Cheburashka's birthday: how Uspensky found the unusual name of his favorite character. Cheburashka - the hero of the books by E.N. Uspensky, a kind creature with huge ears

Cheburashka is a character in Eduard Uspensky’s book “Crocodile Gena and His Friends” and Roman Kachanov’s film “Crocodile Gena,” based on this book in 1969.

He became widely known after the release of this film.
Outwardly it looks like a creature with huge ears, big eyes and brown fur, walking on its hind legs. The image of Cheburashka, known today, first appeared in Roman Kachanov’s cartoon “Crocodile Gena” (1969) and was created with the direct participation of the film’s production designer Leonid Shvartsman. After the film was released on English language originally translated as "Topple", into German as "Kullerchen" and "Plumps", into Swedish as "Drutten" and into Finnish as "Muksis".

Origin of the character

According to the preface to the book “Crocodile Gena and His Friends,” Cheburashka was the name given to the defective toy that the author of the book had in childhood, depicting a strange animal: either a bear cub or a hare with big ears. His eyes were large and yellow, like those of an eagle owl, his head was round, hare-shaped, and his tail was short and fluffy, such as is usually the case with small bear cubs. According to the book, the author's parents claimed that this was unknown to science a beast that lives in hot tropical forests. Therefore, in the main text, the heroes of which, as the writer claims, are the children's toys of Eduard Uspensky himself, Cheburashka is really an unknown tropical animal that climbed into a box of oranges, fell asleep there and as a result, together with the box, ended up in Big city. The director of the store where the box was opened called it “Cheburashka”, since the animal, which had gorged itself on oranges, was constantly falling (cheburashka):
He sat and sat and looked around, and then suddenly fell off the table and onto the chair. But he couldn’t sit on the chair for long - he fell over again. On the floor.
- Wow, what a Cheburashka! - the store director said about him, - He can’t sit still at all!
This is how our little animal learned that its name is Cheburashka.

Origin of the word "Cheburashka"

E. N. Uspensky rejects the version about the defective toy, set out in the introduction to his book, as written specifically for children. In an interview with a Nizhny Novgorod newspaper, Uspensky says:

I came to visit a friend, and his little daughter was trying on a fluffy fur coat, which was dragging along the floor. The girl constantly fell, tripping over the fur coat. And her father, after another fall, exclaimed: “Oh, I screwed up again!” This word stuck in my memory and I asked what it meant. It turned out that “cheburahnutsya” means “to fall.” This is how the name of my hero appeared.

IN " Explanatory dictionary living Great Russian language" by V. I. Dal is described both the word "Cheburakhnutsya" in the meaning of "fall", "crash", "stretch out", and the word "Cheburashka", which he defines in various dialects as "a saber of a Burlatsky strap hung on the tail ”, or as “Vanka-Vstanka, a doll that, no matter how you throw it, gets to its feet on its own.” According to Vasmer’s etymological dictionary, “chebura?khnut” is formed from the words chuburo?k, chapuro?k, chebura?kh - “a wooden ball at the end of a burlatsk tow” Turkic origin. Another related word is “chebyrka” - a whip with a ball on the end of the hair.
The origin of the word “Cheburashka”, in the sense of a tumbler toy, described by Dahl, is due to the fact that many fishermen made such toys from wooden balls, which were floats for fishing nets, and were also called Cheburashka.

Plot and characters

They are trying to place Cheburashka in the zoo, but they didn’t take Cheburashka to the zoo because they didn’t know where to put the unknown animal; he was eventually assigned to a discount store. Cheburashka meets with the crocodile Gena, who worked as a crocodile at the zoo and, being lonely, like Cheburashka, began posting advertisements looking for friends. Together they look for friends, including the lion Chandra, the puppy Tobik and the pioneer Galya, and help other characters - people and talking animals. They are opposed by the old woman Shapoklyak and her pet rat Lariska.

Books

The story about Cheburashka was written by Eduard Uspensky, and the plays together with Roman Kachanov:
“Crocodile Gena and his friends” (1966) - story
“Cheburashka and his friends” (1970) - play (together with R. Kachanov)
“Gena the Crocodile’s Vacation” (1974) - play (together with R. Kachanov)
“The Business of Gena the Crocodile” (1992) - story (together with I. E. Agron)
"Gena the Crocodile - Police Lieutenant"
"Cheburashka goes to the people"
"The Kidnapping of Cheburashka"
"Cheburashka and his new friend Chekrezhik" (2008) - story (together with Yu. A. Dubovskikh)

Cartoons

Based on the book, director Roman Kachanov created four cartoons:
"Crocodile Gena" (1969)
"Cheburashka" (1971)
"Shapoklyak" (1974)
“Cheburashka goes to school” (1983)
The films were shot by Roman Kachanov according to a script he wrote together with Eduard Uspensky. The production designer is Leonid Shvartsman, the music for the film “Crocodile Gena” was created by Mikhail Ziv, and the rest by Vladimir Shainsky. Cinematographer: Joseph Golomb (“Crocodile Gena”), Teodor Bunimovich (other films). Cheburashka was voiced by Klara Rumyanova, Crocodile Gena by Vasily Livanov, songs for Crocodile Gena were performed by Vladimir Ferapontov, Shapoklyak by Vladimir Rautbart (“Crocodile Gena”), Irina Mazing (“Shapoklyak”). Other characters were voiced by actors Vladimir Kenigson, Yuri Andreev, Georgy Burkov.
In 1990, the plasticine cartoon “ Gray wolf and Little Red Riding Hood”, in which Cheburashka and Crocodile Gena were episodic characters.

Cheburashka in Sweden

A little-known fact is that in the 1970s, several cycles of children's entertainment television and radio programs featuring the characters Cheburashka and the crocodile Gena were broadcast in Sweden. Records were released based on materials from such programs; Cheburashka and Gena also appeared in magazines. The characters owed their origin to the Cheburashka and Gena dolls, which someone brought from a business trip to the USSR, so in appearance they were completely the same Cheburashka and Gena. The Swedes recognized them as Drutten och Gena - that is, in Swedish they called Cheburashka Drutten, which in meaning is a fairly successful adaptation of the Russian name: a word derived from the Swedish colloquial drutta (to fall, stumble, plump, overwhelm).
But the similarity was limited to appearance and names. Swedish characters talked and sang about other things, lived on a bookshelf, and TV productions used puppets rather than stop-motion animation. Swedish television broadcast fragments of Soviet cartoons about Cheburashka and Gena in translation, but this happened rarely and randomly, so despite the fact that even now many Swedes recognize Cheburashka very well, they know him as Drutten, who is practically in no way associated with the character that is familiar to children from the post-Soviet space.

Cheburashka in Japan

In 2001, Cheburashka gained great popularity in Japan.
In 2003, at the Tokyo International Animation Fair, the Japanese company SP International acquired from Soyuzmultfilm the rights to distribute cartoons about Cheburashka in Japan until 2023.
On October 7, 2009, the Japanese TV channel TV Tokyo began broadcasting an animated series about Cheburashka from director Susumi Kudo called “Cheburashka Arere?” one episode per week. The 26 episodes planned at that time, each lasting 3 minutes, had already been shown.
In May 2010, several new cartoons about Cheburashka, Crocodile Gena and their friends were presented in Japan. The puppet cartoons were shot by a team of Russian, Japanese and South Korean animators, directed by Makoto Nakamura. The cartoon “Crocodile Gena” was filmed again, and two completely new cartoons “Cheburashka and the Circus” and “Shapoklyak Tips” were also made.

White Cheburashka in the uniform of the Russian Olympic team

On summer Olympic Games 2004 in Athens he was chosen as the mascot of the Russian Olympic team. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, the symbol of the Russian Team, Cheburashka, changed into white winter fur. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Cheburashka was “dressed” in red fur.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Cheburashka mascot became the owner of blue fur.

Computer games

Cheburashka in the City of Mechanical Men (2006)
Cheburashka. House for Cheburashka. Logic 1 (2007)
Cheburashka at the zoo. Logic 2 (2007)
Letter for Cheburashka (2007)
Cheburashka. Eared Stories (2007)
Cheburashka learns English (2008)
Cheburashka. Kidnapping of the Century (2010)

Monuments to Cheburashka

Crocodile Gena and Cheburashka (Khabarovsk city ponds)
Shapoklyak and the rat Lariska (Khabarovsk city ponds)
The monument depicting Cheburashka, the crocodile Gena, the old woman Shapoklyak and the rat Lariska was erected in 2005 in the town of Ramenskoye near Moscow (sculptor Oleg Ershov). It was also planned to erect a monument to Cheburashka in 2007 in Nizhny Novgorod.
May 29, 2008 on the territory kindergarten number 2550 in the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, the Cheburashka Museum was opened. Among its exhibits is the typewriter on which Eduard Uspensky created the history of Cheburashka.
Another monument to the crocodile Gena and Cheburashka, along with sculptures of other heroes of cult Soviet cartoons, was installed in Khabarovsk near the city ponds, not far from the Platinum Arena.
Also, a monument to Cheburashka and the crocodile Gena was erected in the city of Kremenchug.
The sculptures of Cheburashka and the crocodile Gena are installed in Dnepropetrovsk in the park named after. Lazar Globa.

The writer, who left us on August 14, named the birthday of everyone’s favorite eared animal as August 20, 1966, the day when the book “Crocodile Gena and His Friends” was published.

It so happened that Eduard Nikolaevich before the holiday Cheburashki. But, according to established tradition, the birthday will still be celebrated and, of course, remember the one thanks to whom Cheburashka “was born.”

Species unknown to science

As soon as they don’t call our Cheburashka abroad! Drutten, Muksis, Plumps, Kullerchen, Topple, Kulverstukas...Where did his original name come from? Eduard Uspensky told a cute story about how his friend’s little daughter kept falling, stepping on the edge of her mother’s fur coat, which she wrapped herself in while playing.

When she flopped again, dad said: “Oh. I screwed up again." As the writer later learned, cheburakhnutsya means “to fall,” “to plump,” “to crash.” The writer liked the word, and he applied it, coming up with one of the most famous cartoon names.

But in the preface to the children's book, Uspensky said that Cheburashka was the name of one of his children's toys. The toy was defective and was an ugly animal of a species unknown to science. Yellow owl eyes, big ears, a small tail - neither a bear, nor a hare, it is unclear who.

When the child asked who it was and where it lived, he was told a fairy tale that it lives in the tropical jungle, eats oranges and its name is Cheburashka.

It is interesting that in the 1965 edition, Cheburashka does not look at all like the one we know from the cartoon. And he created a familiar image to all of us Leonid Shvartsman.

The word "Cheburashka" is also in the dictionary Dahl. There, one of the meanings is a tumbler doll that gets “on its feet” from any position. But Cheburashka got his name when he did the opposite: no matter how they imprisoned him, he always fell, Cheburashka, gorged himself on oranges and fell asleep. From the table to the chair, from the chair to the floor.

Cheburashka walks around the planet

The funny animal was especially loved in Japan. When Cheburashka appeared on Japanese television screens in 2001, the country's doll industry experienced a production boom. Images of Cheburashka were everywhere: on packages, bags, clothes, milk packaging.

Chocolate was produced in the form of Cheburashka and restaurant dishes were served. It got to the point that Cheburashka figurines were placed outside the house “for good luck” along with traditional sculptures from Japanese mythology - dragons and kitsune.

In the new episodes of "Cheburashka" there is a Japanese crocodile Gena reads Japanese basho and is considered a Russian intellectual. And in 2009, a whole series “What kind of Cheburashka?” was released, consisting of 26 three-minute episodes.

Cheburashka is a character invented by children's writer Eduard Uspensky, a cute furry animal with large ears, resembling either a hare or a bear cub.

No matter how ridiculous the animal Cheburashka is, absolutely everyone loves him - both children and adults. Indeed, it is simply impossible not to love a cute, shy and harmless animal with huge and ridiculous ears. Moreover, he wants to protect Cheburashka and protect him from dangers, and this is precisely what he is doing, participating in his difficult fate. main friend- Crocodile Gena.

The history of Cheburashka began in 1966, it was then children's writer Eduard Uspensky first came up with his own hero. How exactly the writer came up with the fantasy of creating such an absurd beast is unknown, but there are several versions. So, according to one of them, in childhood Uspensky had an old defective toy, which his parents called “an animal unknown to science that lives in hot tropical forests.” According to another version, thoughts about a strange animal came to him while visiting friends, whose little daughter was walking around the house in a huge fluffy fur coat, constantly stumbling and falling. Her father commented on her fall as “she screwed up again.”

Be that as it may, there is still a hint that Cheburashka is a tropical beast, because according to the plot of the book and cartoon, he first appears in a box of oranges, which probably arrived from a distant tropical country.

They called him Cheburashka for the same reason as a play on words - the animal could not sit quietly and was “Cheburashka” all the time. The director of the store that received the oranges tried to place the strange animal in the zoo, but they couldn’t find a place for him; he didn’t fit in either

to what type of animal, and therefore, as a result, the unfortunate Cheburashka ended up on the shelf of a discount store. By the way, this is exactly what is sung in the famous song “I Was Once strange toy nameless, to whom no one approached in the store..."

However, in future fate turned out to be more favorable towards Cheburashka - he met with Best Friend His Life - Crocodile Gena. It must be said that Gena, who “worked as a crocodile at the zoo,” was endlessly lonely, and it was loneliness that forced him to post advertisements with the words “A young crocodile wants to make friends.”

So the shy, furry creature with huge ears ended up on the threshold of Gena the crocodile’s house with the words “It’s me, Cheburashka.”

As a result, Gena and Cheburashka became great friends, and it was as a couple - Gena and Cheburashka - that Russian children of several generations came to know and love these heroes.

It is not known whether Cheburashka would have been expected so much resounding success, if not for a very successful screen image. Cartoons about Cheburashka and Gena were created by the talented director Roman Kachanov; the first cartoon was released in 1969. The production designer was Leonid Shvartsman.

Then “Cheburashka” (1971), “Shapoklyak” (1974) appeared, and later, already in 1983, “Cheburashka goes to school”.

Surprisingly, it was Cheburashka who became a very famous hero outside our country. So, they especially loved it in Japan, where they not only showed soviet cartoons, but they made remakes of them, and also filmed several

There are only a few of our own projects like “Cheburashka Arere?”

In Sweden, Cheburashka is known and called Drutten (Swedish “drutta” - to fall, stumble), and the plots of their cartoons are completely independent. In general, Cheburashka has appeared in cartoons in many countries - German viewers know him as Kullerchen or Plumps, in Finland Cheburashka is called Muksis, and Lithuanian children know him as Kulverstukas.

In 2008, the Cheburashka Museum even opened in Moscow, among the exhibits of which there is an old typewriter on which Uspensky first created the image of this cute animal. And Cheburashka has already become the mascot of the country’s Olympic team several times.

By the way, in 2005, Eduard Uspensky himself announced that Cheburashka’s official birthday is August 20.

It is known that already in the 2000s, Eduard Uspensky more than once tried to defend his copyright on the image of Cheburashka, but lost several times. At the same time, Leonid Shvartsman also claimed the image of Cheburashka - despite the fact that it was invented by the writer, it was the image of Cheburashka drawn by Shvartsman that was so loved by the audience, and it was thanks to the cartoon that Cheburashka became so popular.

However, whatever the litigation of the creators, millions of Russian children continue to grow up with good cartoons about Cheburashka and his friends.

It is simply impossible not to love the endlessly charming, charmingly defenseless and kind Cheburashka.

Soon the forever young Cheburashka will celebrate his 50th birthday.

Soviet cinema gave the world unusual heroes. While famous directors were working on films for adult audiences, animators were thinking about how to surprise little Octobrists and pioneers. Cartoon creators used plots from books and created authentic stories, which were later embodied on the screen. , the Wolf and the Hare from “Well, wait a minute!”, It would take a long time to list the characters beloved by children. The first mythical hero of Soviet animation was Cheburashka - an unknown creature of unknown origin.

History of creation

Cheburashka is the name of a character in a book written by a children's author. Based on the work “Gena the Crocodile and His Friends,” the director made a film in 1969. The hero of the book gained fame after the film was released.

Cheburashka is an unusual creature. He has two huge round ears, his body is covered with brown fur and it is not clear whether he is female or masculine this animal has. His appearance was thanks to the production designer, Leonid Shvartsman. After the cartoon was translated for showing in other countries, children in all corners of the planet recognized Cheburashka. In English his name was Topl, in German - Kullerchen or Plumps, Drutten in Swedish and Muksis in Finnish. At the same time, the children did not know who the creator of the character was.

Despite the legend about the appearance of Cheburashka published in the preface, Eduard Uspensky assured readers that it was not a child’s toy at all. In an interview with a Nizhny Novgorod newspaper, the writer admitted that he once watched a friend’s little daughter. The girl constantly fell, dressed in someone else's long fur coat.

Her father, noticing these actions, commented on what was happening with the word “cheburahnaya.” A curious word was etched in Uspensky’s memory. Later, the author learned that in the dictionary “Cheburashka” is a synonym for “vanka-vstanka”, also known as tumbler. Cheburashkas were small wooden floats made by fishermen to lure their catch.

Biography and plot

Based on the preface of Uspensky’s book, it becomes clear: in childhood, the author had a defective toy with a similar name. She looked like a strange animal with round eyes, large ears, a small body and a short tail. The parents assured the boy that Cheburashka lived in the tropical jungle. The animal feeds on oranges, and one day, after climbing into a box of fruit to eat, the baby fell asleep in it. The box was sealed and taken to a big city grocery store.

Cheburashka's name appeared the moment he was discovered by the store director. The well-fed animal constantly fell - it cheburahed, according to those around it. Due to the fact that he could not sit still without falling, he was given a funny nickname. The character of the hero is soft. The baby is sweet and friendly, naive, friendly and curious. The diminutive name describes his nature. The sometimes awkward but charming hero evokes the affection of the audience and characters cartoon.

According to the plot, they are trying to place a strange animal in a zoological garden to live with other animals from the tropics. But the zoo didn’t know which animals to let the unknown creature into. He was passed from hand to hand until Cheburashka ended up in a thrift store. This is where I found him. He worked at a zoo and was lonely. While looking for friends, Gena was posting advertisements and came across Cheburashka. Now the animal duo is looking for company. It will include the lion Chandra, the puppy Tobik and the girl Galya. Negative character The work is the owner of the pet rat Larisa.

Between 1966 and 2008, Eduard Uspensky, in collaboration with production designers, created eight plays about the adventures of Cheburashka and friends. In the 1970s, several children's television and radio programs were broadcast in Sweden. Audio records with fairy tales about Cheburashka and Gena and children's magazines were popular. The characters ended up abroad along with dolls that a tourist brought from a trip to the Soviet Union. Cheburashka was christened Drutten. In Swedish, this word is translated as “stumble”, “fall”, which was characteristic of the hero.

An interesting nuance: on Soviet television, cartoon characters were dolls, and on Swedish television they were puppets. The characters sang and talked about life, but the dialogue was very different from the authentic ones. Even Cheburashka's song sounded completely different. Today Drutten is a full-fledged character in Swedish animation. Modern children do not know the history of its origin.

In 2001, the Japanese discovered the cartoon character, and in 2003 they bought the rights to distribute this image from Soyuzmultfilm for 20 years. The animated cartoon “Cheburashka Arere” has been broadcast in Tokyo since 2009. In 2010, the character was accompanied by friends from Uspensky’s book. They started showing on TV puppet cartoons on the theme of the hero's adventures. Today in Japan the cartoons “Crocodile Gena”, “Shapoklyak Advice”, “Cheburashka and the Circus” are broadcast.

Quotes

Works of Soviet cinema and animation are famous for their quotes that audiences love. Heartfelt humorous remarks sink into the soul and are passed on from mouth to mouth for many years. Phrases from the book, transferred to the cartoon, create a special atmosphere, involving the young audience in the plot.

“A young crocodile of about fifty wants to make friends.”

This quote raises questions: is the age of a crocodile comparable to human years? Can crocodiles want to be friends? Why is the image of a crocodile associated with an adult? Cheburashka asks Gene a reasonable question about age, and little viewers learn that crocodiles can live up to three hundred years.

A series of cartoons about the adventures of Cheburashka has a moralistic background. Recommendations and advice to children are presented with the help of the main characters. Kindness - main value for characters. At the same time, old woman Shapoklyak assures:

“Whoever helps people is just wasting their time. Good deeds You can’t become famous.”

The old woman’s wrongness is clear at first glance, and the kids understand that it is worth helping each other. Good deeds are certainly associated with main goal all children Soviet Union- with enrollment as a pioneer. Gena and Cheburashka are no exception:

“You have to do a lot of good things to get into the Pioneers,” says Gena, motivating Cheburashka, and at the same time the audience on the other side of the screen.

Despite character traits Soviet animation skills, children's films about Cheburashka are of interest to modern children. They keep curious kids and nostalgic adults glued to their screens.

The image of Cheburashka known today was created by cartoonist Leonid Shvartsman.

Origin

According to the preface to the book “Crocodile Gena and His Friends,” Cheburashka was the name given to a defective toy that the author had in childhood, depicting a strange animal: either a bear cub or a hare with big ears. His eyes were large and yellow, like those of an eagle owl, his head was round, hare-shaped, and his tail was short and fluffy, such as is usually the case with small bear cubs. The boy's parents claimed that this was an animal unknown to science that lives in hot tropical forests. Therefore, in the main text, the heroes of which are allegedly the children's toys of Eduard Uspensky, Cheburashka is really an unknown tropical animal that climbed into a box of oranges, fell asleep there and, as a result, ended up with the box in a big city. The director of the store where the box was opened called it “Cheburashka”, since the animal, which had gorged itself on oranges, was constantly falling (cheburashka):

He sat and sat and looked around, and then suddenly fell off the table and onto the chair. But he couldn’t sit on the chair for long - he fell over again. On the floor.
- Wow, what a Cheburashka! - the store director said about him, - He can’t sit still at all!
This is how our little animal found out that its name is Cheburashka...

Stories and plays about Cheburashka were written by Eduard Uspensky (plays together with Roman Kachanov):

“Crocodile Gena and his friends” (1966) - story
“Cheburashka and his friends” (1970) - play (together with R. Kachanov)
“Gena the Crocodile’s Vacation” (1974) - play (together with R. Kachanov)
“The Business of Gena the Crocodile” (1992) - story (together with I. E. Agron)
"Gena the Crocodile - Police Lieutenant"
"Cheburashka goes to the people"
"The abduction of Cheburashka"

Based on the book, director Roman Kachanov created four cartoons:

"Crocodile Gena" (1969)
"Cheburashka" (1971)
"Shapoklyak" (1974)
“Cheburashka goes to school” (1983)

After the release of the first series of cartoons, Cheburashka became very popular in the USSR. Since then, Cheburashka has been the hero of many Russian jokes. In 2001, Cheburashka gained great popularity in Japan.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens he was chosen as the mascot of the Russian Olympic team. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, the symbol of the Russian Team, Cheburashka, changed into white winter fur. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Cheburashka was “dressed” in red fur.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Cheburashka mascot became the owner of blue fur.

In the 1990s and 2000s, disputes erupted around the copyright of the image of Cheburashka. They concerned the use of the image of Cheburashka in various products, names of kindergartens, children's variety studios and clubs (which was common practice in Soviet time), as well as the authorship of the image of Cheburashka itself, which, according to Eduard Uspensky, belongs entirely to him, while his opponents claim that the characteristic image of Cheburashka with big ears, known today, was created by Leonid Shvartsman. In the 1990s, Eduard Uspensky also acquired the rights to the Cheburashka trademark, which had previously been used in products such as candy and children's cosmetics. The use of the name became the subject of a dispute between the writer and the Red October confectionery factory. In particular, in February 2008, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Film Fund of the Soyuzmultfilm Film Studio” (the owner of the rights to the image) expressed its intention to demand compensation from the creators of the film “The Most best movie"for using the image of Cheburashka without permission.

Origin of the word "Cheburashka"

Uspensky rejects the version about the defective toy, set out in the introduction to his book, as written specifically for children. In an interview with a Nizhny Novgorod newspaper, Eduard Uspensky says:

I came to visit a friend, and his little daughter was trying on a fluffy fur coat that was dragging along the floor,<…>The girl constantly fell, tripping over her fur coat. And her father, after another fall, exclaimed: “Oh, I screwed up again!” This word stuck in my memory and I asked what it meant. It turned out that “cheburahnutsya” means “to fall.” This is how the name of my hero appeared.

In the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” by V. I. Dal, both the word “cheburakhnutsya” is described in the meaning of “fall”, “crash”, “stretch out”, and the word “Cheburashka”, which he defines in various dialects as “a saber of a burlatsky strap” , hanging on its tail,” or as “a stand-up roly-poly, a doll that, no matter how you throw it, gets to its feet on its own.” According to Vasmer's etymological dictionary, “cheburakhnut” is derived from the words chuburok, chapurok, cheburakh - “a wooden ball at the end of a burlatsk tow”, of Turkic origin. Another related word is “chebyrka” - a whip with a ball on the end of the hair.

The origin of the word “Cheburashka”, in the sense of a tumbler toy, described by Dahl, is due to the fact that many fishermen made such toys from wooden balls, which were floats for fishing nets, and were also called Cheburashka.