Blaise's 'knapsack'
On identifying and interpreting obsolete phrasemes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18349/MagyarNyelv.2021.1.60Keywords:
idioms, phraseology, historical phraseology, origin of idioms, meaning of idioms, methodologyAbstract
This paper investigates a phrase (megszakasztja a Balázs iszákját ‘break Blaise’s knapsack’) found in a 17th century play, Actio Curiosa. The phrase seems idiomatic but neither the historical dictionaries of Hungarian nor the old collections of Hungarian idioms contain it. This study shows – with a methodological outlook – how phraseme-like expressions in old texts can be identified and their meaning recovered from the context. It can be shown that Balázs iszákja was a jocular, euphemistic expression for ‘anus’. It is important to note that it is found in several 17–18th century authors, i.e. it is not from a single author’s idiolect. Its iszák component means both a ‘knapsack’ and a ‘hose’, the latter of which is an excellent cognitive metaphor for ‘rectum’. Its Balázs component is less straightforward to explain but the name is commonly used in other phrasemes for capricious people, which might be how it became part of this idiom, too.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Tamás Forgács
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