KudoZ home » Russian to English » Idioms / Maxims / Sayings

почемучка

English translation: Curious George

13:58 Mar 4, 2004

Russian to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - Idioms / Maxims / Sayings

Russian term or phrase: почемучка

Просто из любопытства спрашиваю, называют ли в англоязычных странах детей "почемучками" и как это звучит? Неужели просто какой-нибудь "why-asker"?

Lale KudoZ activity Questions: 117 (1 open) Answers: 165 Russian Federation
Local time: 02:25

English translation:Curious George

Explanation:
"Curious George" is a reference to a famous American children's book about a monkey who's always getting into trouble as a result of his curiosity.

Selected response from:

digkam
Russian Federation
Local time: 02:25

Grading comment

Жаль, что не могу присудить очки за все варианты. Как я вижу, прямого аналога нашей "почемучке" нет, зато аналогия "Curious George - любопытная Варвара" мне нравится :)
Всем спасибо!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

5 +6

Curious George

digkam

3 +4

Mr. (Miss) Million Whys

xxxkire

whynik

MikeEpstein

2 +2

"why-ner"

GaryG

want-to-know-all

Yuri Smirnov

busy body

Galina Blankenship

Answers

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +6

почемучка

Curious George

Explanation:
"Curious George" is a reference to a famous American children's book about a monkey who's always getting into trouble as a result of his curiosity.

digkam
Russian Federation
Local time: 02:25
Native speaker of:

Russian
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

20 mins confidence:

почемучка want-to-know-all

Explanation:
Вроде такое попадалось, но на 100% не уверен.

Yuri Smirnov
Belarus
Local time: 01:25
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Belarusian,

Russian
PRO pts in category: 12

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

Mr. (Miss) Million Whys

Explanation:
I've heard this expression though I'm not sure how popular it is. Evidently it comes from a Kipling's story "The Elephant's Child" про слоненка-почемучку:

But different folk have different views:
I know a person small--
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes--
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!

xxxkire

2 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

"why-ner"

Explanation:
Purely my neologism on the spur of the moment.
This won't resonate as well in Commonwealth countries where the word hinted at is "whinge", not "whine"

GaryG
United States
Local time: 18:25
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 28

2 days5 hrs confidence:

busy body

Explanation:
They don't have something specifically close to "почемучка" in America. What they have is "busy body", i.e. that is how they call children who are restless and constantly ask questions. But it is a larger concept than "почемучка". It is more like "непоседа".
Just to give you an option...

Galina Blankenship
United States
Local time: 15:25
Native speaker of:

Russian

248 days confidence:

почемучка whynik

Explanation:
-nik is a Russian suffix that made its way into English with sputnik (also beatnik, peacenik, refusenik, etc.)
It applies to persons with a certain inclination or bias.
Thus to translate "pochemuchka" as "whynik" seems quite appropriate.

Reference: http://www.emory.edu/INTELNET/predictionary.html

MikeEpstein

Voters for reclassification
as
PRO / non-PRO

PRO (2): digkam, beserg

Return to KudoZ list