- Russian avos'
The Russian avos' ( _ru. русский авось) describes a philosophy of behavior, or attitude of a person who ignores possible problems or hassles and, at the same time, expects or hopes for no negative results or consequences. It is an attitude that treats life as unpredictable and that the best one can do is count on luck. [Cite book |last=Wierzbicka |first=Anna |title=Semantics, Culture, and Cognition |pages=435 |date=1992 |isbn=0195073266] [Cite book |last=Novicow |first=Jacques |coauthors=Yakov Aleksandrovich Novikov |title=The Expansion of Russia: Problems of the East and Problems of the Far East |date=1904 |pages=168]
Origin
"Avos" (авось) proper is a Russian word that can be used either as a particle or a noun. As a particle, "avos" is close in meaning to "hopefully" or "maybe" (when talking of something hoped for and uncertain). When used as a noun, "avos" means "hit or miss", "hope against hope", or "something done under risk and in the hope for good result in the end". The avos' attitude is believed by many to be intrinsic to Russian character, just as is the notion of "sud'ba" (судьба) which roughly translates, depending on the context, as "destiny," "convocation," "fate," or "fatum."
This kind of attitude has been described in
Ivan Goncharov 's novel "Oblomov".See also
*
Divine Providence , a comparable concept fromChristianity References
* Зализняк Анна А., Левонтина И. Б. Отражение национального характера в лексике русского. языка // Russian Linguistics, vol. 20, 1996.
External links
* [http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/7077a.cfm Review of Russian Periodic - Politics, History, Philosophy]
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