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 taking place: 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 ridden wooden horses or carousel boats more than once, 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, riding 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. Fita was called at that time a school literate, wisecrack, who mastered complex skills with incredible efforts. And they said about the loafers like this: "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 the medieval Russian judicial custom, which was called pravez. 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 pravozh became a thing of the past, but the memory of it remained in folk speech, in its living use, and the expression in the feet of truth has even become playful. Indeed, in the old days, a person who came into 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 saying 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 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 varegi 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 in freedom,
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 of 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 denote 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. Elementary School.

A selection of Russian words with an interesting origin story.

Pharmacy

According to one version, the word "pharmacy" comes from the Greek word "barn", "shelter", "warehouse", "storage" or "shop", according to another version - from the word "coffin", "grave" or "crypt" . Later, the word passed into the Latin language and acquired the meaning of "wine warehouse". The modern meaning of the word "pharmacy" was formed only in medieval Latin.

Orange

Until the 16th century, Russians and Europeans did not know about the existence of this citrus. Portuguese sailors brought these fruits from China and began to trade them with their neighbors. Oranges came to Russia from Holland. In Dutch, "apple" is appel, and "Chinese" is sien. Borrowed from the Dutch language, the word "appelsien" is a literal translation of the French phrase "Pomme de Chine" - "an apple from China."

Bohemia

The word is of French origin. At the end of the 20th century in Paris, representatives of creative professions lived in the Latin Quarter. The bourgeois called the local inhabitants "gypsies". On the top floor of a house in the Latin Quarter lived the journalist Henri Murger. Once, in one of the tabloid magazines, he was offered to write a series of stories about the inhabitants of the Latin Quarter. These essays were published in 1945 under the title Scenes from the Life of a Gypsy. "Gypsy" in French - "bohemia". Mürger has since been forgotten, and the word "bohemian" still exists today.

Doctor

The word "doctor" is originally Slavic, it is formed from the word "vrati", which means "to speak", "to speak". From the same word comes “lie”, which for our ancestors also meant “to speak”. In the Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian languages, the original meaning of the word "doctor" - "caster", "sorcerer" - has survived to this day.

Hooligan

This word is of English origin. It is known that the surname Houlihan was once a well-known London brawler, who brought a lot of trouble to the inhabitants of the city and the police. The surname has become a household word, in all countries characterizing a person who violates public order.

penal servitude

The Greek word katergon meant a large rowing vessel with a triple row of oars. Later, such a vessel was called a galley. In the Old Russian language, there were many names for ships: “plows”, “rooks”, “uchans”, “boats”. The Novgorod charter mentions boats, poroms and katargs. In the "Russian Chronicle" of Nikon's list we read: "The boyars took the queen, and the noble maidens, and the young wives, let many go in ships and katargas to the islands" ("The boyars took the queen, and noble maidens, and young wives, sent many on ships and ships to the islands"). The work of the rowers on these ships was very difficult, so they began to put criminals on "hard labor". In 1696, creating the Russian fleet, Peter I began to build large hard labor ships in Russia. These ships were also called galleys. On them, rowers put criminals and fugitives, chained to the oars with chains. Pushkin's "History of Peter" contains the decrees of the tsar, where the phrases are often found: "For the first time through the ranks, in the second - a whip and galleys", "exile to the galleys". Nordsteth's pre-revolutionary German-French dictionary directly states: "Galley - hard labor." Since then, the word "hard labor" in the modern sense has been preserved, although they no longer referred to galleys, but to Siberia, to hard labor.

Silhouette

In France, during the reign of Louis XV, the royal court lived in unprecedented luxury. Because of this, the treasury quickly emptied, and then the king appointed a new finance minister, Étienne Silhouette, a conscientious and incorruptible official who reduced pensions and destroyed tax privileges. At first, everyone liked this very much, but over time, the young reformer became the subject of general ridicule. The genre of art that arose at that time - a one-color profile picture on a light background - was named by the Parisian wits after the Silhouette and interpreted it as art for the greedy and the poor.

Surgeon

The word came from the lexicon of ancient Greek doctors. It denoted among the Greeks simply "needlework", "craft", from hir - "hand" - and ergon - "to do". The word "surgeon" from the Greek language is translated not only as "doctor", but also as "hairdresser". In Russia in the 19th century, hairdressers-barbers not only shaved and cut their clients, but also pulled teeth, bled, put leeches and even performed minor surgical operations, that is, they performed the duties of surgeons.

hack-work

Initially, this word was common people, and it meant "easy money in excess of the usual." You can read about the origin of the word in the dictionary of Professor D. N. Ushakov: “Hackwork, from the Greek “halkos” - a copper coin.” Later, the word has an additional meaning. In the dictionary of V. I. Dahl, a more precise definition of the Russian interpretation is given: “hack, grabber, bribe taker, haltyga, windy, fickle person. Trash, grabber (grab), profit, gratuitous food, accumulated money. In our time, derivatives have appeared: “hackwork”, “hackwork”.

In her “Memoirs” about the acting life of the 90s of the century before last, N. Smirnova writes that in Moscow, among the actors, Strastnaya Square was called “hack work”, since actors were “caught” on it:

“It happened that he was immediately given a role in his hands and he read it for the first time on the way to the theater. The word "hack" has since gone into use and is still kept in the actor's lexicon.

Tobacco

Initially, the word "tobacco" penetrated into European languages ​​​​from Haiti. In the Arawakan language, tabak is a plant of the nightshade family, from which a smoking mixture was made. It would seem that it is in this meaning that the word is used now. However, for a while, "tobacco" had a completely different meaning. The word acquired additional meaning in French thanks to the expression “pass through tobacco” - “passer a tabac” - and remained from the time of the persecution of smokers in France. Until now, the French have the verb "tabasser", which means "to beat." And among the military, "tabac" means "battle" or "business" in the same sense as our "business was near Poltava."

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy wrote the story "The Manuscript Found Under the Bed". The hero of this story, Sashka Yepanchin, recalling the year 1918 in France: “In their precincts, policemen - azhans - first of all beat you in the ribs and in the head with boots, they call it “pass through tobacco”.”

Rogue

In his transformational activities, Peter I had to face the privileged nobility, which did not want to part with its usual way of life, and perceived the tsar's reforms sharply negatively.

In 1715, Peter I introduced a law according to which the nobles for crimes were deprived of their nobility, their “privileges”, one of which was that the nobles could not be subjected to corporal punishment, simply speaking, flogging. According to this law, the nobles were "defamed", that is, deprived of their noble dignity, "dishonored" them.

In the language of the Normans, "skelmen" (skelmen) meant "worthy of death", "suicide bomber". Among the Germans, this word turned into “rogue”, which means “rogue”, “swindler”, and in this sense it entered the Russian language.

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.

Railway station

The word comes from the name of the place "Vauxhall" - a small park and entertainment center near London. The Russian Tsar, who visited this place, fell in love with it - in particular, the railway. Subsequently, he commissioned British engineers to build a small railway from St. Petersburg to his country residence. One of the stations on this section of the railway was called "Vokzal", and this name later became the Russian word for any railway station.

Hooligan

The word bully is of English origin. According to one version, the surname Houlihan was once worn by a famous London brawler, who caused a lot of trouble for the residents of the city and the police. The surname has become a household name, and the word is international, characterizing a person who grossly violates public order.

Orange

Until the 16th century, Europeans had no idea about oranges at all. Russians, even more so. We don't grow oranges! And then the Portuguese navigators brought these delicious orange balls from China. And they began to trade with their neighbors. In Dutch, "apple" is appel, and "Chinese" is sien. Borrowed from the Dutch language, the word appelsien is a translation of the French phrase Pomme de Chine - "an apple from China."

Doctor

It is known that in the old days they were treated with various conspiracies and spells. The ancient healer said to the sick something like this: "Go away, illness, to the quicksands, to the dense forests ..." And he muttered various words over the ill. The word doctor is originally Slavic and is derived from the word “vrati”, which means “to speak”, “to speak”. Interestingly, from the same word comes “lie”, which for our ancestors also meant “to speak”. It turns out that in ancient times doctors lied? Yes, but this word initially did not contain a negative meaning.

Scammer

Ancient Russia did not know the Turkic word "pocket", because money was then carried in special wallets - purses. From the word "purse" and produced "swindler" - a specialist in thefts from scrotums.

Restaurant

The word "restaurant" means "strengthening" in French. This name was given in the 18th century to one of the Parisian taverns by its visitors after the owner of the Boulanger establishment introduced nutritious meat broth to the number of dishes on offer.

Shit

The word "shit" comes from the Proto-Slavic "govno", which means "cow" and was originally associated only with cow "cakes". "Beef" - "cattle", hence "beef", "beef". By the way, from the same Indo-European root and the English name of the cow - cow, as well as the shepherd of these cows - cowboy. That is, the expression "fucking cowboy" is not accidental, it has a deep family connection.

Heaven

One version is that the Russian word "heaven" comes from "not, no" and "bes, demons" - literally a place free from evil/demons. However, another interpretation is probably closer to the truth. Most Slavic languages ​​have words similar to "sky", and they probably originated from the Latin word for "cloud" (nebula).

Slates

In the Soviet Union, a well-known manufacturer of rubber slippers was the Polymer plant in the city of Slantsy, Leningrad Region. Many buyers believed that the word “Slates” squeezed out on the soles was the name of the shoe. Further, the word entered the active vocabulary and became a synonym for the word "slippers".

nonsense

In the late 17th century, the French physician Gali Mathieu treated his patients with jokes. He gained such popularity that he did not keep up with all the visits and sent his healing puns by mail. This is how the word “nonsense” arose, which at that time meant a healing joke, a pun. The doctor immortalized his name, but at present this concept has a completely different meaning.

The vocabulary of the Russian language is one of the largest in the world. It has been formed over the centuries under the influence of the development of social, economic and cultural life. The list of native Russian words makes up 90% of modern explanatory dictionaries. The rest consists of foreign borrowings that appeared both in the early stages of its development and in modern times.

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Stages of development of the Russian vocabulary

Russian language, along with Ukrainian and Belarusian, is part of the East Slavic group of the Indo-European language family. It began to form at the end of the Neolithic era and continues its development to this day.

There are several major stages in the development of native vocabulary:

Words that appeared in our language at any of these stages are considered native Russian.

Also, words of Russian origin include lexical units formed from borrowed ones according to the rules of Russian word formation.

Scientists believe that at the end of the Neolithic era there was a single Indo-European linguistic community. Native speakers of the Indo-European language lived on a rather vast territory. Some researchers call this place the land from the Yenisei to the Volga. Their opponents talk about the settlement of the Indo-Europeans along the banks of the Danube and on the Balkan Peninsula. But they all agree that the Indo-European language gave rise to almost all European languages ​​and some Asian ones.

Common Indo-European words reflect specific phenomena and objects of the surrounding reality, degrees of kinship, numerals. Their spelling and pronunciation in many languages ​​of the Indo-European family is almost identical. For example:

In East Slavic languages there are a lot of words common to Indo-European languages. These include nouns denoting:

• degree of relationship: mother, brother, sister, daughter, son;
• natural phenomena: sun, moon, ice, rain, water;
• animals: wolf, goose, cow, bear;
• plants: oak, birch;
• metals: copper, bronze.

Words denoting numerals (two, three, four, five), properties of objects (new, white, fast), actions (sew, go) have an Indo-European origin.

Common Slavic

Around the 6th century BC e. the Proto-Slavic language appeared. Its carriers were Slavic tribes settled in the territory between the rivers Dnieper, Vistula, Bug. Common Slavic vocabulary served as the basis for the development of the languages ​​of the Western, Southern and Eastern Slavs. Common roots can be traced in them today.

The common Slavic primordially Russian vocabulary is diverse. Noun examples:

Among common Slavic words there are nouns that denote not specific objects and phenomena, but abstract concepts. These include: will, guilt, faith, sin, thought, glory, happiness, goodness.

Compared with the words of Indo-European origin, there are more lexical units from the common Slavic vocabulary in our language, denoting actions, signs and qualities of objects.

• Actions: breathe, lie down, run, write, sow, reap, weave, spin.
• Signs and qualities of objects: high, fast, black, red, many, few, soon.

Common Slavisms are distinguished by their simple structure. They consist of a base and an end. At the same time, the number of derivative words from their stems is very large. Several dozen words have been formed with the root of glory: dishonor, glorify, glorify, glorious, love of glory, glorify.

The meaning of some common Slavic words changed during the development of the language. The word "red" in the common Slavic vocabulary was used in the meaning of "beautiful, good." The modern meaning (color designation) has come into use since the 16th century.

There are about two thousand common Slavic words in the vocabulary of Russian-speaking people. This relatively small group of native words forms the core of the Russian written and spoken language.

Old Russian or East Slavic stage of lexical development

In the 7th century AD, on the basis of the common Slavic vocabulary, three separate groups of Slavic languages ​​began to develop: West Slavic, South Slavic and East Slavic languages. The East Slavic community of peoples became the basis of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalities. The tribes that were carriers of a single East Slavic language formed a single state in the 9th century - Kievan (Ancient) Rus. For this reason, the vocabulary that appeared between VII and XIV is called Old Russian vocabulary.

Old Russian lexical units were formed under the influence of the political, economic, social and cultural development of a single East Slavic state. The original words of our language of this period belong to different parts of speech and lexical-semantic groups.

Great Russian period of language formation

From the 14th century the actual Russian or Great Russian stage of development of our vocabulary begins. It continues to this day. The beginning of the formation of the Great Russian vocabulary coincided with the formation of the Russian statehood and the division for a long time of the development of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalities. Therefore, in the lexical stock of these languages, the same objects are denoted by different words. For example: wallet - ukr. hamanets - Belarusian. cough; palace - Ukrainian Palace - Belarusian. palace; sparkle - Ukrainian vibliskuvati - Belarusian. zihatsets.

The words that appeared during this period are characterized by a derivative basis. They appeared on the basis of well-known lexical units of Indo-European, Common Slavic and East Slavic origin. New word forms were formed on the basis of borrowings from foreign languages ​​by adding simple bases. Such word forms are considered primordial. Actually Russian words make up a significant part of the Russian vocabulary.

Formation of new words in Russian

The vocabulary of our language replenishes quite rapidly. The basis for this process is the lexical units of the previous stages of language development and borrowed vocabulary. This vocabulary changes and adapts to the needs of the language in accordance with the rules of word formation adopted in it.

Nouns

Addition to the borrowed basis of a specific Russian suffix -shchik, -chik, -ovshchik, -shchik, -lk, -ovk, -k, -tel, -ost. For example: from the word stone, which is of Indo-European origin, with the help of the suffix -shchik, the actual Russian noun mason was formed; from the word sheet, which appeared in the all-Slavic period of the development of the Russian language, with the help of the suffix -ovk, the concept of a leaflet arose.

Addition to the basis of primordially Russian prefixes at-, pa-, pr-, su-, in-, voz-, on-, ob-, pre-, re- and so on. For example: by adding the prefix city to the common Slavic stem, the word suburb is formed; adding the prefixes o- to the same stem, they get the noun garden.

The formation of new words from two or more bases: from the common Slavic bases -pravd- and -lyub- the complex Russian word truth-lover was formed; from the Indo-European basis of the mouse- and the common Slavic word to catch with the help of the suffix -k, the noun mysh was formed Ways of forming verbs.

Ways of forming verbs

One of the most common ways to form verbs is simultaneous addition of a prefix and a suffix to the stem. For example: from the common Slavic basis, running with the help of the prefix raz- and suffixes -at and -sya appeared the verb to scatter; from the common Slavic basis -bogat- with the help of the prefix o- and suffixes -it and -sya, the original Russian word enriched itself appeared.

In the actual Russian period of the development of vocabulary, verbs formed from nouns are quite common. From the borrowed in the XVIII German word assault with the help of the suffix -ova, the verb to assault was formed. With the help of the suffix -i, the verb to praise was formed from the common Slavic word glory.

The Russian vocabulary is one of the most extensive and actively developing in the world. Borrowing vocabulary from other languages ​​and forming new words on its basis, the Russian language is replenished. Using online dictionaries of the origin of words, you can get acquainted with the etymology of Russian vocabulary in more detail. In the age of globalization, knowledge of the origins of the Russian language and the stages of its development will help preserve its originality and uniqueness.

People have always wanted to know where everything in the world came from. How did our Earth, Moon, stars originate? When did the first plants and animals appear? And people have always been interested to know how the words of our language originated. Even a special science was born, which began to deal with the history of the emergence of words. It's called etymology.

Subject: Vocabulary. Phraseology

Lesson: Etymology of Russian words

Etymology is the branch of linguistics that studies the origin of words.

It turns out that the words are historically related thimble, ring, gloves. They highlight the ancient root associated with the obsolete word finger, i.e finger. We put the thimble on the finger, the ring serves as an ornament for the finger, the gloves help us to warm the fingers.

Nowadays, special etymological dictionaries are being created. The following information is reported in the dictionary entry of such a dictionary:

Original Russian word or borrowed;

The source language from which the borrowed word came;

From what source word or phrase and by what method it is formed;

What related words exist for this word at the present time;

What sound and semantic changes have occurred in the word.

Interesting etymology of the numeral fourty. This word was originally a noun and served as the name of the bag. It was customary for the Eastern Slavs to sell sable skins in 40 pieces (so many skins were needed to sew a fur coat). These 40 skins were placed in a bag called fourty. Over time, the name was transferred: first fourty- it's just a "bag", then fourty- a bag containing 40 sable skins, and then - fourty like four dozen any items! So the numeral was formed from the noun.

Knowing the etymology of some words helps us avoid mistakes when writing them. Spelling words valley and overcome can explain their etymological "relatives" - the words dol, i.e. bottom, and hem- the bottom edge of the dress. A valley is a valley between mountains. We say mountains and valleys. To defeat an enemy or a rider originally meant to slay him, to plunge him into a valley, that is, down. That's why we write words valley and overcome with the letter O in the root, checking them with a word dol(or hem).

Etymology of words peer and peer also helps with their correct spelling. peer- this is the one who lived the same number of springs with you; your same age, born with you in the same spring. Word peer- a person of the same age as you - goes back to the common Slavic root verst in meaning age, and later a measure of length. The following rhyme allows you to remember the spelling of these dictionary words:

A peer will grow a mile away. The same age grew all spring.

In the word temple the letter I is written, since by origin it is associated with the verb hang (hang) and originally meant a hanging strand of hair.

Etymologists who study the history of the origin of words have discovered some ancient suffixes that in our time are not distinguished as significant parts of a word in morphemic analysis.

The words fat, feast once formed from verbs live, drink with the ancient suffix -R; With the help of the old suffix - og from the word feast the word was formed pie, but from the verb create(with the primary meaning of "knead, shake") - cottage cheese.

Now we do not highlight in the word window, whose origin is associated with the word eye, i.e eye, suffix - n-. As, however, we do not single out the suffix - c- in the word ring, which is historically derived from the word colo- a circle.

Etymology is loved by both adults and children. And who would not want, for example, to find out why a witch is called a witch, a bear is a bear, and an ignoramus is an ignoramus.

It turns out that all these words come from the same verb. know, that is to know. Witch - "knowing, sorceress." Once upon a time, this word did not have a disapproving meaning. The witch knew healing herbs, knew how to help sick people. And when fairy tales about evil witches appeared, the word changed its meaning. An ignoramus is a person who knows little. This word is usually used to refer to people who not only know little, but also do not want to know more, are hostile to knowledge. The bear is an animal that knows. That is, he knows, loves honey. Why is this name assigned to the bear? Superstitious hunters considered it dangerous to name the animals they were going to hunt, and gave them new names, names - “masks”. Name bear replaced the former name, which in Latin sounded like this: "ursus".

Homework

Task number 1

Using an etymological dictionary, tell about the origin of 5-6 words.

Task number 2

Try to make up your own story about the origin of a word, then compare your version with the explanation in the etymological dictionary.

1. Etymology of "school" words ().

Literature

1. Russian language. Grade 6: Baranov M.T. and others - M .: Education, 2008.

2. Russian language. Theory. 5-9 cells: V.V. Babaitseva, L.D. Chesnokova - M.: Bustard, 2008.

3. Russian language. 6th grade: ed. MM. Razumovskaya, P.A. Lekanta - M.: Bustard, 2010.