, в Семнадцатом году."


Yes, there is a word "shortlivedness"! Thank you.


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## Maroseika

I think крупно профигурять is an opposite to "15 minutes of fame", and the wife of Trotskiy is opposed in this regard to Dun and others.


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## Kalaus

Maroseika said:


> I think крупно профигурять is an opposite to "15 minutes of fame"...


Meaning that "крупно профигурять" = "sink into oblivion"? Hmmm... You're entitled to your own interpretation, but I don't see how this meaning could be inferred from the given context.


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## Maroseika

Kalaus said:


> Meaning that "крупно профигурять" = "sink into oblivion"? Hmmm... You're entitled to your own interpretation, but I don't see how this meaning could be inferred from the given context.


Why sink into oblivion? Vice versa, loudly prove themselves in 1917 (although in negative sense).


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## Kalaus

Maroseika said:


> Why sink into oblivion? Vice versa, loudly prove themselves in 1917 (although in negative sense).


Oh, I see  Yes, I agree — I thought that was obvious: "fame" can be interpreted both ways — "good" fame and ill fame. And Solzhenitsyn, of course uses the word "профигурять" ironically.


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