2017-03-04

зашибиться means ушибиться, удариться [1], but that’s hardly relevant. I only know this verb from the interjection зашибись, which expresses восхищение или восторг [1]. In fact, it seems that the only reason why people say зашибись is because, as it often happens in Russian, it sounds like the real, bad word, which is заебись [2]. And заебись is — of course — derived from заебать [3]. It seems that both are often used as adverbs, meaning very good, very well, perfectly [2] [3], but I have only heard it used as an interjection. What’s also interesting is that, if I’m not mistaken, I only heard people using it to mean the opposite of “very good”, as if they were saying жесть or пипец; I should pay more attention to their faces and see if I can detect signs of sarcasm. Anyhow, if that’s the origin of зашибись, it’s pointless to find the etymology of зашибиться.

  • [1] зашибиться. С. А. Кузнецов, Большой толковый словарь русского языка. Грамота
  • [2] зашибись. Russian-English slang dictionary. Mat
  • [3] заебись. Russian-English slang dictionary. Mat
  • Russian: Ну, море всегда зашибись.
  • Russian: Зашибись как заживете в центре, да еще в охраняемой зеленой зоне!
  • Russian: Не, ну зашибись теперь. В какой-то кафешке мне локальная политика запрещает нажатие на линк “новый пост” в жж, мотивируя это тем, что: “Найдена запрещенная фраза”!!!
  • Russian: зашибись! у соседей снизу в три часа ночи громыхает музыка жесть как.