On 2005-01-31T01:05:33+03:00 Isaac Penzev <isaacp@...> wrote:
> Rene Uittenbogaard wrote:
>> But they immediately
>> warned me that I should not use the word for "male goat" in Russian, as
>> it's considered a very offensive insult.
>>
>> Can any of our Russian-speakers confirm this? This usage could of
>> course be regional; this couple was from near Krasnodar, if I'm correct.
> I can confirm it.
> It is not regional. It comes from jail slang where it denotes a passive
> homosexualist. Jail slang words became very popular in USSR after WW2.
I cannot confirm that, it's not a *very* offensive insult. Let's say
it's something above-medium. Isaac, you're not confusing козёл (kozyol
or male goat) with петух (petukh or rooster/cock), are you? Petukh
stands for passive homosexualist in jail slang. Kozyol means something
different (cannot recall).
Indeed, jail slang became very popular in the USSR. That's no
surprise: a lot of people were made prisoners.
Alexander
--
Alexander Savenkov http://www.xmlhack.ru/
savenkov@xmlhack.ru http://www.xmlhack.ru/authors/croll/