The origin of the phraseological unit has been put on the back burner. How to learn not to put off important and urgent matters indefinitely
Where this expression came from is not reliably known as of today. There are several opinions.
First. During the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a box was installed in which people put their complaints and requests. The sheet on which they wrote was then rolled into a scroll (a tube). Therefore, documents were kept in boxes. So... Complaints were collected from the people, but no one answered them and no decisions were made.
Second. Officials in the 19th century sorted complaints according to a certain principle, putting them in file cabinets, which were long boxes. Remember how it used to be in the library or archive. At that time, documents were no longer rolled into scrolls. But, nevertheless, they also looked at them for a very long time.
Third. As I said above, in those days when documents were rolled into scrolls, they were put in long boxes (stored like this). Well, such a case, let’s say a judicial one, will be put in such a box, and they will forget about it, they just don’t consider it necessary to consider it for some reason.
Each version has its place. Nowadays there are no such boxes anymore, we are gradually abandoning paper media and switching to electronic ones, but... this does not make our office work work better or faster.
The expression “put aside in long box“There is, in principle, only one meaning. Moreover, it is consonant with the expression itself and has a negative meaning when used. It means putting off unimportant tasks for later, unbearably delaying their implementation.
Alternatively, the verbal expression “put on the back burner” is considered to be derived from the nominal phraseological phrase “long box,” which is most often used to denote the postponed execution of something. For example, a will is a postponement of the execution of some actions for a time after the death of a person.
It is much more interesting to learn about where this phraseological turn of phrase came from in our great and mighty Russian language. Because there are several versions of its origin.
Version one is the official one. It is believed that the origins of the meaning of the expression “put on the back burner” go back to the seventeenth century, during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich the Quiet, the father of Peter the Great.
It was he who established the establishment of a box in the square opposite his Kolomna Palace for submitting all requests, proposals, petitions and complaints. Since at that time all records were made on long sheets of paper - rolls or birch bark - the box was quite long in shape.
The problem was that the box was checked very rarely, so complaints reached the sovereign extremely rarely. Sometimes they didn’t arrive at all, because the courtiers sorted them out. Since we had to wait a very long time for an answer, the common people called this box the long box.
Version two is semi-official. Some believe that the expression “shelving” acquired its meaning much later – in the nineteenth century. At this time, in the offices and offices of officials there were obligatory chests of drawers with file cabinets of things that needed to be done. The drawers in these filing cabinets were very long.
And often cases that did not require urgent consideration were put off in the longest and furthest drawer. Hence the expression.
From the same working environment a synonymous phraseological expression also occurred - put under the carpet. These same officials “hid” or put aside unnecessary matters under the cloth that covered the desks in their offices.
The third version is folk. In the Russian language, the semantics of the words “long” and “long” coincide in the common people. In other words, these words are synonyms.
Even the pronunciation of the phraseological phrase varies - some use both the pronunciation “put on the back burner” and the pronunciation “put on the back burner.”
Version four is foreign. IN German There is a synonymous phraseological phrase: etwas in die lange Truhe legen. Literally this expression means to put something in a long chest. Most often in Germany, this expression is used in the judicial and legal industries to refer to too long an investigation of a case, “grouse grouse”
But upon detailed semantic examination, it is very similar to Russian. Some philologists believe that the Russian-language expression is a reflection of the German-language version for certain situations.
Download this material:
Shelve put off / shelve Usually Nesov. from negative Led more often. incl. or ger. Postpone the execution of something indefinitely long time, delay the resolution of any issue for a long time. Put off what? decision, matter, discussion... on the back burner.
Chichikov wanted to finish everything as quickly as possible, without putting it on the back burner. (N. Gogol.)
We won’t put it off for a long time; we’ll interrogate him now. (A. Chekhov.)
Yangui and Timofey Kosyakov volunteered to deliver their expedition cargo here. They decided not to put this matter off and go the next day. (V. Arsenyev.)
(?) The expression is traditionally associated with the custom established by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (father of Peter I) at his residence. A long box was installed in front of the royal palace, where everyone who wanted to put their petitions (requests) dropped them. These petitions were considered for a very long time, so the long box began to be called long.
Educational phraseological dictionary. - M.: AST. E. A. Bystrova, A. P. Okuneva, N. M. Shansky. 1997 .
See what “put on the back burner” is in other dictionaries:
Shelve
shelve- delay the execution of any task for indefinite time. There are several options for the origin of the phraseological unit: 1. The expression dates back to the times of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a petition box was nailed in front of his palace, these... ... Phraseology Guide
shelve- Postpone the execution of which l. business for a long, indefinite time... Dictionary of many expressions
Postpone / shelve Usually not. from negative Led more often. incl. or ger. To postpone the execution of something for an indefinitely long time, to delay the resolution of any issue for a long time. Put off what? decision, matter, discussion... ... Educational phraseological dictionary
Put on the back burner- Put it IN A LONG BOX. Put it IN A LONG BOX. (Delay) for an indefinite, long time. Prokhor was always cool in his actions, therefore, without shelving the efforts he had begun, at one o’clock in the afternoon he called Baroness Zamoyska (Shishkov.... ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language
Put in a long box- What. Outdated Iron. Postpone the decision of the case for an indefinite period of time. The Senate, having interpreted the answer, put it, as they say, in a long box under a red cloth (Derzhavin. Notes) ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language
postpone / put aside (put) in a long box- What. Razg. Delay the execution of what? business for an indefinite period. FSRY, 543; BTS, 271, 1535; SHZF 2001, 29; FM 2002, 649; ZS 1996, 222, 342, 474, 476; F 2, 69; BMS 1998, 653; Mokienko 1986, 39; DP, 565... Big dictionary Russian sayings
postpone- postpone, carry, move away; suspend, unharness, postpone, underplay, delay, unharness, leave, put under the cloth, reserve, store up, shelve, put off until later, put off until the Greek calendar, put off for black... ... Dictionary of synonyms
postpone- To put aside care about something (colloquial) to stop thinking, to care about something n. I put aside the empty poetry. A. Pushkin. Put on the back burner put off the execution of what n. affairs for an indefinite period. Look, don’t delay in answering, don’t put it off... ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language
Photo: Katarina Gondova/Rusmediabank.ru
“Procrastination,” that is, putting off something important until tomorrow, is not only the killer of your dreams, it can literally become a killer. And your health, and relationships, and career, and family, sometimes – life itself. If you don't immediately shorten your "long drawer", you have yourself to blame!What are we putting off?
That's it! All we do is put it off.money for a future purchase;
using a new thing until the opportunity arises;
Mondays starting from new life;
fitness, sports, active recreation;
walks;
language learning;
serious relationship;
birth of children;
going to the zoo with them;
cleaning, laundry, washing dishes, routine, unpleasant work;
clarifying relationships and dotting all the i’s;
completion of started tasks;
repair;
calling mom, dad, friend;
confession and communion;
;
forgiveness;
declaration of love.
You can list them endlessly, and everyone will have their own list. Meanwhile, our whole life is on this list! We tend to put off what's important. To one degree or another, this is exactly what determines our future.
Why do we procrastinate?
Now let's think about why we do this. Perhaps this will help us overcome the consequences of postponing important things, that is, by by and large, postponing our own life, for which, as we know, we only have one chance.Why?
1. We get tired of the routine, boring, unpleasant side of these things.
2. Sometimes the quick achievement of results is scary. “We’ll do everything today, there’ll be nothing left for tomorrow.”
3. Fear of failure really discourages you from completing things, especially if they are really difficult. “What if it doesn’t work out?” - a powerful brake that forces us to put off matters that are fateful for us.
4. We're just lazy.
5. Lost interest and no incentive to continue what you started.
6. It seems to us that our efforts are in vain. Futility of effort kills initiative. If we do not have success, victories, it is extremely difficult to complete things, because they seem meaningless.
7. It seems to us that the time has not yet come. Everything is ahead or we are not yet ready for the final stage.
Consequences of delay
It would seem that there is nothing dangerous here, well, a person puts his life on hold, let him do what he wants. This is his personal business. It turns out not always. Sometimes someone’s procrastination leads to family quarrels, conflicts, stressful situations and innocent people fall within the range of action.And the child understands that things started must be completed in order to move forward. But in life we come up with thousands of excuses and reasons that help us cope with our own bad faith and feelings of guilt for unfulfilled tasks.
We resort to killer arguments like
– lack of time, money, strength, means, desire, incentives, etc.;
– the irrelevance of this case in at the moment, there are more important things to do, now is inconvenient, not the time, not the place;
– interference from loved ones, relatives, friends and enemies, circumstances.
But our excuses only accumulate, turning into a snowball that inexorably moves towards us and threatens to crush us with the whole mass of unfinished plans and unfulfilled expectations.
And then we begin
get nervous and freak out;make mistakes;
hurry;
freeze;
run away, etc.
And it's catching up with us
– migraine;
– stress;
- lack of self-confidence;
– illness;
– quarrels, reproaches, criticism;
– conflicts, breakups and even divorces.
Do you still think that family quarrels have nothing to do with procrastination? Look at your life unbiasedly and as critically as possible. And you will find that
taps are leaking;
dishes become moldy in the sink;
the laundry does not wash itself;
the dust under the bed inexorably turns into snowdrifts;
“Madam I’m sitting” without fitness and with becoming wider and wider;
without care, hair and face turn into a washcloth and washboard;
a mother who no one calls becomes lonely and unhappy;
the dog is sad without a walk;
life is slowly but surely sliding into a swamp of routine and boredom (without travel, walks, a child, new meetings).
This is a disaster! Something needs to be changed urgently!
How to escape from unfinished business?
There is a way out.You can conduct an audit and select those without the completion of which it is impossible to live further.
And immediately, just this very second, begin to complete them. Not on Monday, not tomorrow, but just now. One per hour, per day, per week. And then you look, and there will be no unfinished business left.
You should probably just forget about other, less important matters. Cross them off the to-do list. Consider them already completed. If you haven't finished them yet, it means you don't really need them.
We must always remember that unfinished things are like unfinished gestalts and constantly stop our movement forward. We cannot start new things until the old ones are completed. Do not pour water into a full cup.
Therefore, obeying the law of filling voids, we should periodically clear away our rubble and make room for new good beginnings and deeds. This is especially true on New Year’s Eve, but you can find any other occasion - New Year according to the Eastern calendar, a new month, a birthday, even, no matter how trite, Monday. And the vacated space will be taken by new, interesting and much-needed endeavors.
