There is a small office supply store near me which uses one of its billboards to display pithy sayings or humorous aphorisms.
Recently, though, they’ve thrown a curve ball, and have put up a phrase in Russian (or at least, Russian characters).
Here goes, as best as I can transliterate it:
Nyet nichyego dorozhye “khalavy”
OK, I get the first word (:D), but does the rest translate to something meaningful?
It’s difficult to translate literally but it means “there’s nothing sweeter than mooching”.
“Khalavy” is a slang term for the action of eating and drinking at other’s expense on a regular basis…for example, someone who gets distracted and looks away when the bill comes in a restaurant or bar and has the good fortune to have someone else pick up the tab is said by the others to be “khalavy” or mooching.
alright…i might of been out of Russia for 9 years…but i swear to God, i’ve never heard of the term “khalavy”, maybe it would help if you spelled it out…phonetically.
According to my ever-handy Dictionary of Russian Slang by V. Shlyakhov and E. Adler, khalyava is slang for “freebie”. The whole phrase translates as:
“There’s nothing more expensive than a freebie.”
Presumably referring to the fact that you probably owe the guy who gave you a freebie at least one favor in return, or that the freebie may even be more trouble than it’s worth.