Pseudo-etymological dictionary examples of words. What is etymology? Detailed analysis. Formation of new words in Russian

A selection of Russian words with an interesting history of origin.

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 Latin and acquired the meaning “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 trading them with their neighbors. Oranges came to Russia from Holland. The Dutch word for apple is appel, and the Chinese word for apple is sien. Borrowed from the Dutch language, the word "appelsien" is a literal translation of the French phrase "Pomme de Chine" - "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.” Journalist Henri Murger lived on the top floor of one of the houses in the Latin Quarter. One day, in one of the tabloid magazines, he was asked to write a series of stories about the residents of the Latin Quarter. These essays were published in 1945, and they were called "Scenes from the Life of the Gypsies." “Gypsy” in French means “bohemia.” Murger has since been forgotten, but the word “bohemian” still exists today.

Doctor

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

Hooligan

This word is of English origin. It is known that the surname Houlihan was once borne by a famous London brawler who caused a lot of trouble for city residents and the police. The surname has become a household word, in all countries characterizing a person who violates public order.

Hard labor

The Greek word katergon meant a large rowing vessel with a triple row of oars. Later, such a vessel began to be called a galley. In the Old Russian language there were many names for ships: “plows”, “boats”, “uchans”, “chelny”. The Novgorod charter mentions boats, rafts and katargs. In the “Russian Chronicle” of Nikon’s list we read: “The boyars took the queen, and noble maidens, and young wives, sending many on ships and catargs 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 hard, so they began to put criminals in hard labor. In 1696, while creating the Russian fleet, Peter I began to build large convict ships in Russia. These ships were also called galleys. Criminals and fugitives were put on them as oarsmen, chained to the oars. Pushkin’s “History of Peter” contains the decrees of the tsar, where the phrases are often found: “The first time through the gauntlet, the second - the whip and the galleys,” “send to the galleys.” Nordstet's pre-revolutionary German-French dictionary directly states: “Galley is hard labor.” Since then, the word “hard labor” has been preserved in the modern sense, although they were no longer exiled to the 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 became empty, and then the king appointed a new minister of finance, Etienne Silhouette, a conscientious and incorruptible official who reduced pensions and abolished tax privileges. At first everyone liked it very much, but over time the young reformer became the subject of general ridicule. The genre of art that emerged at that time - a one-color profile image on a light background - was named by Parisian wits after the Silhouette and interpreted it as art for the greedy and poor.

Surgeon

The word comes from the vocabulary of ancient Greek doctors. Among the Greeks it simply meant “handicraft”, “craft”, from hir - “hand” - and ergon - “to do”. The word “surgeon” from Greek is translated not only as “doctor”, but also as “hairdresser”. In Russia in the 19th century, barbers not only shaved and cut their clients’ hair, but also pulled teeth, bled, applied leeches, and even performed minor surgical operations, that is, they performed the duties of surgeons.

Quickie

Initially, this word was common, and it meant “easy income beyond the usual.” You can read about the origin of the word in the dictionary of Professor D. N. Ushakov: “Haltura, from the Greek “halkos” - copper coin.” Later the word acquires additional meaning. V. I. Dahl’s dictionary gives a more precise definition of the Russian interpretation: “hackwork, grabber, bribe-taker, khaltyga, flighty, fickle person. Hackwork, grabber (grab), profit, free 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 actors, Strastnaya Square was called “hack work”, since actors were “caught” there:

“It happened that he was immediately given a role and he read it for the first time on the way to the theater. The word “hackwork” has since come into use and is still in the acting lexicon.”

Tobacco

The word “tobacco” originally entered 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 this is the meaning in which the word is still used today. However, for a time, “tobacco” had a completely different meaning. The word acquired additional meaning in French thanks to the expression “to pass through tobacco” - “passer a tabac” - and remained from the time of the persecution of smokers in France. The French still have a verb “tabasser”, which means “to beat”. And among the military, “tabac” means “battle” or “deal” in the same sense as our “deal was near Poltava.”

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy wrote the story “The Manuscript Found Under the Bed.” The hero of this story, Sashka Epanchin, remembering 1918 in France: “In their police stations, the policemen - azhans - the first thing they do is hit you in the ribs and head with their boots, they call this ‘putting you through tobacco’.”

Rogue

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

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

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

We don't often think about how the words we use originated 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 may have relatives, a rich pedigree, and, on the contrary, be orphans. A word can tell us about its nationality, its parents, its origin. A very interesting science deals with the study of the history of vocabulary and the origin of words - 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 - especially 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 borne by a famous London brawler who caused a lot of trouble for city residents and the police. The surname has become a common noun, 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. Oranges don't grow here! And then Portuguese sailors brought these orange delicious balls from China. And they began to trade them with their neighbors. The Dutch word for apple is appel, and the Chinese word for apple is sien. The word appelsien, borrowed from the Dutch language, is a translation of the French phrase Pomme de Chine - “apple from China”.

Doctor

It is known that in the old days they treated with various conspiracies and spells. The ancient healer said something like this to the patient: “Go away, disease, into the quicksand, into the dense forests...” And muttered various words over the sick person. The word doctor is originally Slavic and is derived from the word “vrati”, which means “to speak”, “to talk”. Interestingly, “to lie” comes from the same word, 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 Rus' did not know the Turkic word “pocket”, because money was then carried in special wallets - purses. From the word “moshna” the word “swindler” is derived - a specialist in thefts from the purse.

Restaurant

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

Shit

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

Heaven

One theory is that the Russian word "heaven" comes from "ne, no" and "besa, demons" - literally a place free of evil/demons. However, another interpretation is probably closer to the truth. Most Slavic languages ​​have words similar to "sky", and they most likely came from the Latin word for "cloud" (nebula).

Slates

In the Soviet Union, a famous manufacturer of rubber slippers was the Polymer plant in the city of Slantsy, Leningrad region. Many buyers believed that the word “Shales” embossed on the soles was the name of the shoes. Then the word entered the active vocabulary and became a synonym for the word “slippers.”

Nonsense

At the end of the 17th century, French physician Gali Mathieu treated his patients with jokes.
He gained such popularity that he did not have time for 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 nowadays this concept has a completely different meaning.

We don't often think about how the words we use originated 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 may have relatives, a rich pedigree, and, on the contrary, be orphans. A word can tell us about its nationality, its parents, its origin. An interesting science - etymology - studies the history of vocabulary and the origin of words.

Railway station

Hooligan

Orange

Doctor

Scammer

Restaurant

Shit

Heaven

Slates

Nonsense

Reports and messages on the Russian language

On topic: ETYMOLOGY

Words, like people, have their own history, their own destiny. They may have relatives, a rich pedigree, and, on the contrary, be orphans. A word can tell us about its nationality, its parents, its 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 language occur constantly: 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 “bug”, it turns out, come from the same word “buchat”. Now this word has left the language, forgotten by everyone, but once it was familiar to everyone and was used in the meaning of “buzz”, “buzz”. And today it would not occur to anyone to call a bull, a bee and a bug as relative words, although etymologically this is so.

Some words changed not their sound, but their meaning. For example, today we use the word guest to call a person who came to visit us, but in ancient times this was the name given to a visiting merchant (it was Tsar Saltan who called such guests to him in A. Pushkin’s fairy tale).

Once upon a time the word dashing meant “bad”, “evil”, but today it is used in almost the opposite meaning - “daring”, “brave”.

Another example. Today, the word infection has 2 meanings: it means a curse word, and is also used to mean “the source of an infectious disease.” But at the end of the 18th century, the word infection 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 stable phrases (they are called phraseological units) in our language by reading the following pages.

Palm

Our ancestors once sounded the word palm completely differently: dolon. And the meaning of the word was this: the side of the hand facing the valley (that is, down, towards the ground). Over time, a rearrangement of sounds occurred in the word dolon, and it began to sound differently: lodon. And then (under the influence of the dominant Akanya in the literary language) the unstressed vowel o in the word turned into a: palm. This is how the modern spelling and pronunciation of this familiar word came about.

However, related words still live in the language in their original form: dolina (lowland), podol (bottom of clothing), Podolsk (city in the lowland of the river).

Umbrella

Everyone knows and understands this word - it would seem that it is the most ordinary. But it also has an interesting story.

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 “cover 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 the Russian way: they began to pronounce it according to the model of the words bow and kantik that already existed in the language.

So from the zonnedecks we got an umbrella. 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. The result was the word umbrella, as you can see, even less similar to the word zonnedek, borrowed from the Dutch.

Carousel

Of course, you have ridden on wooden horses or in 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 it was not by chance that the boats and horses got on the carousel.

Several centuries ago, during the Middle Ages, there were magnificent knightly festivals - tournaments. Armed knights, clad in iron, riding on powerful horses, entered into single combat with each other. Often such knightly fights 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 knightly tournament and compete with the famous knight Montgomery in strength and dexterity. This tournament took place in 1559, and King Henry II was mortally wounded. Since then, knightly tournaments have been banned. Instead, they began to organize ceremonial 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 staged in Paris during the reign of King Louis XIV. Magnificently dressed horsemen with their luxurious ladies rode in front of the royal Tuileries Palace. They divided into parties, came together and left, forming beautiful figures.

During the French Revolution of 1789, carousels were invented that were more accessible to the common people - revolving structures with horses and boats. The carousel has survived in this form to this day.

Pull the gimp

When we do something very slowly, they say about us: “It’s a drag.” This expression comes from the recent past, when in Rus' metal thread was used for embroidery in needlework. It took a lot of work for the craftsmen to pull such a thread from a hot wire. This thread was called "gimp". Embroidering with it was also very difficult, slow and painstaking work. It was then that the expression “pull the gimp” was born. Now no one knows what the gimp looked like, and needlewomen have not embroidered this way for a long time, but the expression in the language has been preserved.

Easier than steamed turnips

Turnip- the most ancient vegetable in Rus'. Our ancestors loved raw, boiled and steamed turnips. The turnip dish was quick and very easy to prepare. Since then, the expression simpler than steamed turnips has come into being. This is what they say about something that is easy to do.

Register Izhitsa

Izhitsa- the ancient name of the last letter of the ancient Slavic alphabet.

How is this letter connected with the threat of punishment? After all, registering an Izhitsa means “to teach a lesson, to punish,” and also “to make a reprimand to someone.”

This expression arose in the old school environment, in Bursak everyday life. But the thing is that in the ancient Slavic alphabet there were 3 very insidious letters: fita, yat and izhitsa - they became symbols of the difficulty of writing. These letters were written in several words (or several dozen words), which had to be remembered, memorized, memorized. “Fita makes our stomachs ache,” said students in the old days who were mastering the intricacies of literacy. At that time, Fita was the name given to a school literate person, a nerd who through incredible efforts had mastered complex skills. And about lazy people they said this: “Fita and Izhitsa - the whip is approaching the lazy one.” To register Izhitsa literally meant “to flog with rods for not learning.”

It is curious that in its external image the Izhitsa resembled an inverted whip or a bunch of rods. This is, in all likelihood, where the humorous and ironic prescribing of Izhitsa arose.

Over time, this expression went beyond school jargon and acquired a more general meaning: “to severely punish someone, to teach someone a lesson.” Now it is usually used as an expression of threat and is synonymous with phraseological units: show where crayfish spend the winter; show Kuzka's mother.

There is no truth in my feet

“Sit down, there is no truth at your feet,” this is what the Russian people have long said.

There are different versions of the origin of this expression. An expert in the folk language and an interpreter of Russian catchphrases, S. Maksimov connects the phrase truth in feet with the medieval Russian judicial custom, which was called pravezh. Pravezh is not even a trial, 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 or bast shoes. At that time, such sayings as looking for the truth in one’s feet appeared; the soul has sinned, but the feet are to blame; give time, don't knock me down and some others.

Over time, the truth became a thing of the past, but the memory of it remained in popular speech, in its living use, and the expression in the feet of no truth even became humorous. Indeed, in the old days, a man who came into the house and stood, shifting from foot to foot, did not know where to start, resembled a debtor on the right. That’s when a humorous saying came to the rescue, inviting the guest to sit down and start a leisurely conversation: sit down, there is no truth in your legs, that is, “there is no need to stand on ceremony, let’s sit side by side and talk smoothly.” Many expressions familiar to us are actually associated with ancient and long-forgotten customs, beliefs and rituals.

Cow and loaf

In ancient times, a 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 bring good luck. Do you want to know why, for example, we don’t call cow meat by the word Korovina? Where did the word beef even 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 livestock - beef. And the word cow had the meaning of “horned beef.” And in those ancient times, people raised cows not 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 it like this:

Like on our name days
We baked a loaf!
That's how tall it is!
That's how tall it is!
Loaf, loaf,
Choose whoever you want!

Now it’s hard to believe that the words cow and loaf are 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 define - this is hand, the second is known in our verb vit. It turns out that a mitten means “wrapping the hand.” It is interesting that in many Slavic languages ​​there is a word nogavitsa - the name for special clothing on the leg, that is, “wrapping the leg.” In the Slovak language, nogavics are “trousers, trousers,” Poles and Czechs call nogavics “pants legs,” in the Slovenian language, nogavics are “stockings or socks.” And in the monuments of ancient Russian writing, both words are often found - legs and mittens.

But with the word gloves the story is different. At first, the language used the phrase ring or finger mittens (this name can be found in the Smolensk charter of 1229). Over time, the phrase was replaced by the single word gloves, but the old root finger, that is, “finger,” is clearly visible everywhere. Gloves are mittens with fingers (with fingers).

But there is even more than one version regarding the origin of the word mittens. For example, M. Vasmer believed that the word mittens and the word varega, known in Russian dialects, were formed from the combination Varangian mittens. Another version (enshrined in the Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language edited by N. Shansky) says that the words varega and mittens are derived from the Old Russian verbs variti and varovati, used in the meaning of “guard, protect.” But there is also an even simpler explanation for the origin of these words. If we look at the 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 are the names: faggots, braids, felted mittens, katanki (rolled mittens). This also includes varegs, mittens, formed by the name of the process - to cook (that is, to boil). The fact is that finished knitted wool products were brewed in boiling water to make them stronger and warmer. It turns out that mittens are “boiled mittens.” In Dahl's dictionary the following saying is given: “Need has made the mitten akin to the warga.” What does it mean? It turns out that special names for upper mittens and lower mittens were once widespread in the Russian language. Of course, most often such names are found in the North, the Urals and Siberia - where 2 pairs of mittens are often worn at once. There are such local names: tops, tops, bottoms. And in some areas, mittens are called upper leather or cloth mittens, and vargas or mittens are lower, knitted ones. Hence, apparently, the expression recorded by Dahl.

Red

In the famous saying, the hut is not red in its corners, but red in its pies; the adjective red means “good, pleasant.” And such outdated expressions as red bird, red beast mean “the best bird” or “the best animal,” that is, “the best and most expensive bird or animal preferred by hunters.” Dahl wrote in his dictionary: “Red game, tall, all types of snipe, also roe deer, swan, capercaillie and others; red game is a bear, wolf, fox, lynx and others.”

In modern Russian, much evidence has been preserved about the ancient meaning of the word red. First of all, this is, of course, a constant epithet in folk poetic speech: the maiden is beautiful, the songs are red. Red here means "beautiful, lovely, pleasant." In N. Nekrasov's poem "Peasant Children" there are lines in which the word red is used in this meaning:

Play, children, grow up in freedom,
That's why you were given a wonderful childhood.

In the ancient names red gate, red corner, the adjective red means “decorated” and “honorary, ceremonial.” 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 denote color - red. This was the case in Old Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. And only from the 18th century a new, color meaning of the adjective red appeared in Russian dictionaries. It became its main meaning. The ancient, primary meaning is preserved only in stable expressions and phrases.

In the 19th century, the adjective red acquired another meaning - “revolutionary”. The name Red Banner spread into European languages ​​during the 1848 revolution. Soon the word became firmly established in this meaning 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 pigalitsa mean? This word has 2 meanings. Pigalitsa is the name given to a small bird, lapwing. But a small, inconspicuous person is also often called a pigalite. Scientists believe that this is an onomatopoeic word - that is, it arose in the language as an onomatopoeia to the cry of a lapwing. And the lapwing screams like this: pi-gi, ki-gi!

"Reports and messages on the Russian language" V.A. Krutetskaya. Additional materials, useful information, interesting facts. Primary school.

When speaking our native language, we rarely think about how the words we use came to be and how their meanings may have changed over time. Etymology is the name given to the science of the history of vocabulary and the origin of words.

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 may have relatives, a rich pedigree, and, on the contrary, be orphans. A word can tell us about its nationality, its parents, its origin... So, another “portion” of words with a history of origin.

Money

If today, when we say the word “money,” we first of all think of Western currencies, then money in Rus' definitely had eastern roots. This word could have entered the Russian language in two different ways. From Iranian traders and travelers, who then had silver coins called “tenge” (Middle Persian dāng “coin”) in use, or from the Tatar-Mongols, who a little later conquered the territory of present-day Russia for a long time.

Moreover, the source of this root in the Turkic languages, which includes the Mongol-Tatar dialect, could be three different things. Firstly, the supreme heavenly deity of the Turkic-Mongolian pantheon is Tengri. Secondly, the monetary collection from trade transactions is tamga (originally “stamp”, “seal”). By the way, our customs office also came from there. And thirdly, the Turkic coin tängä, the name of which, using a suffix, was formed from the word “tän”, meaning squirrel. In this case, we can draw an analogy with the Old Russian word “kuna” (marten), which was used to call 1/22 hryvnia. This reflects the functioning of furs as money in the early stages of social development.

Young woman

It would seem that everything is very simple: a girl is from a virgin. But if you dig deeper, it turns out that the Proto-Slavic *děva originates in the Proto-Indo-European word *dhē(i̯), which means “to suck, to feed with the help of the breast.” In this, by the way, she is close to children (children), who come from the same root. This is where the Old Russian verb “to reach” comes from - “to breastfeed.”

Boy

It's not so simple with guys either. This word most likely came from the Proto-Slavic *parę - a diminutive nickname from parobъkъ (here you can remember the Ukrainian lad), going back to “rob” (boy).

The original root here is *orbę, which also gave "child" and "slave", which developed from one of the meanings of the word "rob" - "orphan", since, according to some sources, it was originally orphans who did the most difficult housework.

Dinner

Russian words denoting meals have a fairly transparent logic of formation. Breakfast comes from the combination “for the morning,” denoting a period of time - “during the morning.”

Lunch was formed from the ancient prefix *ob- and the root *ed- and meant, in general... “to overeat.” And indeed, according to the rules of normal nutrition in our latitudes, lunch should be the largest meal.

It may seem that dinner is when all the things have ALREADY been done and you can start eating. Dahl hints to us about this in his dictionary, but still the word “dinner” comes from the Old Russian “ug”, that is, “south”. And all because they sat down to dinner when the sun moved from east to south.

Pillow

Scientists have been struggling with this word for several centuries. Dahl suggests that the pillow is something that is placed UNDER THE EAR. Vasmer, Shansky and Chernykh are sure that this is something that is filled with something (down, feathers, cotton wool and even holofiber, damn it). There are also less serious, but more emotional versions of the origin of this word: 1) what they cry into when they need to pour out their SOUL, and 2) what they STUFF with

Fool

They say that fools in their most common meaning today were born thanks to Archpriest Avvakum. So in the 17th century, in his writings, he called rhetoricians, philosophers, logicians and other “champions of demonic wisdom,” comparing them with buffoons.

However, the root from which this word comes was already ready to take on the corresponding meaning. Philologists believe that “fool” came from the Proto-Indo-European *dur (bite, sting) and at first meant “bitten”, “stung”, then transformed into “mad, crazy, sick” (from the bite) and only then turned into “bad, stupid." By the way, the ritual of initiation into buffoons also has something to do with this. According to one version, the candidate for jester had to survive a viper bite before starting his professional activity.

Bee

Who would have thought that a bee and a bull are relatives? And if from a biological point of view they are very far from each other, then philologically they are brother and sister.

The fact is that they come from the same Proto-Slavic root, which denoted a sound of a certain nature. Hence, by the way, the outdated word “buchat” (buzz, buzz) and bug. The bee itself in Old Russian was written like this - bee, but after the fall of the reduced ones and the stunning of B before Ch, it acquired its current appearance.