the word’s worth: Everyday rage, nastiness, spite and malice

By Michele A. Berdy

Published: July 25, 2012 (Issue # 1719)

Çëîáîäíåâíûé âîïðîñ: the question of the hour

I’m always fascinated by Russian words that come from the same root and are very similar in meaning. That is, I find these words incredibly confusing, frustrating and annoying, and my misuse of them clearly gives me away as being íåçäåøíÿÿ (not from around here).

Well, that and my accent and my other mistakes in Russian grammar.

In any case, lately I’ve been a bit obsessed with çëîñòü and çëîáà, which both originally come from çëî (evil) and can both be defined as malice, spite, rage, malevolence or animosity.

According to a highly unscientific poll of Russian speakers, çëîñòü is the lesser evil. Çëîñòü is nastiness in the form of rage, and native speakers see it as an emotion that can come and go, often quickly, rather than a state of being. Ïðèõîæó ÿ äîìîé: æåíà ðóãàåòñÿ, à ìåíÿ çëîñòü áåð¸ò (So I come home and my wife starts yelling at me, and it makes me furious).

Çëîñòü can even be a positive emotion in the context of a competition. Dmitry Medvedev once told the United Russia leadership, “Çëîñòü — âîò, ÷òî íóæíî, íî â ðàçóìíûõ ïðåäåëàõ, ñïîðòèâíàÿ çëîñòü, ïîçâîëÿþùàÿ äîñòèãàòü ðåçóëüòàòîâ” (Zeal — that’s what you need, but within reason: a passion to win that will produce results).

But the adjective çëîñòíûé often has the sense of persistent bad behavior. Çëîñòíûé íåïëàòåëüùèê is someone who consistently doesn’t pay his bills. Çëîñòíûé íàðóøèòåëü çàêîíà is what Americans used to call a scofflaw and now call a repeat offender.

But çëîñòíûé sometimes means particularly malevolent in some way: çëîñòíîå áàíêðîòñòâî (fraudulent bankruptcy); çëîñòíàÿ êëåâåòà (malicious slander).

Çëîáà, according to my respondents, is spitefulness that is more a state of being than a fleeting emotion. Çëîáíûé ÷åëîâåê is a nasty, spiteful, ill-natured person. Ïèòàòü çëîáó is a slightly old-fashioned way of bearing a grudge against someone: Îíà ñîçíàëàñü, ÷òî ðàçáèëà îêíî äîìà óìûøëåííî, ïèòàÿ çëîáó ê õîçÿèíó (She admitted that she broke the window in the house on purpose since she bore a grudge against the owner).

But çëîáà äíÿ is not, as you might think, “malice of the day.” Today, it means the hot topic, the latest news, the issues that most concern society. The phrase has even been turned into the adjective çëîáîäíåâíûé, as in çëîáîäíåâíûå âîïðîñû (burning issues) or çëîáîäíåâíàÿ êíèãà (topical book). Here there isn’t much sense of wickedness or evil, except in the sense that the latest news or hottest topics are most likely to be about some problem or catastrophe. So where does this expression come from?

The Bible: Matthew 6:34. In old translations it reads: Äîâëååò äíåâè çëîáà åãî (Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof), but it’s clearer in more recent translations: Äîâîëüíî äëÿ êàæäîãî äíÿ åãî çàáîòû (Each day has enough trouble of its own.) As far as I can tell, translators have disagreed over the intensity of the original Greek word, which in various languages and at various times has been rendered as evil, cares or trouble. And then the “cares of the day” evolved to be the most topical and urgent issues.

Today, one of these phrases is usually in the first question at a news conference: ß çàäàì âîïðîñ íà ñàìóþ, ïîæàëóé, çëîáîäíåâíóþ òåìó (I’ll ask a question about perhaps the most urgent topic of the day.)

The answer, of course, depends on the çëîáà äíÿ.

Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of “The Russian Word’s Worth” (Glas), a collection of her columns.