"This writer had a long nose."
Translation:У этого писателя был длинный нос.
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1276
I guess this is an allusion to Nikolai Gogol, who had a prominent nose, indeed (it is not by chance that he wrote his wonderful short story нос)
- 2894
I know I'm going to kick myself for asking this, but why couldn't it be "была", indicating that the writer is female? Would it then have been a different word instead of "писателя"? I'm guessing that a female writer would be a "писательница", but I can't work out how to form the genitive. Or is "писатель" accepted as gender neutral, these days, in the same way that "authoress" is rarely used in English anymore?
- 3286
You're right about писательница, but remember, the writer is not the nominative subject here. Был is modifying "длинный нос" so even if the writer is female, it would not change to была. http://www.russian-blog.com/had/
- 564
По-русски иногда говорят "длинный нос", имея в виду любопытство, пронырливость. Т.е. "У него длинный нос" - "Он [чересчур] любопытен".
В английском это тоже так?
Говорят "Don't stick your nose into other people's business" что значит "Не твоё дело". Кажется это самое близкое по идеи, но наверно есть что-то более похоже.
"Не суй свой нос в чужие дела" is how we say this. It's an exactly literal translation.
Also "nosey" in the translator gives "пронырливый". You can use "nose around" or "nose through" as a verb too ('шпионить'?)
Talking about a 'long nose' in English could be referring to Pinocchio, ie a person is lying, but it is not common.
Also, even rarer, (antiquated?) is the idea of wealthy people having a certain face where they tilt their head back and look unimpressed at everything. They have 'high brows' and 'long noses' and they 'look down their nose' at everything.
http://www.newslinq.com/rich-snob-starts-berating-mom/rich-snob/
