The frantic, rapid and high-speed pace of life, the desire to save in everything always and everywhere. Such a phenomenon in the Russian language as abbreviations has firmly established itself in our lives. What is it? Abbreviation is a special set of symbols, which is formed by abbreviating a word or word combination by the first letters, syllables or parts of words and even sounds included in the name of an object or phenomenon. In simple life, space and time are very often required to be spared. Therefore, people begin to use simple abbreviations that become frequently used. These can be concise phrases or words.
History of the emergence of abbreviations
The history of the emergence and formation of such a linguistic phenomenon as abbreviations goes back to ancient times with the appearance of written language. All peoples who were able to write used abbreviations. Saving space on material (papyrus, birch bark, ceramic tiles) and speed of writing were important for scribes. Antiquity began to develop the use of abbreviations in inscriptions on buildings and later in manuscripts.
Often the Romans abbreviated proper nouns, and then later official words as well, e.g. cos. - consul. The Greeks began to use abbreviations similar to the Romans in their papyri and coin inscriptions. This phenomenon became widespread with the abbreviation of measures and weights.
Thanks to the development of Roman jurisprudence, a set and system of rules for abbreviations was compiled. It was these that were later used in the medieval era. "Tyrone marks" are one of the most famous systems, being the basis of Roman rapid writing - tachyography. These marks, not without Latin, went further into the Middle Ages, where they were also used in manuscripts and coin inscriptions, letters.
Then Greek and Latin letters began to be used in capital letters. And thanks to this there were special signs for the reduction of syllables, and not only double consonants, but also vowels. The first to use the method of abbreviating a word by its initial letters were the Greeks, from whom the Romans adopted it. The most widespread were abbreviations in the legal, medical and theological fields.
Who is suitable for a tattoo with an elephant?
Traditionally, the image of large and strong animals is recommended to score men. But if you pick up a drawing in the right style, you can greatly facilitate it. Therefore, in today's world tattoos depicting elephants are considered universal. It is suitable for those who want to emphasize the strong qualities of their character or to develop them. In particular we are talking about the wisdom and insight, the will and determination, self-confidence. Tattoo "elephant" meaning for girls is the same as for men. In our emancipated age, many beautiful ladies want to become stronger and smarter. If you like the image of elephants, feel free to choose the sketch with this animal for the application of tattoos, because the value of this symbol is exclusively positive!
Prison abbreviations as a separate big meaningful group
Prison jargon (it is also called criminal, blatnoy or thieves, but it is even more correct to call it "argot") is a special dialect that arose on the social basis in the criminal environment. The linguistic system that emerged, including specific terms and expressions to identify members of the criminal community, was opposed to the linguistic system of law-abiding society.
One of the main purposes of the prison argo is to make it difficult for ordinary people, called the uninitiated, to understand the meaning of what is said between the declassified elements. Prison abbreviations (thieves, in the form of tats) served as one of the main and effective tools to achieve this goal. Let's look at the types of abbreviations. They can be different - alphabetic, syllabic, sound, semantic, etc. The typology of abbreviations is huge and specific.
In the largest subdivision, they are divided into initiative and syllabic. Each of these groups contains its own subgroups. Let's look at each of them on abbreviations of prison jargon.
Where to Apply.
Tattoo in the form of elephant is allowed on any part of the body.
Common areas to apply an animal image:
- back - suitable for the design of a large picture, detailed drawing;
- Legs - tattoo on the hips while moving creates the effect of walking an animal;
- Abdomen - suitable for small tattoos;
- The pelvic area - a tattoo on the lower abdomen carries sexual connotations.
The elephant image is printed on the chest, shoulders, forearms, less often on the hands and fingers.
Initial abbreviations.
The first type of abbreviation in this group is a letter abbreviation, which reads as the letters are called in the alphabet.
Examples: AA for "angel of hell," PVA for "I despise your asset."
The second type of abbreviation is a sound abbreviation. It is acrophonetic. The principle of its construction is that it also takes the first letters of the constituent words, but they are not read alphabetically, but as a single word.
Examples: HORN - "the state condemned (to) slaves forever", DNO - "give us some rest", "give us some breathing room".
Alphabetic-sound abbreviation combines the two listed above. That is, it includes both alphabetic names of letters and their fusions into words. Such abbreviations are not represented in prison jargon.
A special group is created by bacronyms. These are abbreviations that are created from an already existing abbreviation. There are a lot of such examples among prison abbreviations. Example: GOD, CAT, CROSS, LEFT, SUMMER, SKY, PAPA, LIGHT.
There are also recursive abbreviations. This is the type of abbreviations that includes not only the words but also the abbreviation itself in its decoding. For clarity, here is an example: PHP - PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. There are no recursive abbreviations in prison abbreviations.
Syllabic abbreviations
Another large group are syllabic abbreviations. Prison abbreviations don't really occur in this type, but you still need to consider this point for general understanding. There are several ways of obtaining syllabic abbreviations:
- Combining the beginning parts of two or more words: department store - department store.
- Combine the beginning of one word and another word from the whole word combination: terrorist attack - an act of terrorism.
- Combine the initial part of a word with the indirect case form of a noun: head of the department - head of the department.
The beginning of the first word and the beginning and end of the second / end of the second word are joined: moped - mo(tocycle)+(veloci)ped.
Popular Tattoo Ideas
Tattoo of Ganesha
The god of wisdom and prosperity, Ganesha, is a popular body painting character.
The image of the Indian deity carries positive energy and symbolizes:
- wisdom;
- strength;
- financial well-being;
- success;
- positivity.
Abstraction
Favorite design abstract tattoo - elephant from a painting by Salvador Dali.
Surrealistic sketch is suitable for people with a delicate mental organization, enthusiastic about art.
Origami Style
Tattoo of an elephant in the style of origami Means peace, respect for the world around them and goodwill.
Tattoo applied laconic strokes. Picture looks minimalist.
Mandala Style
Mandala tattoo - A magnet for attracting positive energy. Represents a simplified image of the universe, where the earth is the level of the whole universe.
Elephant in Buddhism is a symbol of spiritual knowledge.
Realism Style
Tattoo An elephant in the realism style is a A drawing of a large size. As a place for painting choose the back or forearm.
The picture on the body is depicted as brightly as possible, naturally.
Prison tattoos and abbreviations
There is an opinion that prisoners began to make tattoos of their own free will and for internal reasons. But this is not quite right. The Russian government itself gave the impetus to the development of prison tattoos. Abbreviations, images - all of these were later applied to their bodies by the prisoners. Before that, the state branded those lawbreakers who were life-long Siberian convicts. Over time, the tattoos changed their meaning and essence. They became a sort of passport, a business card of each prisoner.
Nakolki told about the belonging to the declassified society, about the place of their bearer in the hierarchy of the underworld. There are no prison tattoos, not endowed with a special meaning. Each of them describes a certain status and specialization of a person in the criminal world. Nakolki include a variety of images and abbreviations. Prison abbreviations are a huge number, and we will look at the most famous ones.
Meaning of tattoos for men
A man living in Europe, apply the image of an elephant to show his friendliness. Such a man does not like conflicts, seeks compromise, does not like to rush, is often cut off from the outside world. For the European man, he symbolizes:
- prudence;
- reliability;
- vitality;
- regularity.
For African men, you can find a tattoo of a fierce giant of the savannah with bloodshot eyes. The tattoo signifies the highest degree of anger toward opponents. Being peaceful creatures, they are capable of showing incredible ferocity if brought to this state. A man who gets a tattoo with an angry elephant, unconsciously or consciously declares to the outside world that he will not allow himself to be attacked and is always ready to fight back.
In Indian religion it is forbidden for men to get tattoos, but the elephant is an exception. In Hinduism it is considered a sacred animal. The temple servants often make a tattoo of him, but it has only a religious meaning. This is a way for Hindus to show their respect for the god, who is depicted with the head of an elephant.
In Thailand, workers who organize elephant rides get small tattoos with his image. In doing so, they identify themselves as the owners of a rare noble specialty.
ELEPHANT
Such a tattoo is characteristic of Soviet and some Russian prisoners. SLON is an abbreviation - prison tattoo, which consists of four letters.
The official and main transcription is "death by knife to the cops." However, there are other variants by which this abbreviation is deciphered. Firstly, "Soviet camps of special assignment", secondly, "Solovetsky camp of special assignment", and thirdly, "Glory to Lenin - our father". Sometimes there is also such a variant as "since small years, only misfortunes". The SLON tattoo has no particular restrictions for its application. But because of certain words, such as "cops" and "knife," it was mostly applied by convicts who were negatively disposed toward the authorities.
General Meaning
For most people, the elephant is a harmless, slow and peaceful animal that poses no danger to humans. Tattoos depicting this animal are common among the peoples of Africa. Also, he enjoys special respect among the inhabitants of the Middle and Central Asia. For these peoples elephant symbolizes:
- Peacefulness;
- devotion;
- wisdom:
- inner strength.
The elephant is a symbol of supreme power for the people of India and China. In the Buddhist religion, this animal symbolizes spiritual development, inner growth and higher intelligence. In the Middle Ages Europe perceived this animal as a symbol of chastity, and for Ancient Rome, he meant victory and higher knowledge. The elephant tattoo has different meanings for people from different countries and continents.
GOD
A great many prison abbreviations are interpreted in different ways. The same applies to the acronym GOD. It is an abbreviation that has nothing to do with religion and has several interpretations. And often its real meaning is known only to its bearer and no one else. The most famous transcripts are, first, "God absolves sins", and secondly, "was condemned by the state. There are also such variants as "afraid to stay hungry," "will rob again," and "be careful, robber."
The meaning of prison abbreviations
Prison abbreviations and their meaning can be classified into several groups. For example, there are abbreviations that tell about the inmate's attitude toward the country, government, and politics:
- AGMD - "Adolf Hitler is my friend."
- ALLUR - "I love anarchy with a young love - joyfully";
- ARBAT - "and Russia was, and now".
Some abbreviations refer to certain values that are important to the entire declassified society or to an individual member of it (love, family, freedom, honor, etc.):
- ALENKA - "and one should love her like an angel."
- BLITZS - "cherish love and value freedom";
- DMNTP - "you are the most beautiful for me".
It is also possible to distinguish such a group of abbreviations, which directly refer to the state, to the judicial process, to the territorial location of the imprisoned person, etc. For example: HORN - "the state condemned (to) slaves forever." This can also include the above-mentioned abbreviations SLON and BOSS.
Indian traditions
Elephants are treated with special reverence in India, Thailand and some other countries, where these animals constantly live next to humans. Very often the owners of trunks here are even deified. In the Hindu pantheon there is the god Ganesha, depicted with the body of a man and the head of an elephant. He patronizes all creative people and is distinguished by his responsiveness - always ready to listen to the pleas of the asker and help. Ganesha holds his trunk in his hands, which means his victory over his own passions. If you choose the image of this deity for a body image, elephant tattoo meaning takes on a whole new meaning and can mean the desire for wisdom and development of their own talents. It is useful to make such a tattoo and those who want to develop willpower and learn moderation. Looks original image of a white elephant, which is considered particularly happy in the beliefs of many peoples. This animal is considered a symbol of fertility, prosperity, happiness, and high spirituality.
Multiple meanings and options for deciphering abbreviations
Deciphering prison abbreviations is of great linguistic interest to scientists-philologists. As you yourself have already noticed, the same abbreviation can have several meanings.
This was so because of the influence of a complex of factors - moment of history, time, territory and others. The abbreviations of prison tattoos have been appearing and accumulating over the years, and now there are more than a hundred of them. At the same time, some of them are polysemous, which speaks to the, perhaps partly dubious, subcultural richness and identity of the declassified society.
Prison abbreviations have become a large layer in modern linguistics and are of particular interest to study. After all, it is still not entirely clear why they arose and how they arose. Why do they have such a semantic meaning and not another one? Philologists still have much to learn, and also to see how prison and criminal abbreviations will change with the course of our time. And they can't help but change, as everything is influenced by societal external and internal factors.
Meaning of tattoos for girls
The elephant tattoo for women has a more general meaning and does not depend on territorial location. Tattooed on the body of a girl is a symbol:
- Fertility;
- tranquility;
- caring and kindness;
- motherhood;
- Women's health.
Women leading primitive lifestyles tattoo fierce elephants in an aggressive pose on their bodies. Thus they demonstrate to others that they will not allow anyone to harm their offspring and will go to extreme lengths to protect them.
Elephants in the animal world are protective of their cubs and never leave them alone. Being calm by nature, they are capable of tearing an enemy to shreds when it comes to their children. The symbol of the fierce elephantine carries this meaning for the aboriginal woman.
