# "Their hands grow from their asses" What language?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-hands-grow-from-their-asses-what-language/609361>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 13, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-hands-grow-from-their-asses-what-language/609361 "2012-01-13T03:00:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-hands-grow-from-their-asses-what-language/609361/1 "2012-01-13T03:00:18Z")

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Someone online used the phrase “their hands grow from their asses” in the context of these people are incompetent. Obviously he is doing a literal translation of a saying in a different language. Any ideas what language? The only thing I know about him is that he claims to live in the U.K.

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-hands-grow-from-their-asses-what-language/609361/2 "2012-01-13T08:12:38Z")

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Russian perhaps?

I googled “hands grow from their asses” (quotation marks included) and found [this essay](http://inochizuna.livejournal.com/2997.html) by Костя Иночкин (Kostia Inochkin) giving reasons why you should have a student in your lab. Reason number 3:

[QUOTE=Костя Иночкин]  
3) You become less responsible. Every time you get a wrong result, you can say: “Who produces thouse students? Their hands grow from their asses!”  
[/quote]

And this item from the google search:

[QUOTE=Google search results]  
Why is there such dislike for Marxist- Leninists - Page 9 - RevLeft  
… that the Trotskyists as amoebas reproduce by dividing! Trots failed always and  
everywhere. Why?Because their hands grow from their asses! …  
[Tỷ lệ kèo - Tỷ lệ kèo bóng đá - Kèo bóng đá trực tuyến](http://www.revleft.com/vb/why-there-such-t156113/index9.html) - [Cached](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&q=cache:e6Vjwlq_qs8J:http://www.revleft.com/vb/why-there-such-t156113/index9.html+%22hands+grow+from+their+asses%22&ct=clnk) - Similar  
[/quote]

The link is dead (but the one marked “Cached” is alive). It seems to be an international discussion board of some sort, but you can see just from the excerpt above that at least it is talking about Russian subject matter.

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**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-hands-grow-from-their-asses-what-language/609361/3 "2012-01-13T20:37:36Z")

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The expression is definitely popular in Russia. I heard it applied to everyone from people doing wood work to software developers. No idea if its used elsewhere.

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**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/their-hands-grow-from-their-asses-what-language/609361/4 "2012-01-13T20:55:50Z")

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Thanks guys. Russian it is.