Archives for: January 2010, 05
Ноль, нуль (часть вторая)
January 5th, 2010 by DonThe word нуль sometimes occurs in fixed phrases like «начать с нуля» “to start from zero,” which catches the idea of beginning a process with zero previous knowledge or experience or resources:
| Нелла со своей семьёй убежали из Словении в сорок первом году. В конце концов приплыли в США, где им пришлось снова начать свою жизнь с нуля. | Nella and her family fled Slovenia in forty-one. They ended up in the US where they had to start their lives over from nothing. |
| — В январе начну изучать Пушту. — Ты уже немножко говоришь на Пушту, правда? — Нет, начну с нуля. |
“In January I'll start studying Pashto.” “You already speak a bit of Pashto, right?” “Nope, I'll be starting from scratch.” |
Just as in English you can refer to someone as being a complete zero (i.e., being a worthless human being), so also the Russian word can be used in that sense:
| Почему ты ходишь с этим нулём? Он никаких денег не зарабатывает, ни на что не надеется, и вообще не умеет мыться. | Why are you going out with that loser? He doesn't make any money. He doesn't have any dreams. He doesn't even know how to bathe. |
The word is also used to describe a certain haircut «под нуль», that is, “down to zero” or bald. It's the haircut that every draftee receives when joining the Russian army.
| Как только пойдёшь в солдаты, тебя остригут под нуль. |  |
| As soon as you become a soldier, they shave you bald. |
The haircut has become so popular among tough young men that sometimes they are called нули, which is probably best translated as ‘thugs.’ (You can hear the word used that way in the elusively connected song «Главное» “The important thing” by the singer Земфира.)
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