Pontus Euxinus - the ancient name of the Black Sea. Apparently, it was she who inspired the Greeks, who were always many in the southern city of Odessa, to designate with the word "pont" something grandiose and making an unforgettable impression.
From Odessa dialect, the expression migrated to the great and mighty Russian language, spreading throughout the territory of the former Soviet Union. Its meaning has not changed. “A good show off is more expensive than money”, “with a show off under an umbrella, and it’s under the rain” and other winged sayings of Odessa residents became popular in Vladivostok, and in Brest, and in Saratov, and in Murmansk. What is the meaning of this concept? And why the word began to use more often in the plural?
In scientific language, we can say that show-offs are techniques that allow you to create a hyperbolic idea of wealth, opportunities, beauty, and other attractive factors that accompany a person. The expression is most often used in an ironic sense, since for those who actually have real virtues, as a rule, there is no need to exaggerate them. To put it simply, show-offs are a necessary measure for those who cannot boast of either wealth or power, but really want to look very influential and, as they say in Odessa, “harmonious”. You can’t be - be able to seem. Such a position rarely causes sympathy after its exposure.
Why do young people need show-offs? Girls have a frown. Especially those who want to meet representatives of the "golden youth". There are many ways to “hang out”. For example, to pass off a company car as your own, to show off your knowledge of expensive brands of equipment and clothes, to show the Rolex on your wrist, forgetting to clarify that this is a Chinese fake.
But not only young people use these tricks. Mature age has its own show. Cheap show-offs become more expensive with age. Come to a business meeting at a prestigious foreign car; being late, hint that it’s just from the airport, and complain that the flight from Monaco was again delayed; accidentally “flashing” a photograph of a celebrity - these are just a few of the examples. Actually, almost the entire life of the modern establishment and the so-called "creative elite" in a sense are built on the show.
However, show-offs are not only attempts to look richer and cooler. In the world of big politics, situations sometimes arise when it is simply necessary to stoop and demonstrate closeness to simple working people. In these cases, millionaires and even billionaires suddenly find themselves in the salons of a used Lada or give interviews while sitting at a poor but dignified table set against a touching wall mat. Sometimes such “antiponts” are very convincing. Emphasizing their modesty and nationality, they are trying to convince the electorate that the needs of the ordinary voter are not alien to them, and only random leaks of information make it possible to judge their true attitude to the "masses", in political jargon, most often referred to as biomass.
However, any hypocrisy sooner or later exposed. “Ponte is everything, ” people say, and after such a verdict, there is no more faith: neither to those who tried to instill their own significance, nor to those who wanted to show their simplicity.
