Ц-1

ПРИ ЦАРЕ ГОРОХЕ coll, humor PrepP Invar adv fixed WO

long ago

in the olden days

in days of yore ages ago in the year one.

«Казалось бы, чего тут хитрого, ещё при царе Горохе телефоны умели проверять на слух, но ваши работники, Абрам Менделевич, оказывается, не умеют...» (Копелев 1). "You would think there was nothing so complicated about it, even in the olden days they knew how to test telephones by ear, but your workers, Abram Mendelevich, it turns out, don't know how" (1a).

А отец его, рыбопромышленник, владевший когда-то, при царе Горохе, двумя баркасами «астраханками», рассказывал, что в его времена и по пять пудов ловились (Трифонов 1). His father, who way back when, in the year one, had been a fish merchant and had owned two Astrakhan longboats, used to tell how in his day they would catch sturgeon weighing close to 200 pounds (1a).