1. Whore, slut, bitch, woman of light virtue, promiscuous woman. Historically the noun means “lie, heresy, mistake” (and блѧдь can be found with this meaning in religious literature), and by extension a lost woman.
Весёлый вечер в жизни нашей
Запомним, юные друзья;
Шампанского в стеклянной чаше
Шипела хла́дная струя.
Мы пили — и Венера с нами
Сидела, прея за столом.
Когда ж вновь сядем вчетвером
С блядьми́, вином и чубуками?
We drank — and Venus sat with us,
Dozing at the table.
When will we sit together again, the four of us,
With sluts, wine, and hookahs?
(Александр Пушкин, 27/05/1819)
А в клубе модном — все для народа:
Заливши фары, танцуют пары,
Винилы крутит здесь диск-жокэй
И нет отбою от блядей.
And in the trendy club — everything for the people:
With headlights dimmed, couples dance,
Here the DJ spins vinyl records,
And there’s no end to the sluts.
(Ленинград, В клубе модном, 2001)
Пессимисты думают, что все женщины — бляди, оптимисты на это надеются.
Pessimists think all women are sluts, optimists hope for it.
2. Insult used to describe someone as having the attribute of a woman as mentioned in point 1.
3. Commonly used as an expletive, to emphasise one’s point. The most common derived euphemism is блин, which means “pancake” (compare with the English expletives “shit” and “shoot”): Ну вы, блин, даёте.
The word is sometimes shortened to its initial Б (Она настоящая б — she’s a real b***), in rare occasion it is represented by Ѣ (ять, Cyrillic letter that disappeared in 1918) because of the similar sound of the letter’s name and блядь (due to technical restrictions and ignorance Ъ can sometimes be found as a substitute for Ѣ).
Because of the familiar sounding lyrics the Palestinian song „بلادي بلادي“ (Blādi, blādi — Motherland, motherland) became a hit on the Internet, along with Russian spoof subtitles.
Брощу пить, курить и материться… Блядь! Сигарета в вино упала!..
I stop drinking, smoking and swearing… Damn, my fag fell in the wine!..
