Dec 20, 2015 03:07
8 yrs ago
Russian term

углота

Russian to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature
From Mikhail Shevelyov's "Последовательность событий" (http://magazines.russ.ru/znamia/2015/6/4sh.html)
Он появился на следующий вечер. Подъехали две машины, в них пятеро сопровождающих, рядом с которыми масхадовские охранники выглядели как регулярная немецкая армия, эти были — настоящая углота. За ними третья, из которой вышел сам Басаев. Облысел совсем, а борода стала гуще.

I couldn't find углота in any dictionary. My only idea is that it is somehow related to угол: maybe an "angular-looking gang of men"? A "rough bunch"?

Proposed translations

+5
2 hrs
Selected

уголовники

It's a guess, really. I think the author is saying that the bodyguards look like hardcore criminals /thugs. There has to be something peculiar about the way they look or act..
Peer comment(s):

agree Sergei Kvardakov : Yes, thugs
2 hrs
Thank you.
agree Pavel Altukhov
2 hrs
Thank you.
agree Tatiana Grehan : Agree with "thugs"
7 hrs
Thank you.
agree The Misha : Never mind thugs, they were all thugs. More like wackos in this case, or psychos, perhaps.
7 hrs
Thank you.
agree Tatiana Lammers
13 days
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3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks!"
2 days 5 hrs

gangsta / cons / jailbirds

1. "thugs" won't do because one doesn't have to be a criminal (ugolovnik/ugol) to be a thug. In fact, some of them were regular-army thugs, and some – criminal thugs.... but all were thugs.

2. You need a slangy-er expression. That's why "gangsta" is my first choice.
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