We have all heard the warning expression "Don't be on the rampage!" It means taking deliberately risky actions that are doomed to failure and promise trouble. All my life it seemed to me personally that "rampage" is the name of certain people, like peasants, Slavs, laity, etc., to whom one should not climb, because they will fight back. But it turns out that rampage is an outdated word for a sharp stake used to hunt a bear.
In addition, the rampage was a weapon of the shepherds who poked the pointed end of the oxen trying to escape from the herd. Sometimes rampage was used as a weapon. "The atamans shook their heads thoughtfully, looking at the scythes, rods and pitchforks, of which there were ten times more in the army than squeaks and muskets" (S. Zlobin, "Stepan Razin"). And this word is even in the Bible, and, perhaps, it was from there that it entered our language as a phraseological unit: “He said: Who are You, Lord? The Lord said: I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is difficult for you to go against the prick "(Acts of the Apostles, 9: 5).
Author: Natalia Trubinovskaya
