Reports and messages in the Russian language
To the topic: ETYMOLOGY
Words, like people, have their own history, their own destiny. They can have relatives, a rich pedigree, and, on the contrary, be complete orphans. The Word can tell us about one's nationality, about one's parents, about one's origin.
Etymology- a branch of the science of language that studies the origin of words. Etymology also studies all the changes that occur in the life of words. And changes in the language are constantly happening: new words appear, new meanings for long-familiar words, and sometimes it even happens that a word suddenly changes its sound. For example, the words bee, bull and insect, it turns out, came from the same word to thrash. Now this word has left the language, it has been forgotten by everyone, but once it was familiar to everyone and was used in the meaning of "buzz", "buzz". And today it would never occur to anyone to call a bull, a bee and an insect with relative words, although etymologically this is so.
Some words have changed not the sound, but the meaning. For example, today we call the word guest a person who came to visit us, and in ancient times this was the name of a visiting merchant (these were the guests in the fairy tale of A. Pushkin called Tsar Saltan).
Once upon a time, the word dashing meant "bad", "bad", and today it is used in almost the opposite sense - "daring", "brave".
One more example. Today, the word contagion has 2 meanings: it denotes a curse, and is also used in the meaning of "source of an infectious disease." But at the end of the 18th century, the word contagion was used to mean "charm", "attractiveness".
In a word, this science is very interesting - etymology! And it often happens that the story of the origin of a word turns out to be more fascinating than another detective story.
You will learn about the origin of some words, as well as set phrases (they are called phraseological units) in our language, by reading the following pages.
Palm
Our ancestors once sounded the word palm quite differently: palm. And the meaning of the word was this: the side of the hand facing the valley (that is, down to the ground). Over time, there was a rearrangement of sounds in the word dolon, and it began to sound differently: lodon. And then (under the influence of the akanya dominating in the literary language) the unstressed vowel o in the word passed into a: palm. So it turned out the modern spelling and pronunciation of this word familiar to all of us.
However, related words still live in the language in their original form: valley (lowland), hem (bottom of clothing), Podolsk (city in the river valley).
Umbrella
Everyone knows and understands this word - it would seem that it is the most common. But it also has an interesting history.
It came to us from Holland, having traveled across 2 seas, along with the umbrella itself, which in Dutch is called "zonnedek", which means "tire" or "covering from the sun." But the word "zonnedek" turned out to be extremely inconvenient and unusual for our pronunciation. Therefore, they began to remake it in a Russian way: they began to pronounce it according to the model of the words already existing in the language, bow, edging.
So from the zonedeks an umbrella turned out. The resulting word even began to lead its own independent life. When they want to talk about a large umbrella, they change it again according to the model: bow - bow, edging - edging, umbrella - umbrella. As a result, the word umbrella turned out, as you can see, even less similar to the sonnedek borrowed from the Dutch.
Carousel
Of course, you have often ridden wooden horses or carousel boats, but you probably haven’t wondered why, in addition to ordinary seats, there are wooden horses and boats on the carousel? And boats and horses got on the carousel not by chance.
Several centuries ago, during the Middle Ages, there were magnificent knightly holidays - tournaments. Armed knights, clad in iron, mounted on mighty horses, engaged in single combat with each other. Often such knightly duels ended in death, but they did not see anything special in this, and did not even consider such an outcome a crime. The French king Henry II once also decided to take part in a jousting tournament and compete with the famous knight Montgomery in strength and dexterity. This tournament took place in 1559, and in it King Henry II was mortally wounded. Since then jousting has been banned. Instead, they began to arrange solemn races in a circle. Such races were called "carousel" (from the Italian words carola - round dance and sella - saddle), which literally means "round dance in the saddle."
The most brilliant carousels were arranged in Paris during the reign of King Louis XIV. In front of the royal palace of the Tuileries, magnificently dressed horsemen with their luxurious ladies passed by. They divided into parties, gathered and dispersed, forming beautiful figures.
During the French Revolution of 1789, carousels, more accessible to the common people, were invented - revolving structures with horses and boats. In this form, the carousel has survived to this day.
pull the gimp
When we do something very slowly, they say about us: "The rope is pulling." This expression came from the recent past, when in Russia in needlework a metal thread was used for embroidery. It took a lot of work for the craftsmen to pull such a thread from a red-hot wire. This thread was called "gimp". Embroidering with it was also very difficult, slow and painstaking work. At the same time, the expression to pull the rigmarole was born. Now no one knows what the gimp looked like, and needlewomen have not embroidered in this way for a long time, but the expression has been preserved in the language.
Easier than a steamed turnip
Turnip- the most ancient vegetable in Russia. Our ancestors loved both raw, and boiled, and steamed turnips. The turnip dish was quick and very easy to prepare. Since then, the expression has become simpler than a steamed turnip. So they say that it is easy to do.
Register Izhitsa
Izhitsa- the ancient name of the last letter of the ancient Slavic alphabet.
How is this letter related to the threat of punishment? After all, to prescribe Izhitsa means "to teach a lesson, to punish", as well as "to make a suggestion to someone."
Such an expression arose in the old school environment, in the everyday life of the students. And the thing is that in the ancient Slavic alphabet there were 3 very insidious letters: fita, yat and zhitsa - they became symbols of the difficulty of writing. These letters were written in a few words (or in several dozen words), which had to be remembered, memorized, memorized. "The bellies let down because of fita," the students who mastered the intricacies of writing used to say in the old days. At that time, Fita was called a school literate, wisecrack, who mastered complex skills with incredible efforts. And they said this about loafers: "Fita and Izhitsa - the whip is approaching the lazy." To prescribe Izhitsa literally meant "to flog with rods for what was not learned."
It is curious that in its external image, the Izhitsa resembled an inverted whip or a bunch of rods. Hence, in all likelihood, the playfully ironic spelling of Izhitsu arose.
Over time, this expression went beyond the school jargon and acquired a more general meaning: "to cruelly punish someone, to teach a lesson." Now it is usually used as an expression of a threat and is a synonym for phraseological units: show where the crayfish hibernate; show Kuz'kin's mother.
There is no truth at the feet
"Sit down, because there is no truth at your feet," - this is how the Russian people have long said.
There are different versions of the origin of this expression. A connoisseur of the folk language and an interpreter of Russian winged expressions, S. Maksimov connects the phrase truth in the legs with a medieval Russian judicial custom, which was called pravozh. Pravezh is not even a court, but rather a reprisal against the debtor, in which he was beaten on his bare feet and heels or forced to stand in the snow without boots and bast shoes. At that time, such sayings appeared as to look for the truth in the legs; the soul has sinned, but the feet are to blame; give time, do not knock down and some others.
Over time, the right rule has become a thing of the past, but the memory of it has remained in folk speech, in its live use, and the expression in the feet of truth has even become playful. Indeed, in the old days a person who came to a house and stood, shifting from foot to foot, did not know where to start, resembled a debtor on the right. It was then that a playful proverb came to the rescue, which invited the guest to sit down and start a leisurely conversation: sit down, there is no truth at your feet, that is, "there is nothing to stand on ceremony, let's sit down in a row and talk okay." Many of the expressions familiar to us are actually associated with ancient and long-forgotten customs, beliefs and rituals.
Cow and loaf
In ancient times, the word for people was not just a designation of objects and concepts - it was a symbol. People were sure that the word had magical powers, that they could prevent evil and call for good luck. Do you want to know why, for example, we do not call cow meat the word Korovin? And where did the word beef come from? And what does the word beef have in common with the word loaf?
In the language of the ancient Indo-Europeans, there was one word for any cattle - beef. And the word cow had the meaning of "horned beef." And cows in those ancient times were raised by people not at all for meat and milk, but for sacrifices to their gods. And only when people began to eat cow's milk, they replaced the real animal in the rituals of sacrifice with a horned figure baked from dough - a cow. It was believed that such a sacrifice should bring happiness and prosperity, so they sentenced like this:
Like our birthdays
We baked a loaf!
That's such a height!
That's such a height!
Caravan, caravan,
Whom do you want to choose!
Now it’s hard to believe that the words cow and loaf are generally somehow connected with each other. But in fact, the word loaf was formed from the word cow.
Mittens, gloves, mittens
It is believed that of all the words listed, the most ancient is mittens. The antiquity of this word is indicated by its distribution in all or almost all Slavic languages - in Polish, Slovak, Czech, Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian.
The word mitten is made up of 2 roots: the first root is easy to determine - this is a hand, the second one is known to us in the verb to twist. It turns out that a mitten means "wrapping a hand". It is interesting that in many Slavic languages there is the word nogavitsa - the name for special clothes on the leg, that is, "wrap around the leg." In the Slovak language, legs are "trousers, trousers", Poles and Czechs call legs "legs", in Slovenian, legs are "stockings or socks". And in the monuments of ancient Russian writing, both words are often found - leggings and mittens.
But with the word gloves, the story is different. At first, the phrase “pen or finger mittens” was used in the language (such a name can be found in the Smolensk charter of 1229). Over time, the phrase was replaced by one word gloves, but the old root of the finger, that is, "finger", is clearly visible everywhere. Gloves are mittens with fingers (with fingers).
But about the origin of the word mittens, there is not even one version. For example, M. Vasmer believed that the word mittens and the word varegs, known in Russian dialects, were formed from a combination of Varangian mittens. Another version (fixed in the Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language edited by N. Shansky) says that the words varegs and mittens are derived from the Old Russian verbs variti and varovati, used in the meaning of "protect, protect." But there is also an even simpler explanation of the origin of these words. If we turn to a wide range of names of mittens known in regional Russian dialects, then among these names, it turns out, there are many words associated with the processes of processing wool and making mittens. These names are: knitted, braided, valega (felled mittens), wire rod (rolled mittens). This also includes varegs, mittens, formed by the name of the process - boil (that is, boil). The fact is that finished knitted wool products were brewed in boiling water to make them more durable and warm. It turns out that mittens are "boiled mittens". Dahl's dictionary contains the following saying: "Necessity has made a mitten akin to a varga." What does she mean? It turns out that special names for upper and lower mittens were once widespread in Russian. Of course, most often such names are found in the North, in the Urals and in Siberia - where 2 pairs of mittens are often worn at once. There are such local names: tops, tops, undersides. And in some areas, upper leather or cloth mittens are called mittens, and lower knitted mittens are called wargs, mittens. Hence, apparently, the expression written down by Dahl.
Red
In a well-known proverb, the hut is not red with corners, but with pies, the adjective red means "good, pleasant." And such obsolete expressions as a red bird, a red beast mean "the best bird" or "the best beast", that is, "the best and most expensive bird or beast preferred by hunters." Dahl wrote in his dictionary as follows: "Red game, high, all kinds of snipe, also roe deer, swan, capercaillie and others; the red beast is a bear, wolf, fox, lynx and others."
In modern Russian, there is a lot of evidence of the ancient meaning of the word red. First of all, of course, this is a constant epithet in folk poetic speech: the girl is beautiful, the words are red. Red here means "beautiful, beautiful, pleasant." In N. Nekrasov's poem "Peasant Children" there are lines in which the word red is used in this sense:
Play, children, grow up freely,
That's why a red childhood is given to you.
In the old names, the red gate, the red corner, the adjective red means "decorated" and "honorary, front". The same meaning is contained in the proper names Krasnoye Selo and Red Square.
The meanings "best, pleasant", "beautiful, decorated" were the very first meanings of the adjective red.
A completely different word was used to designate color - red. So it was in the Old Russian language, and in Ukrainian, and in Belarusian. And only since the 18th century, a new, color meaning of the adjective red appeared in the dictionaries of the Russian language. It has become its core value. The ancient, primary meaning is preserved only in stable expressions and turns.
In the 19th century, the adjective red acquired another meaning - "revolutionary". In the name Red Banner, it spread in European languages during the revolution of 1848. Soon, in this sense, the word was firmly established in the Russian language.
Now, in modern Russian, the adjective red is not only a very expressive, but also a polysemantic word.
Pigalitsa
What does the word piglet mean? This word has 2 meanings. A lapwing is a small bird called a lapwing. But a person of small stature, inconspicuous, is also often called a pigalis. Scientists believe that this is an onomatopoeic word - that is, it originated in the language as an onomatopoeia of the cry of a lapwing. And the lapwing cries like this: pee-gi, ki-gi!
"Reports and messages on the Russian language" V.A. Krutetskaya. Additional materials, useful information, interesting facts. Primary School.
Zakharov Vladimir
The Russian language is the soul of Russia, its sacred place. Our destiny is in the words we speak. That is why it is necessary to focus on the historical processes taking place in it; based on the similarity of the Old Slavonic and Russian languages, to use the material of historical grammar to illustrate linguistic phenomena. The enrichment of the spiritual world of students is facilitated by both a comprehensive analysis of the text, which includes the key concepts of Orthodox culture: home, temple, family, duty, honor, love, humility, beauty, and work on the etymology of a single word.
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Fascinating etymology or secrets of Russian words
Student's work
GBPOU RO PU №36 Zakharova Vladimir
Our orthography, being almost consistently etymological, gives it the richest nourishment. She makes you decompose words into their constituent parts, look for related forms for them Sherba L.V. |
Introduction
The Russian language is the soul of Russia, its sacred place. Our destiny is in the words we speak. That is why it is necessary to focus on the historical processes taking place in it; based on the similarity of the Old Slavonic and Russian languages, to use the material of historical grammar to illustrate linguistic phenomena. The enrichment of the spiritual world of students is facilitated by both a comprehensive analysis of the text, which includes the key concepts of Orthodox culture: home, temple, family, duty, honor, love, humility, beauty, and work on the etymology of a single word.
1. Science etymology
Etymology - (Greek ἐ τ ῠ μολογ ί α "the true meaning of the word")
The subject of etymology as a section of linguistics is the study of sources and the process of forming the vocabulary of a language andreconstruction the vocabulary of the language of the most ancient period (usually pre-literate).
Semantics as a branch of linguistics answers the question of how a person, knowing the words and grammatical rules of a natural language, is able to convey with their help a wide variety of information about the world (including his own inner world), even if he first encounters with such a task, and to understand what information about the world is contained in any statement addressed to him, even if he hears it for the first time.
AT vocabulary each language has a significant fund of words, the relationship of the form of which with the meaning is incomprehensible to native speakers, since the structure of the word cannot be explained on the basis of the models of word formation that operate in the language. Historical changes in words obscure the primary form and meaning of the word, andiconic the nature of the word determines the complexity of the reconstruction of primary motivation, i.e. connection of the primary form and meaning of the word. The purpose of the etymological analysis of the word is to determine when, in what language, according to whatderivational models, on the basis of what linguistic material, in what form and with what meaning the word arose, as well as what historical changes in its primary form and meaning determined the form and meaning known to the researcher.
As an independent linguistic discipline, semantics emerged relatively recently, at the end of the 19th century; the term "semantics" itself to designate a branch of science was first introduced in 1883 by the French linguist M. Breal, who was interested in the historical development of linguistic meanings. Until the end of the 1950s, along with it, the term "semasiology" was also widely used, now preserved only as a not very common name for one of the sections of semantics. However, questions related to the conduct of semantics were raised and, one way or another, resolved already in the oldest linguistic traditions known to us. After all, one of the main reasons forcing us to pay attention to the language is a misunderstanding of what the oral or written statement (text) addressed to us or some part of it means. Therefore, in the study of language, the interpretation of individual signs or entire texts - one of the most important activities in the field of semantics - has long occupied an important place. So, in China, in ancient times, dictionaries were created that contained interpretations of hieroglyphs. In Europe, ancient and medieval philologists compiled glosses, i.e. interpretation of incomprehensible words in written monuments. A truly rapid development of linguistic semantics began in the 1960s; at present, it is one of the most important sections of the science of language.
In the European scientific tradition, the question of the relationship between words and "things", the objects to which they belonged, was first raised by ancient Greek philosophers, but to this day various aspects of this relationship continue to be refined. Consider the relation of the word to the "thing" more closely..
2. Origin of words
Asphalt. I wonder what this Greek word meant when there were no paved sidewalks and highways. Let's open the Greek dictionary. First syllable a - denial. Noun sphalma - fall, misfortune, failure. So the basic meaning is bad. The prefix a turns this word into its opposite, giving it a good quality. Asfaleya means: confidence, reliability, security. It is with this word asphaltos was named in ancient Greece the resin of coniferous plants. The name comes from the resin asphalt - tarred road.
Birch. From the word white in ancient times there were the words "birch", "linen", "squirrel". Birch - a tree with white bark; white squirrel - a kind of squirrel of a very rare and expensive breed was named after the color of the fur; "linen from white" according to the type "junk from old" originally meant unpainted white linen, then linen from this linen, then linen in general.
Nonsense. When the first shipbuilders arrived in Russia under Peter I, they spoke mostly German, accompanying their words with increased gestures, they explained the construction of masts, their installation, purpose, while saying hier und da, which in German means here and there . In Russian pronunciation and awareness, this turned into nonsense , which denotes something obscure and unnecessary.
Shabby dress.Weekday, home, everyday. a meal in the last century, cheap fabric was called - by the name of Zatrapeznov, at whose factory it was produced.
Clumsy . Some Russian writers can find the word clumsy
Okay, foldable: “Good, clumsy words come by themselves” (A. Kuprin). Writers use it from folk dialects. It comes from an ancient word key - order, beauty.
Hence the clumsy and clumsy - beautiful, stately; clumsy - clumsy, inelegant.
It is forbidden. What is not - it is clear, it is important to establish what is lzya . It once sounded lz and was the dative case of a noun lie - freedom. Traces of the existence of the word lie we see in our modern benefit, benefit ; it is no longer found separately.
Education. It is believed that this word is a tracing paper of the German - a picture, an image, and the whole word means enlightenment. Word education can be found in church Russian books already in the 17th century, and German influences could hardly penetrate into them. Most likely, a direct connection with Old Church Slavoniccreate - createcompose, from the Slavicimage is likeness.
Forgive. The etymology of this word may seem surprising. Old Russian simple, corresponding to our simple, meant straight, unbent. Sorry therefore, it was important to straighten up, and then to allow the guilty one, who was bent in an apology bow, to straighten up. The exclamation "Forgive me!" therefore meant: "Let me raise my guilty head, get up from my knees ...". To forgive means to set free, to make free.
Rainbow. The word rainbow recorded in the dictionaries of the Russian language only since the 18th century. This word is East Slavic in origin, formed from the adjective glad meaning cheerful. First the word rainbow referred to something cheerful, and later - to a brilliant, sparkling. Word meaning connection rainbow with the meaning cheerful is also confirmed by the fact that in some regional dialects rainbow called veselka, veselukha.
River. One of the most archaic, ancient words of our language. It is related to the ancient Indian rayas - a stream, current, with the Celtic renos - a river, from which the geographical name Rhine arose. Probably in the mists of time river meant a stormy stream, rapids.
Child. Such a good, sweet word, but in origin it is associated with disgusting slave . In Old Russian shy meant little slave, child of a slave. But a slave, or rob, then meant an orphan. Gradually, the baby got the meaning - just a child, and it turned into a child under the influence of assimilation.
Day. once existed days - collision. That is exactly how the meeting of day and night, their totality, and this word was originally understood.
Drawing. This word refers to the number of native Russians. It is an old derivative of the verb draw, which in the Proto-Slavic language had the meaning of cutting, chopping something. That is, originally drawing - this is cutting, cutting, notching, as well as a forest clearing.
In the sense familiar to us: "the image of any objects on paper, a plan of something" the word drawing used in Russian for a long time. At least since the 16th century.
Conclusion
Etymological analysis allows you to instill interest in the Russian language through entertaining exercises, the development of language flair, broadening your horizons, and vocabulary. Mechanical memorization of words, text without understanding and comprehension is the most difficult and uninteresting form of obtaining knowledge.
The formation of coherent speech begins with work on the word, etymological analysis has an impact on spelling literacy.
Origin of words and expressions
1. Etymology of words
Etymology is a branch of the science of language that studies the origin of words. Etymology also studies all the changes that occur in the life of words. And changes in the language are constantly happening: new words appear, new meanings for long-familiar words, and sometimes it even happens that a word suddenly changes its sound. For example, the words bee, bull and insect, it turns out, came from the same word to thrash. Now this word has left the language, it has been forgotten by everyone, but once it was familiar to everyone and was used in the meaning of "buzz", "buzz". And today it would never occur to anyone to call a bull, a bee and an insect with relative words, although etymologically this is so.
Some words have changed not the sound, but the meaning. For example, today we call the word guest a person who came to visit us, and in ancient times this was the name of a visiting merchant (these were the guests in the fairy tale of A. Pushkin called Tsar Saltan).
Once the word dashing meant "bad", "bad", but today it is used in almost the opposite sense - "daring", "brave".
One more example. Today, the word contagion has 2 meanings: it denotes a curse, and is also used in the meaning of "source of an infectious disease." But at the end of the 18th century, the word contagion was used to mean "charm", "attractiveness".
Many words are extremely clear to us - both in terms of their meaning and in terms of their understanding. Other words surround us every day, are used in almost any everyday and professional situations, accompany us on trips, at the workplace, at home, at school, at a disco, etc. But, despite the fact that we are well acquainted with these words, their origin remains a mystery to us, which we will try to unravel.
The word "thank you" is definitely one of the most frequently used by us. This interjection comes from the exclamation "God save". Over time, the last consonant of the combination of words ceased to be pronounced, and the phrase turned into one word that expresses gratitude and is an obligatory vocabulary element of a cultured, educated and educated person.
The adverb "totally" brings us problems not so much lexical as spelling: this eternal dilemma - together or separately. Meanwhile, the history of the origin of the word is a very convincing clue to the spelling of the word. The adverb “to the ashes” was formed from the combination “to the ground”, i.e. to the bottom, to the base: in the Old Russian language, the floor was called ashes, as well as the bottom and base. Accordingly, tla is the singular genitive form of the noun tlo. With the development of the language, the word "tlo" began to be considered obsolete and soon fell out of use altogether. Hence the rule for writing an adverb: an adverb formed from a combination of a preposition and a word that has gone out of use is written together.
Another "frequent" adverb is the word "now". It was formed in the Old Russian language from a combination of the pronoun “that” and the numeral “prvo”, which meant “first”, i.e. the one that comes before, at first, in the first place. As you can see, in the process of language development, the word has significantly changed its sound composition:
then + prvo > toprvo > teprvo > tepervo > now > now,
but retained the continuity of meaning with the original word.
A person who likes to find fault with trifles, strives to observe details in any work, an inquisitive, corrosive person is often called meticulous. Previously, this word looked like this: dotochny, which tells us the origin of the word:
to the point > precise > meticulous.
In other words, we call meticulous one who does everything “to the point”, i.e. in detail, most responsibly, painstakingly.
Often, referring to some ambiguous deed, an incomprehensible act, we talk about the underlying reason. The background is the hidden basis, the secret reason for something. The word “underlying” had previously also had a different - direct - meaning: this was the name of the lining of a peasant shirt, which covered the back and chest to half, literally - the shoulder (i.e. shoulder - shoulder). In ancient times, there were expressions “one’s own background is closer to the heart”, “knows the chest and the background”.
The word “day” is now considered by us as a word with a root and an ending, but earlier this word was divided into morphemes differently: day = su - + -tk- + -i. The prefix su (s / co) is also not uncommon for modern words: twilight, satellite, comrade-in-arms. The ancient root tk means "to poke, weave, join".
The word "week" in Russian means 7 days, going in a certain order: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. The origin of the word is better seen on the example of the Belarusian word "nyadzelya", i.e. Sunday. A week from "do not do", i.e. it is a day for rest (which is Sunday), a day free from business. Actually a week in all Slavic languages was called a week (i.e. 7 days).
About two, say, Ivans, they say that they are namesakes, i.e. people who have the same first name. The word "namesake" comes from an ancient combination of the pronoun that, particles z and the suffix k: namesake = that + z > mez, tyz, toz, i.e. the same, of the same name; that + z + k.
The word "native" also comes from a combination of the pronoun tu, the root zem (earth) and the suffix ets and means "a native of this land." Synonyms for this word are the words aborigine and autochthon. They differ in their origin: the aborigine comes from the Latin language, and the autochthon from the Greek.
If you say or do something strange, you may hear the expression "he's playing tricks again." This strange word comes from the word "kuroles", which in turn comes from the combination "chicken + o + forest". This combination is an abbreviated and "Russified" form of the Greek expression "curie eleison", meaning "Lord, have mercy." Initially, the word "play tricks" had the meaning "to play naughty, rowdy" and only after that it came to its modern meaning.
The word "sinecure" is quite rare, and not everyone can boast of knowing its meaning. Meanwhile, sinecure means "a warm, profitable place." The word came to us from the Latin language - sine kure, i.e. without worries. That was the name of the church position, which was provided for special merits. This position was honorable and lucrative, but did not require any work at all. Since then, sinecure has been called the ability to get something without much difficulty.
In a word, this science is very interesting - etymology! And it often happens that the story of the origin of a word turns out to be more fascinating than another detective story. Some stories I will give in my work.
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Etymological doublets: Franco-Latin and Scandinavian-English
When people hear a foreign or any unfamiliar word for the first time, they try to understand its meaning by relating it to words they know well. People make assumptions about the meaning of these words, and often they are wrong. Nonetheless...
Folk etymology is the most controversial and controversial type of etymology. There are even discussions about its name. Since the end of the 19th century, a number of scientists consider this term to be very unfortunate ...
The phenomenon of folk etymology in a work of art on the example of "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea" by N.S. Leskova
There is debate among linguists about whether there is a difference between false and folk etymology. Is it worth distinguishing them at all, and if so, then the question arises, what is this difference. Some scholars single out false etymology as a separate phenomenon...
The phenomenon of folk etymology in a work of art on the example of "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea" by N.S. Leskova
With folk etymology, the change of the word occurs without much effort of the native speaker, during its incorrect reproduction. In the "pseudo-folk" etymology, the change of the word occurs intentionally ...
The phenomenon of folk etymology in a work of art on the example of "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea" by N.S. Leskova
Children's etymology is a product of creativity of children of preschool and school age. It is somewhat similar to pseudoetymology, however, there is a significant difference in the purpose of their creation. If pseudoetymology is used by the authors to...
The phenomenon of folk etymology in a work of art on the example of "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea" by N.S. Leskova
Details Category: "The great, mighty and truthful Russian language" Posted on 03/29/2016 14:53 Views: 3719Etymology is a branch of linguistics that studies the origin of words or parts of words (affixes).
Etymology is also any hypothesis about the origin of a particular word (less often, another language unit, for example, a prefix).
The subject of etymology is the study of sources and the process of forming the vocabulary of a language. The words of the language change over time according to certain historical patterns, which obscures the original form of the word. The etymologist, relying on the material of related languages, must establish this form and explain how the word took on a modern form.
What methods are used to determine the origin of a word?
Etymology uses complex research methods. The word (or root), the etymology of which needs to be established, correlates with related words (or roots), a common generating root is revealed, as a result of the removal of layers of later historical changes, the original form and its meaning are established.
The term "etymology" comes from the ancient Greek ἔτυμον "truth, the basic meaning of the word" and the ancient Greek λόγος "word, doctrine, judgment".
Etymology is a very fascinating science, because. allows you to dive into the depths of the history of the language in order to “pull out” from these depths the history of the origin of a particular word. This is a real journey into the history of words. After all, words, like people, have their own history and their own destiny. They may have relatives and a rich pedigree. And they can be orphans. A word can tell a lot about yourself: about your nationality, about your parents, about your origin. This is the science of etymology.
Words in any language can be native, borrowed, formed naturally or artificially, etc. But now we are talking specifically about the Russian language, so we will limit ourselves to talking about the etymology of the Russian language.
So, the words of the Russian language, in accordance with their origin, are divided into the following groups:
1) native Russian words (inherited from the ancestor language);
2) words formed with the help of word-building means of the Russian language;
3) words borrowed from other languages;
4) words resulting from various "linguistic errors".
Words that are native in a given language could belong to any of the above groups in the ancestor language. For any word that is a derivative in a given language, one can indicate from which word and with the help of what word-building means it is formed.
For example, the word "tomorrow". This is a common Slavic word. Fusion for the morning with a change in unstressed "y" to "in" (cf. dialect hit <ударить>). Literally means "time following next morning".
Of course, any assumption about the origin of the word must be justified. For example, if it is assumed that a word is produced with the help of some affix, it is necessary to confirm with examples that such an affix exists (or existed) in a given language and can (or could) form words with such a meaning. That is, during etymological analysis, one cannot go into conjectures or fantasies and build one's own logical chains of reasoning only on the basis of personal beliefs.
How to prove the borrowed origin of a word?
To prove this, a number of conditions must be met.
First, it is necessary to find evidence that the language from which the given word came into contact (or could contact) with the Russian language.
Secondly, the words under consideration must have a semantic similarity: at least in some usages, the word of the source language must have the meaning in which it was borrowed into the language under study.
Thirdly, in the words under consideration there must be constant phonetic correspondences, because the sounds of the "foreign" language are regularly reflected in the borrowing language.
Fourthly, the presumably borrowed word should not violate the rules of grammatical adaptation of borrowings accepted in the language.
But these are, of course, general rules. And as you know, there are exceptions to every rule.
Difficulties in etymology
It is difficult to determine borrowings from an extinct non-written language, because in this case, the borrowing source is not available.
Borrowings can penetrate from language to language not only through oral speech, but also from books. For book borrowings, in general, they are closer to the original than for oral ones, but they can also contain errors, including very serious ones: for example, the French word zénith "zenith" (which also got into Russian) is borrowed from Arabic zemth: m in the manuscript was taken as ni.
It is very difficult for etymologists to deal with the author's neologisms - words created artificially. For example, a well-known word coined by F. Dostoevsky is to fade away. If there is no exact data about who and when a certain word was coined, then it is impossible to prove its origin.
Difficulties arise with tracing papers (from the French calque “copy”) - borrowing foreign words, expressions, phrases with a literal translation. For example, the Russian word "insect" is a tracing-paper from the Latin insectum (in - "on" + sectum - "insect").
But we have so far talked about the very science of etymology. And we are probably more interested in etymological results, i.e. the history of individual words or morphemes. How to find out about the origin of a word?
To do this, we must open the etymological dictionary.
Etymological dictionaries
The etymological dictionary contains information about the history of individual words (sometimes morphemes), about all the changes that they have undergone. Information about the etymology of words may also be contained in some large explanatory dictionaries.
But we already know that the origin of many words cannot be unambiguously interpreted, therefore etymological dictionaries give different points of view and contain references to the relevant literature.
In Russia, the first attempts to create an etymological dictionary date back to the 19th century. Their authors were researchers of the history of words K. F. Reiff, F. S. Shimkevich, M. M. Izyumov, N. V. Goryaev and A. N. Chudinov.
Famous modern etymological dictionaries of the Russian language:
Fasmer M. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. In 4 vols. / Per. with him. O. N. Trubacheva. - M.: Progress, 1964-1973.
Etymological dictionary of the Russian language / Ed. N. M. Shansky (1963-1999), A. F. Zhuravlev (since 1999), Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University. - M .: Publishing house of Moscow State University, 1963-2007.
Chernykh P. Ya. Historical and etymological dictionary of the modern Russian language. In 2 volumes - M .: Russian language, 1993.
But there is also a folk etymology. Let's talk about her.
Folk etymology
This, of course, is a false etymology, unscientific. It is associated with lexical association and arises under the influence of vernacular.
This etymology cannot be used for scientific purposes, but in itself it is very interesting, because. allows you to follow the course of people's associations, to see their ability to analyze and ironize. 
There are several directions in folk etymology.
1) A borrowed or native word is distorted and rethought according to the model of a well-known and close-sounding word: semi-clinic (instead of polyclinic), gulvar (instead of boulevard), etc. Here N. Leskov immediately comes to mind with his story “Lefty”: “melkoskop” (instead of “microscope”), “studing” (instead of “pudding”), “slander” (instead of “feuilleton”), etc.
2) Sometimes the origin of a word is explained on the basis of only external consonance, but this does not correspond to the actual etymology. For example, the word “pillow” is explained by the fact that it is placed under the ear, but the scientific etymology is completely different: with the root “spirit” (i.e., something “inflated”).
The beautiful phrase "crimson ringing" is known. So they say about the pleasant ringing of bells. But the meaning of this phrase is not at all connected with the word "raspberry" or "crimson color". Scientific etymology gives us the opportunity to find out that this phrase comes from the name of the Belgian city of Malin (now it is the city of Mechelen), where the ancient cathedral is located, which has a special school of ringers, i.e. the expression "raspberry ringing" means the play of "raspberry" musicians on the bells.
This type of folk etymology is especially widespread in explaining the origin of toponyms. “The people always have a feeling that the name cannot be given just like that, that it is given in connection with some unusual, important event,” says G.P. Smolitskaya, a Russian linguist and toponymist. For example, folk etymology explains the name Ryazan with the word "cut", because. there was a brutal massacre during the raids of nomads.
Some interesting etymology
Scammer. So in Russia they were not called deceivers or thieves. This was the name of the craftsmen who made the moshna, i.e. wallets. 
Slates. In the USSR, the most famous manufacturer of these shoes (rubber slippers) was the Polymer plant in the city of Slantsy. On the soles of these slippers, the word "Slates" was squeezed out. Many took this word for the name of the shoe. The word entered the active vocabulary and became synonymous with the word "flip-flops".
Toponymic legends
Toponymic legends are spread all over the world and relate to those geographical objects, the exact time, date of foundation and toponym of which are either not fully understood, or explained already in the era of the development of toponymic and historical science. Toponymic legends cannot be considered as reliable information about the origin of a particular name.
The most frequent character in the creation of toponymic legends is Peter I. Here are two of them.
Folk etymology ascribes to Peter I the appearance of the name of the village of Divnogorye in the Voronezh region. Passing through this area, he exclaimed: “What marvelous mountains!”
The city of Boguchar in the Voronezh region was also named in connection with the stay of Peter I there. The Tsar sailed on his ships along the Don River, stopped at some settlement to replenish food supplies. Here he and his entourage arranged a small feast. During this feast, they wanted to poison Peter and served a glass of wine with poison. But Peter, knowing this, raised the cup with the words: “And I give this cup to God!” and threw it into the river. Therefore, people called the tributary of the Don, on the banks of which this settlement was located, Bogucharka, and this village itself Boguchar.
We don't often think about how the words we use came into being and how their meanings may have changed over time. Meanwhile, words are quite living beings. New words appear literally every day. Some do not linger in the language, while others remain. Words, like people, have their own history, their own destiny. They can have relatives, a rich pedigree, and vice versa, be complete orphans. The Word can tell us about one's nationality, about one's parents, about one's origin. The study of the history of vocabulary and the origin of words is an interesting science - etymology.
