Keep calm - what does this English phrase mean? Keep calm and Don't worry be happy
At the beginning of the Second World War, when the world was plunged into depression, and people lived in fear, every day worrying about their lives and their future, humanity needed to raise its spirit and fighting spirit. At this time, propaganda leaflets and posters with various calls of a military and political nature were popular in many countries.
"Keep calm and keep up the good work"
In England, which participated in the Second World War in the Entente alliance, this phenomenon was also common. Freedom Is In Peril. Defend It With All Your Might (Freedom is under threat. Defend it with all your strength) and Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory (Your courage, Your vigor, Your determination will bring us victory) with such heroic calls were made by the English government to its people.
In September 1939, two such posters were replicated and hung throughout England: in shop windows and at railway stations. These posters were made in the same style and had only two colors: white letters on a red background. The inscriptions were made in a special beautiful font that would be difficult for the enemy to counterfeit. The image of the crown of King George VI was used in the form of a graphic emblem.
The British Ministry of Information issued a third poster in the same series, which read Keep Calm and Carry On. It was decided to use it only in case of crisis or invasion. But this did not happen, and the “keep calm” posters, with a circulation of 2.5 million, were never presented to the public.
The entire batch of posters remained in storage throughout the war. Half a century later, in the small town of Alnwick, Stuart Manley found a “keep calm” poster in the attic of his bookshop. The Briton and his wife really liked the symbolic poster from past times, and they decided to decorate the window of their bookstore “Barter books” with it.
Many visitors paid attention to this poster and expressed a desire to buy it. Then the owners came up with the idea to make copies of the commemorative poster and put them up for sale. Until 2005, although the posters were sold, they were not wildly popular until a note appeared in one of the newspapers. The note was about a “keep calm” poster, the author suggested it as a Christmas souvenir.
Then a real sales boom began. The bookstore received daily requests for the “keep calm” poster. As Mr. Manley himself says, his employees at that time were only engaged in accepting applications and packing posters.
Two years later, such a popular sketch began to be used by Mark Coupe.
The enterprising Coop organized the production of mugs, aprons and other souvenirs with the “Keep calm and Carry on” logo. Such goods were in demand among the British and brought successful sales. So in 2011, Mark Coupe attempted to register "Keep calm and carry on" as his own trademark, demanding that other companies stop selling products with this distinctive logo.
However, registration was refused on the grounds that the phrase had become quite widespread, becoming public property. The British themselves note that this slogan is a standard of English restraint and strength of character.
Since 2009, the poster image has become the property of the whole world, having ended up on the Internet. It's amazing that a simple phrase from the past, consisting of just five words, has become so popular in different countries in our time.
Translation options
Parodies have a different character
Thanks to the World Wide Web, the phrase “Keep calm and Carry on” has become popular among Russian users. Even their own translation options and analogous phrases appeared. Traditionally, “Keep calm and Carry on” is translated into Russian as “Keep calm and continue in the same spirit.”
There is another option: “Keep Calm and Hold On!” Native speakers of Russian also offer such translation methods as “Be calm and keep it up!”, “Do what you must, and let it be what will be.”
And they even use the equivalent of “Smile and wave.” It is clear that such options do not literally translate from English, but rather only convey the general meaning of the original.
Thus, the Russian-speaking population, using the phrase “keep calm” in this translation, makes it an element of the language game.
Use in modern culture
After the slogan “keep calm” entered the public masses, especially the Internet masses, it is not surprising that it had to be an element of the language game more than once. After the phrase came into common use, and, one might say, gained traction, becoming a “meme of Englishness,” it began to be actively parodied.
Parodies have a different character, most often with a touch of irony or outright sarcasm. Well-known examples: “keep calm and drink beer”, “keep calm and call batman”, “keep calm and fake a British accent”, “keep calm and evade the police”, “keep calm and blog on”.
In 2008, T-shirts with a parody print of “Now panic and Freak out” went on sale. In 2009, this version of the parody was quite popular due to the spread of the global economic crisis in England. And to this day, on many websites you can find products with various designs that are parodies of “keep calm”.
One of the well-known trading platforms has about 10,000 various products with original and derivative designs.
Also in 2009, an image generator website appeared, where any user can create their own poster in the “keep calm” style. The site's hosting gallery has over 12 million images created with this generator, and their number is constantly growing.
The popularity of “keep calm” is inexorable, and users’ imagination has no limits.
Despite the change of times and generations, a simple phrase of 5 words has conquered the world. The phrase, once called upon to save England from moral decline and to instill confidence, now saves, above all, from despondency. “Keep calm and Smile!”
Surely you have seen the poster more than once Keep Calm and Carry On, At one time it was incredibly popular - posters were hung on studio walls, printed on T-shirts, the title was rewritten in every possible way and the background color was changed. It's clear that this trend came to us from the West, but do you know the real origin of this poster? We decided to find out what the real story behind the Keep Calm and Carry On poster is.
The Second World War
The British government created the Ministry of Information for agitation and propaganda. In the summer of 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, the ministry developed a series of posters aimed at increasing morale and promoting peace among civilians. The posters consisted of a single color background, the crown of George VI, and had a simple but clear and easy to read font. Posters have been released Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
First two posters - "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will Bring Us Victory" And "Freedom is in Peril"- were actively used at the beginning of the war, they were placed in store windows, on notice boards and public transport. The last “Keep Calm” posters were supposed to be placed after the start of serious bombing of Great Britain, and until then they were kept frozen in warehouses. Keep Calm has sold nearly 2.5 million copies.
However, in October 1939, the Ministry of Information considered such a campaign campaign to be too costly and not producing the desired effect. People considered the tone of such a poster to be too patronizing and condemned the government for not understanding the mood of the population. As a result, almost the entire batch of posters was destroyed.
2000 and now
60 years later, the bookstore owners Stuart and Mary Manley(Stuart and Mary Manley) were sorting out a box of books that they bought at auction, and found the same “Keep Calm” poster in it. They hung it in their bookstore, Barter Books. This poster aroused keen interest among store visitors and the owners decided to sell copies. They managed to sell hundreds of thousands of copies of the poster, as well as cups, mouse pads and other merchandise.
And then something began that always begins in the civilized world - someone is trying to make money. Mark Koop(Mark Coop) registers the domain keepcalmandcarryon.com and trademark. The Manley family tries to dispute this, arguing that the phrase "Keep Calm and Carry On" is a universal phrase and cannot be attributed to one person (and they can be understood). But all this is not as interesting as the history of the creation and distribution of this poster itself - let the issues of money and public property remain on the conscience of those who are concerned about them.
It's amazing that a poster created during World War II has been given new life in the new millennium with a completely different meaning. And even though the poster boom has already subsided, you won’t see it anywhere in a souvenir shop. In fact, here's the full story behind the Keep Calm and Carry On poster. We hope you were interested in learning something new - if so, rate our article and share with your friends :)
There is nothing newer than the long-forgotten old. This is what happened with the poster from the Second World War, when all the inhabitants of Europe were afraid of the onset of fascism. By that time, the UK Ministry of Information had decided to issue a poster with the inscription "keep calm and carry on" translation of which "keep calm and keep up the good work". The poster was published in 2.5 million copies, but was not widely distributed among the masses, despite the fact that it was printed with the image of the British crown, which was supposed to inspire the British and raise morale.
Poster with inscription keep calm and carry on was supposed to become a kind of engine pushing people to decisive action in 1939, but, as it turned out, nothing supernatural happened and they forgot about it. So it lay there until 2000, until one fine day it was accidentally discovered. Stuart Manley co-owner of the used book store Barter Books. He and his wife were sorting through a box of things when Stuart saw a large piece of paper folded at the bottom. He showed it to his wife and they decided it should be framed and hung on the wall. That's how it all started.
As time passed and ownership of works produced in Great Britain expired after 50 years, the poster with the inscription became public knowledge.
Let us note that the year 2000 was marked not only by the emergence of new trends and directions, but also by a change in the human worldview: people proudly entered the 21st century, which means they could confidently do everything to become famous.
9 years have passed and group "Stereophonics" released an album called "Keep calm and carry on", which made the expression even more famous. By that time, almost every second person knew this expression, and the more determined began the global production of goods with this inscription, as well as a parody of this expression.
As you know, parodies spread around the world quite quickly, so today on the Internet you can see many variations on the theme, for example: “shop now and riot late”, “stay calm and keep cooking”.
In 2011, the unexpected happened. Keep Calm and Carry On Ltd. registered the expression as a trademark, demanding to stop the production and sale of souvenirs, but third-party companies filed a request to cancel the registration, citing the fact that the phrase had become quite popular and could not be used as a trademark.
As you understand, it was this decision that helped us all understand history better "keep calm and carry on", and also get acquainted with numerous memes on the Internet. By the way, this expression became the third after “Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory”, and "freedom is in peril". From August 1939, two early posters began to appear in store windows and on railway platforms and were much more successful than the last one.
Today, every tourist can buy anything with the inscription keep calm ( translation: keep calm) from mugs to sweaters, from rugs to children's clothing. Today, that same Stuart Manley has already sold more than 100,000 posters. Mike Koop, owner of keepcalmandcarryon.com, says he sells 300-500 posters every week.
What do social psychologists say?
Alain Samson of the London School of Economics says that in difficult times, people come together to find common values and goals, which is what the crown and poster symbolized. Words have great meaning. They provide encouragement in times of uncertainty and cynicism.
Dr Leslie Prince, lecturer in social psychology at the University of Birmingham, says it is the "quiet, calm, authoritative voice of reason." People were promised land, but today they worry about their houses, bank account, money, pensions. The poster with the inscription just helps to understand that people are not alone, there is someone who knows that everything will be fine. Therefore, if difficulties happen in life, remember that you just need to “keep calm”, and everything else will work out exactly as it should.
If you want to master English, take a look at the site, where you will not only receive a dose of useful material, but also be able to read fascinating and useful articles that will certainly expand your worldview.
When buying clothes or a bag with a foreign inscription, it is not harmful to ask how it is translated, if only to avoid being subjected to the caustic ridicule of more linguistically enlightened fellow citizens. What if something obscene or inconsistent with the beliefs of someone who was flattered by the beautiful bright font and colorful background is written there?
For example, what does “Keep Calm And Carry On” mean - a phrase that can often be seen on the chest or back of some fans of foreign fashion? To find out about this, it is not enough to know English. You should also briefly dive into the history of the 20th century.
In 1939, it so happened that the only real force opposing German Nazism was Great Britain. Doubts arose from time to time that this confrontation would end successfully, despite the fact that this country at that time was huge, the largest in the world. This situation persisted until Hitler's attack on the USSR.
The colonies, on which, poetically speaking, the sun never set, were sometimes tens of thousands of miles away from the mother country. The islands were vulnerable, which the German fleet took advantage of by blocking trade routes. Every day tragic news came that another ship, or even several ships, had sunk to the bottom, hit by German torpedoes or bombs.
An echo of the events of those years has become a popular motto today, widely replicated on tea cups, T-shirts, sports bags and other household items. What does "Keep Calm And Carry On" mean when written in English?
If you translate it literally, then, as in most similar cases, the meaning will be incompletely conveyed. Just a call to stay calm and hold on. Nothing, the Russian language is expressive enough to convey the expressive motto no less succinctly.
Probably, in order to understand what “Keep Calm” means, you can remember how we ourselves sometimes say “calm down, we’ll break through!” Perhaps this expression would be a semantically correct translation of the old English motto.
Only we sometimes get excited and pronounce such words, saturating them with temperament, and sometimes adding a couple of Russian folk idioms, and the inhabitants of Albion will say this calmly, keeping calm and for them it is already clear what “Keep Calm” means. Do your job, don’t be afraid of anything, persevere through all difficulties.
The history of the poster, which became the prototype of modern replicas, was already fairly forgotten, and by 2000 the number of surviving copies turned out to be insignificant. One of them was found by the grandson of the author of this propaganda masterpiece in a second-hand bookstore. He chose not to disclose his last name, especially since the phrase itself is a common expression in the English language, like the Russian analogue given above. Thus, the descendant of the unknown poster-maker could not receive financial dividends, including due to the expiration of the copyright. However, the motto itself became very popular at his suggestion, not only in Britain, but also in many other countries, whose citizens, when buying a bright T-shirt, do not always know how “Keep Calm” is translated.
What is the secret of the popularity of this old slogan? The war ended long ago, but each of the people living on our planet is constantly faced with situations that threaten catastrophic consequences. Someone may lose their job, another may become dangerously ill, a third may have problems in their family. It is important to remain calm and look for a way out of a difficult situation. And then the eye falls on the bright inscription, which at one time encouraged the British. “Keep Calm”, which means “Nothing, let’s break through! It didn’t happen that way.”
Most likely, you have a T-shirt, a cup, a notepad, or, at worst, an avatar or status on a social network that begins with the phrase “Keep calm and...”. The phrase has become so trendy and popular that only a hermit in the mountains would not know about its existence.
Translation options
It's time to put on the mask of Boris Burda or Anatoly Wasserman and reveal the “terrible secret”: the history of the expression “Keep calm and carry on” has its roots in the Second World War. The phrase was used as a British propaganda slogan designed to reinforce belief in British victory and resilience.
The translation of the phrase “Keep calm and carry on” is most often found in two versions: "Keep calm and hang in there!" or "Keep calm and keep up the good work". However, the Russian land has not dried up with talents who offer their translations of the phrases: “Be calm and keep it up!”, “Do what you must, and let it be what will be” and even “We smile and wave.”
It was intended that the poster would be used to maintain morale in the event of occupation by Nazi Germany. Of course, you are unlikely to find archival photos from 1939 that show unruly Britons, torn from afternoon tea, holding “Keep calm and carry on” signs, pacing Trafalgar Square. The name of the author of the masterpiece is unknown. The miraculous lines of the British anthem saved the queen, the nation, and the paper, which never spread throughout the United Kingdom a call to remain calm and hold on back in 1939.
In 2000, the anonymous author's grandson, who also remained unknown, discovered a copy of the poster by chance in a vintage bookstore. The copyright protection period expired, and the phrase became known to the world community. Attempts by Keep Calm and Carry On Ltd to trademark the slogan were unsuccessful because the phrase was too well known to limit its distribution. The popularity of this phrase can only be matched by the number of views on YouTube of Psy’s “Gangnam style” video. However, in the number of options on the theme, the musical masterpiece is still inferior to the famous expression.
It’s the 21st century, no threat of Nazi occupation is foreseen, showing perseverance and heroism is not so relevant, and the phrase, inconspicuous at first glance, continues to break records in the number of variations, modernizations and publications on the Internet and beyond. Perhaps the video will shed light on the mystery of the poster's popularity?
The magical combination of red and white, crowned with the symbolic crown of Britain, helped avoid a terrible tragedy in the 40s of the twentieth century. At the turn of the millennium, the poster continues to work its magic, supporting the “militant” mood among the masses with the help of its main weapon - humor. Let's take a look at the most successful fruits of folk art that the Internet is replete with:
It’s great if the poster inspires you to get creative). Maybe you have your own favorite interpretations of the phrase “Keep calm and...”? Don't be shy and leave your answers in the comments!
