Russianогород городить (ogorod gorodit')
Meaning: To start a laborious and pointless undertaking; to make a big fuss over nothing.
Literally: To build a vegetable garden
Example: “Из-за одной подписи не стоит огород городить.” — There's no need to make a song and dance about one signature.
English equivalent: To make a song and dance about something
Equivalents in other languages
French: Faire un pataquès Literally: To make a pataquès
English: make a song and dance about
Origin: Городить means to fence in, and an огород was originally an enclosed plot, from the same root as город, once a fortified enclosure. Fencing a garden was hard, slow work, so огород городить came to mean starting some laborious and pointless undertaking. Michelson's dictionary records the fuller зачем же было огород городить, зачем же было капусту садить (why fence the garden, why plant the cabbage) in an 1895 newspaper.
More Russian idioms
- на честном слове и на одном крыле (na chestnom slove i na odnom kryle) Succeeding or surviving by the barest margin, through luck or desperation rather than sol…
- развесистая клюква (razvestistaya klyukva) Ignorant stereotypes and tall tales about Russia, especially those peddled by foreigners.
- пускаться во все тяжкие (puskat'sya vo vse tyazhkiye) To abandon restraint and indulge recklessly in vices or wrongdoing without scruple.
- на коленке (na kolenke) Done hastily and without proper tools or technique; improvised or makeshift.
- козёл отпущения (kozjol otpushchenija) A person blamed or punished for the wrongs of others; a scapegoat.
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Explore another collection: Untranslatable Words
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- Beloruchka Someone who dodges dirty or hard work — a person whose hands stay conspicuously clean.
- Zapoi A bender running for days, in which a person drops out of ordinary life entirely.
- Toska A dull ache of the soul; a great longing with nothing in particular to long for.
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