Hi
What is the exact meaning of “to calculate something under the carpet”? I’m not sure if it means to
Do you have an actual example of usage? Google only shows me discussions of real estate and how “carpet area” is the usable area of a house, as opposed to covered area, built-up area, and super built up area.
I’ve never heard the expression myself.
Context please. I am fairly well read and have never heard it before.
Can’t remember where I read it, but it went something like “He did a quick calculation under the carpet”. (I know it wasn’t physically under the carpet.). Whoever he was was making a quick calculation. I will search for the exact quote.
I believe it was Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Checking now.
stalin did a lot of riding of magic carpets
(according to Catriona Kelly, “Riding the Magic Carpet: Children and the Leader Cult in the Stalin Era”, The Slavic and East European Journal 49 (2005): )
and sweeping stuff under it…but calculating under it ? His calculations were more plotting and threatening.
Determination can have the meaning of calculation but can also mean tenaciousness.
Maybe it’s a Russian idiom that was translated from something.
The way it was used was like “brush something under the carpet” as in explain away discrepancies.
When you have to clean a house quick, because the relatives are coming, sometimes you don’t have time to sweep so good. So you lift up the carpet and sweep all the filth underneath.
Basically, hide all the problems then pretend everything is great.
http://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/sweep_something_under_the_rug
When you have to clean a house quick, because the relatives are coming, sometimes you don’t have time to sweep so good. So you lift up the carpet and sweep all the filth underneath.
Basically, hide all the embarrassing problems and pretend everything is great.
I would have to see the context, but is there any chance that “calculations” is being used as a synonym for “plotting” or “machinations”, making the phrase mean something like “behind the scenes plotting”?
According to Google Books, the word carpet does not appear in “Young Stalin.” It’s not foolproof, but a similar search suggests the word Lenin appears 80 times.
Duplicate post.
This was my thinking, and would seem to make more sense under its own context.
Like, “He designed his evil plans in secret.”
This is not a standard English idiom. I strongly suspect you are misremembering whatever you read. As others have pointed out, to “sweep something under the carpet” is a common idiom.
No. I actually wrote it down. I only remember hat the context was in reference to some mathematical calculation but I can’t remember the exact source of the phrase. I had never come across it before but it struck me as similar to brushing something under the carpet. I will do my best to find the source and return to it later.
Well, it is still not a regular idiom. I suppose it may be an intentional bit of wordplay, playing with the “brush/sweep under the carpet” idiom. Like most of these of these things, it is impossible to really know what might have been meant without context.
I agree. I read the phrase over and over because it was odd. I wrote it down to get back to it later. I suspected it was a wordplay on “sweeping something under the carpet”.
It sounds like it’s variation on that idiom - that is, to dismiss or hide something (brush it under the carpet) by means of obfuscated calculation (sometimes known as ‘creative accounting’).
Good point Mangetout. Thank you. Thank you all
davidmich