All Russian speakers are well acquainted with the expression through the stump of the deck: 1) " without diligence, carelessly and clumsily, somehow (to do something)", 2) "indiscriminately, randomly, somehow", 3) " inconsistent, with stops and interruptions (to go, move(Felitsyna V. P., Mokienko V. M. Russkiye frazeologizmy: Lingvostranovedcheskiy slovar ' [Russian Phraseological Units: Linguo-Regional Dictionary], Moscow, 1990). The same range of meanings is reflected in the phraseological dictionary of the Russian language under the editorship of A. I. Molotkov; but here they are separated according to two dictionary articles as two separate idioms: the form to fall through the stump of the deck "to do slowly, clumsily, clumsily or somehow" and the form through the stump of the deck 1) " badly, page 108 carelessly (to do something)", 2) " not smoothly, not smoothly, with hitches and interruptions (to go, develop, etc.) "(Ed. 4th, Moscow, 1987). From a historical point of view, the phraseological units felling through the stump of the deck and through the stump of the deck, of course, represent the development of a single whole. Before us is a transitional case of splitting phraseological units, which has probably occurred over the past century, and which has not yet been fully realized. Therefore, it is obvious that those authors are right who separate both of these forms separately, and those who combine them as variants of the same idiom. St. Maximov, a Russian fiction writer and ethnographer of the XIX century, for example, saw in the turnover through the stump deck the original expression through the stump into the deck, which he conditioned by walking along the burel: if you happen to walk along the vetroval, burel, then stepping over the stump, you will certainly get your foot in a rotten deck (Maximov St.  Krylatye slova [Winged Words], Moscow, 1955). This explanation is not too, as it seems, corresponds to the meaning of phraseology, and most importantly- ... Read more