

So, in France there is a proverb "You should not sell the skin of a bear until it is killed." A similar floorboard is available from Germany. This proverb came to the Russian language from Europe. (Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language (1992), N. a saying about those who share income, benefits, which do not yet exist and may not exist at all (colloquial irony). For example, in German: count income without a master, in French and Russian: they count chickens in the fall, in Belarusian: don’t say “gop” until you jump, in Australian English: fry a hare before it is caught there is a calf that hasn't been born yet. There are many expressions with the same meaning. In the sources of the 30s of the 20th century, the expression occurs precisely with the word to sell, and not to divide. The skin of a bear is valuable, provided that it is intact. It is quite logical that in the country, one of the main symbols of which is this animal, the saying was invented. The fact is that the bearskin was a very valuable commodity, the brisk trade of which went on until the middle of the 19th century. The tsar himself often said, recalling his sworn enemy Charles XII, that he, unlike him, "do not promise skin without killing a bear."Īccording to the third version, the expression was previously used in Russian. Peter I allegedly brought it from Germany.

And so they met a bear, but one of them fled, and the other fainted.Īt the end of the fable, it is said that you must first kill the bear, and then "share its skin and drink." There is a version that the expression came not from France, but from Germany. The fable tells about two hunter friends who dreamed of meeting a bear, killing it and making good money selling its skin. La Fontaine "The Bear and Two Hunters" (1668) The expression about the skin of an unkilled bear was in the fable of the French fabulist J. Various achievements of science and technology, philosophical ideas, European literature began to penetrate into our country. During the reign of Tsar Peter I, Russia established close ties with various European countries. The first version says that the expression came to us from France. There are several options for the origin of this popular expression. Sharing the skin of an unkilled bear means planning something for the success of some enterprise that has not yet been started and the successful completion of which is not obvious.įor example, the sale of a car has not yet been completed, the car has just been put up for sale, and the sellers are already talking about where they will spend the money.Īt the same time, it may even be unknown whether it will be possible to sell it for the expected high price. Snegirev, "Russians in their proverbs", book. It is mentioned that Peter I knew her: ◆ My rule, the winner of Charles XII used to say, without killing the bear, do not promise skin. So, in France they say “You should not sell the skin of a bear until it has been killed” (used in La Fontaine's fable “The Bear and Two Friends”, 1668). This proverb probably came to the Russian language from Europe. Synonyms Antonyms Hypernyms Hyponyms Etymology Boris Muradov, "Interest in Moscow", J// "Formula" (citation from the National Corpus of the Russian Language, see References) To begin with, it is necessary to secure funding for this project and start construction, and only then we can talk about some real terms.

While we were walking, we were dreaming about how they would kill the bear, sell the skin, and share the money. the meaning of the proverb is that you have not killed the bear yet, but you are already deciding what you will do with the skin To share the skin of an unkilled bear means to talk about what has not yet been done.
