SMALL FRY

Inexperienced thief

Dictionary of thieves' jargon. 2012

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Phraseologism "Small fry" meaning

A person who does not play a significant role in anything and has low social status.

Small fry- this is probably something small, insignificant, formed from the word plow, and the definition of small further emphasizes its worthlessness.
Playfully ironic small fry expression used to designate a person who occupies a low official position and does not have social weight and authority. “He’s a small fry in this matter” or “Why should I, I’m a small fry,” they often say in such cases.
When did this expression originate? It is difficult to explain it through the literal meaning of the word plow: after all, a plow cannot be either shallow or deep.
However, in the old days this word had another meaning: it denoted a land measure and a unit of tax from this land measure. This plow could really be both large and small. For nobles (that is, service people), as well as for church estates, the plow was large, and for peasants, naturally, smaller. The size of the plow depended on the area and the quality of the land. For example, according to tradition, the largest plow was within the Moscow principality.
A large landowner could have several plots of land (400-600 acres each); small landed nobles owned, as a rule, a large part of one plow; petty officials and, even more so, peasants and even less.
The figurative expression small fry, most likely, called the small-scale nobles and officials. In V.I. Dahl’s dictionary of small estates, poor nobles, chalk we read: “ Small fry officials».
So, small fry - literally: a small part of a unit of tax or a person paying such a small tax.
In modern Russian, the origin of the phrase has been forgotten and this expression is associated with something insignificant and of little significance.

Example:

“The bureaucrats, the larger ones, had their own houses, and the small fry lived in the small apartments of petty-bourgeois houses” (Melnikov-Pechersky).

Who
Insignificant in social status, insignificant.
What is meant is that person or group of persons ( X) occupies a low official position, does not have power, influence or weight in society, and is not respected. Mainly about men. Spoken to with disdain or humiliation; about myself - as a quote. unformed ✦ X - small fry . In the role subject, nominal part tale, add., disagree def. or separate member proposalOrder of component words fixed
The Stalinist method, for all its mercilessness, actually hit the wrong targets; it mostly hit small fry. But, unlike the Western punitive justice system, here large sharks were often given what they deserved. B. Didenko, Predatory power. The authorities ended up in Lubyanka, and the rank and file and small fry While they were in special camps, they went to work and waited for the NKVD to reach them. P. Sokolov, Potholes.
Erich Koch... arrived in Berlin, came to the Fuhrer, but, sensing that things were going very badly, disappeared to God knows where. True, they didn’t even remember about him - after all, it was small fry. E. Kazakevich, Spring on the Oder.
Mostly high positions and ranks were mentioned - generals, senior officers, one admiral, one senator, even one Portuguese minister, but there were also small fry like a lieutenant from Italy, a forensic investigator from France, or a border guard captain from Austria-Hungary. B. Akunin, Azazel.
Despair took hold of him more and more. Last year's memories were too clear. How people disappeared in entire departments and departments after the removal of Yagoda and the arrival of Yezhov. People are no match for him: commissars with four and three diamonds, senior majors with dozens, more small fry no count at all. V. Zvyagintsev, Fights of local significance.
We must give him justice. He behaved impeccably, like a knight, unlike any small fry, there are Cossack esauls and police officers. But then it was these little people who set the tone, and not decent people. B. Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago.

Why did they need a dragoon lieutenant? It hurts too much small fry. B. Akunin, Azazel.

Are you sure he should be released? - He's completely small fry. If we take him, we'll scare the others away. The Baron is right - let all the fish go into the net. I. Akimov, Ballad about those who went on a mission.

The car that spent the night under your balcony belongs to Mr. Grigory Valentinovich Chintsov, an employee of the Duma apparatus. Small fry, does not have much power, and details of his character and personal life will come later. A. Marinina, Do not disturb the executioner.
You - small fry, so you won’t be able to influence the situation. No one will listen to you. ( Speech)
Sandomirsky started up again and tensed, even his eyes widened. He could not understand whether I was the main KGB expert who could be trusted, or small fry, climbing where it shouldn’t, or even a provocateur. A. Tyurin, The Secretary General's Magic Lamp.
Inside, the house was partitioned lengthwise with a wrought-iron lattice half the height of a man, interspersed with a dozen wide tables, at which sat officials in dark green uniforms of the Customs Department, judging by the insignia - small fry. A. Bushkov, Flying Islands.
Another question is that only the performers have been punished so far - small fry. And not only because about half of the bandits who took part in the raid were killed during the fighting in Chechnya. Many executioners of Budenovsk, including the main one, Basayev, are still on the run. Parliamentary newspaper, 2002.

Nowadays, the master, instead of the owner, has become a petty administrator.... And there’s no need to talk about rights. So, small fry, no offense intended. S. Antonov, Career.
cultural commentary: Word bipod derived from plow. Sokha- 1) a primitive agricultural tool for plowing the land; 2) a community of three to several dozen households as a unit of taxation in Ancient Rus' (hence - cool people"Farmers in Ancient Rus'"). ( Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. Ed. D.N. Ushakova. T. 3. M., 2001. P. 276.)phraseol. goes back to the most ancient mythological form of awareness of the world - animistic, i.e. personifying the inanimate: the image is based on the analogy “thing - person”. At the heart of the image phraseol. also lie the most ancient archetypal oppositions “big - small”, “top - bottom”, as well as the associated oppositions “power - submission”, “strong - weak”. Component phraseol. small correlates with the numerical code of culture, representing measurements of size, quantity, volume, mass of objects, objects of reality, and the component bipod- with a real code. In creating an image phraseol. both meanings of the word plow are important. The rethinking of the first is based on metonymy - the transfer of the name from a tool of labor to a person who constantly uses it and for whom it is an integral part of his life and activity. In shaping the image phraseol. a metaphor may also be involved, likening a person standing at the lowest level of the social hierarchy to the most primitive tool of labor - a plow. Wed also with expressions from the plow"from the poor, from the peasants" ( Human) with a plow"poor and downtrodden (person)." Component small indicates that this plow plows finely, which phraseol. metaphorically understood as “a person who is engaged in unimportant matters (work) that bring insignificant results or little benefit, material income.” In creating an image phraseol. a second meaning of the word may also be involved plow, the rethinking of which is based on synecdoche - the oldest metonymic identification, which consists in the transfer of a distinctive, characterizing feature from the whole to its part: small fry- a person belonging to a small plow, i.e. to a small community that unites poor, low-income people. Diminutive form of the word plow - bipod, acting as a standard of minimum value, size ( Wed chit, midge), in combination with the component small serves to express a dismissive, sometimes contemptuous attitude towards what is indicated in the image phraseol. sign - insignificance, unimportance, inconspicuousness. The idea that standing behind a plow and plowing the land was traditionally a male occupation, and on the other hand, the importance of determining the social status of men, associated with the stereotypical idea that work is the main thing in their lives , which determines the degree of their success or failure, consistency and fulfillment in society, determine the most frequent use phraseol. in relation to representatives of the male rather than female gender, with an emphasis on their low social status. phraseol. in general, it acts as a standard for an unremarkable person who represents nothing, does not enjoy authority, an insignificant person who does not deserve attention. Similar figurative expressions in other European languages testify to the antiquity of the image; Wed English small fries, French menu fretin. I. V. Zykova
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What does small fry mean? Phraseologism "Small fry" meaning

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Phraseologism "Small fry" meaning