Victor Zagria (asker) Aug 6, 2009:

I highly appreciate the accuracy and percision in word usagage so much cuddled and cosseted on this particular forum. Sashko and I are well in the know that free and resourceful - as it is - the professional exchange of views might only be much hoped for and only remained a fond hope some 20 odd years back. Thanky to this site and the moderators we have native speakers like Mark and Susan to share with us their ideas on speech usage/abusage. Thanks to all of you once again. Regards

Alexander Onishko Aug 6, 2009:

Thank you for the research, Susan! Yes, you are quite right - I also encountered this word in works of American authors of the late 19th century and early 20th century. The links were about O Henry and Scott Fitzgerald.

Susan Welsh Aug 6, 2009:

To Alexander on "gripsack" You got me interested in this word. The links you give don't open for me, but I googled about and found that it is a word mainly from the 19th century. Abraham Lincoln used it. A book from 1888 writes that the Americans called it an English way of saying what Americans call a satchel; but the English think of it as a borrowed Americanism. Another site said it is believed to be of Germanic origin. Apparently it figures in Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," but the site gives no quote. An 1896 book called "The American Missionary" writes: "Our preachers are not what they ought to be," said one woman. "We have got too many gripsack preachers--men who go around from church to church with a gripsack, not full of sermons, but of bottles of whisky, which they sell to the members of their congregation." A more modern reference ("Urban Dictionary") said it can mean either a small suitcase or the male testicles. Another link called it "very rare."<br><br>
So, it's a colorful word, although incomprehensible to the few over-50 Americans I tried it out on.

Mark Berelekhis Aug 4, 2009:

I agree with Susan It makes just as much sense in English as it does in Russian. As long as you give it a nice flow, you're set.

Susan Welsh Aug 4, 2009:

not rigid It's a great idiom, fully comprehensible in English--why not use it?

Victor Zagria (asker) Aug 4, 2009:

as rigid as that? Is there any way to Englicize the ideom. Is a strict reflection you're sugesting any popular in the Eng world?

Victor Zagria (asker) Aug 4, 2009:

Yeah, it's a country all right. Knowing me, it woun't take you much gessing on the name, hey?

Susan Welsh Aug 4, 2009:

XXX? Hi Victor, what sort of thing is XXX? A country? The sentence is clear to me except for the beginning phrase.