Etymological words and their history. What is etymology? Detailed analysis. Easier than steamed turnips

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Lesson objectives.

Creating conditions for each student to understand the role of comparative historical analysis in determining the lexical meaning of words.

Development of creative, critical and heuristic thinking.

Fostering a value-based attitude towards the origins of the Russian language.

Lesson objectives.

1. To form positive motivation for the studied section of linguistics.
2. To teach how to argue for the relationship of words through comparative historical analysis.
3. Develop the ability to use an etymological dictionary.
4. Explore ways to solve etymological problems.
5. Help students realize their creative and analytical abilities.

Technologies used: theory of development of critical thinking, heuristic technologies, problem method.

During the classes

Stage 1.

Student motivation

A name is given to everything - both the beast and the object.
There are plenty of things around, but there are no nameless ones...
Language is both old and eternally new!
And it's so beautiful -
In a huge sea - a sea of ​​words -
Swim every hour!

The language in which we think and speak is always a reflection of our essence. But do we often think about why some other phenomenon or object is called that? Do you want to discover the secret of the birth of words by looking into the depths of centuries? Our lesson will help you with this.

This lesson does not relate to any of the sections of linguistics studied in the school curriculum. But he is closely related to each of them. Knowledge of phonetics will help you understand the phonetic processes occurring in our language. Morphemics and word formation will give new discoveries. You can’t do without morphology here either. Do you want to know why all names of nationalities are nouns and only Russians are adjectives? Go for it! All in your hands!

Stage 2.

Setting lesson goals

Do you know how to set goals and achieve them? Let's try! Determine your goals for today's lesson. Write them down in your notebook.

Get to know the goals of the other students (to do this, I suggest you exchange notebooks with your closest neighbors). Maybe among them there are your like-minded people. After all, it is much easier to go towards your intended goal if you feel a friendly shoulder nearby.

Formulate questions that you would like answered in our lesson. (Questions are put on the board)

Choose those from other students' questions that you can answer now. Share your knowledge with them.

Reflection of activity.

1. What feelings and sensations did you have while working on your goals?
2. What are your main results when completing the task? How were you able to achieve them?

Stage 3

The topic of our lesson is “Fascinating etymology.” How many of you know what etymology is? By the second root you can guess that this is science. But what is science about?

Back in 1806, N. Yanovsky gave the following definition of etymology: “Word origin, word production; the true product of the beginning of words or an explanation of their exact meaning.” Which of the words in this definition do you think is a translation from Greek? etymon? - “truth, the true meaning of the word.” So, today we will search for the truth with you!

Pay attention to the second version of the topic of our lesson. What word fascinates you about it? Maybe “secrets”? Try to name several associations for this word. Do any of you have the word “detective” among these associations? I don’t know why, but it was this association that gave me the idea to invite you to the detective agency today.

What do you think our detective agency will be called? Suggest your name for this agency. Don't forget about the topic of our lesson!

Exercise 1. “Detective Agency”

Goal: give a name to the detective agency.

Algorithm for completing the task:

1. Think about the name of a detective agency that deals with the etymology of words. Submit your agency name. Maybe you can suggest several options for the name?
2. Try to imagine what the agency premises looks like. You can use the Paint program and reflect your ideas in the attached file. If you don't like to draw, you can capture your sketch in writing. Justify the necessity of the things you have chosen as attributes of a detective agency.
3. Reflection: Ask our fictional detective a question. What would you like to ask him?

And we boldly open the doors and enter the detective agency “Look to the root.” How do you understand the word “see”? What, from your point of view, does the expression in the name of our agency mean?

The word “root” has many meanings. Choose from the suggested values ​​the one that matches our theme:

1. The underground part of plants.
2. The internal part of the tooth, located in the body, is the hair.
3. Root of the equation.
4. In words (in linguistics: the main, significant part of a word).
5. The beginning, source, origins of something.

Stage 4

Every science has its own discoverer. We have a sketch of this person.

Task 2. "Identikit"

Goal: to develop observation skills, the ability to see the “invisible”, learn to create a characteristic of a person based on his external data.

Algorithm for completing the task:

1. Describe the portrait presented. Imagine what this person could be like, paying attention to the gaze, forehead, chin, and oval of the face.
2. Compare your guesses with those of other students. Note which probable qualities you missed and which you noted with particular accuracy.
3. Reflection. Describe your feeling when completing this task. Is it true what they say that “the eyes are the mirror of the soul”?

Before us is a portrait of A.Kh. Vostokov. Let's turn the pages of history...

The island of Saaremaa (Ezele), the city of Arensburg (later Kingisepp, now Kuressaare), on the shores of the Gulf of Riga. March 16, 1781. A boy was born into the German Ostenek family. The happy parents named the newborn Alexander. Could they then imagine that their son in the near future would change his surname Ostenek to Vostokov, begin to consider himself Russian and go down in the history of world science as an outstanding Russian philologist, although they predicted a different future for him and prepared him for a different career.

But A.Kh.’s favorite pastime was Vostokov was to compare and contrast words of different languages, to find common and different things in them.

This is a very exciting activity. How many interesting things can be discovered! Have you ever tried to compare words from different languages? Of course, to do this, you need to know languages. But if you study in a serious educational institution, then you study not just one, but several languages, including, perhaps, ancient ones: Latin, Old Church Slavonic. Here are the cards in your hands.

In the archive of manuscripts of A.Kh. Vostokov keeps a small notebook (eight sheets in total), on which is written in his hand: “Root and primitive words of the Slavic language.” Can you guess what these words are that the researcher called radical and primitive? This means that not all words were of interest to A.Kh. Vostokov, and those consisting only of the root are the most ancient, primitive. Think about what a capacious definition for the words - primitives. These are the first formed (later derivatives will be created from them, nests of related words will be formed, and the primitives will title them and become the tops of word-forming nests) and, as it were, conveying the first image, i.e. the characteristic that served as the basis for the name.

Want to know a little more about this amazing man? Let's call on the Internet and the queen of science, the Book, for help. With their help, you can answer the question: What contribution did A.Kh. Vostokov make to the development of etymology?

It will be yours homework.

Goal: understanding the significance of the scientist’s contribution to the development of science.

The task can be completed in the following options:

1. Letter of gratitude to A.Kh. Vostokov from the distant future.
2. Ode “On the day of the discovery of the great etymology.”
3. Your own option

Stage 5

And we will continue to get acquainted with the detective of the agency “Look to the Root” and try together with him to look “inside” the words.

We are so used to words... We read, write, talk, laugh, joke, sing, and even quarrel. We need language like we need air. But how rarely do we think about how the word appeared, what its history and origin are. Etymology studies the history and origin of a word, and is an important section of the history of language, without knowing which we can only describe facts and objects, almost without explaining them at all. Science explains them.

However, establishing the “original” meaning of a word does not exhaust the tasks of etymological research. In their development, words usually undergo various changes. In particular, the sound appearance of the word changes. For example, the ancient form in the morning in modern Russian it sounds like Tomorrow. Restoring an older form often makes it possible to clarify the etymology of a word. This is exactly the case with the word Tomorrow. In itself, it is unclear etymologically. And here is the form in the morning puts everything in its place: morning - tomorrow- this is the time that follows the morning.

Task 3. “Let's follow the trail”

Goal: get acquainted with etymological dictionaries, learn, using comparative phonetic analysis, to identify from the presented words words formed by changes at the phonetic level.

Algorithm for completing the task:

1. Get acquainted with etymological dictionaries, for example, with the “Historical and Etymological Dictionary of the Modern Russian Language” by P.Ya. Chernykh, “Brief Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language” by N.M. Shansky and T.A. Bobrova, “School Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language” by these the same authors; “Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language” by G.P. Tsyganenko.
2. Carefully consider the construction of entries in these dictionaries. What information do they carry?
3. Compare the words of the modern language and the original ones, i.e. those words from which the data were formed.
4. Mark those in whose formation phonetic changes are observed.
5. Write down 5-10 words you find and send them to the forum.
6. Read other students' answers. Ask them to prove the presence of phonetic changes in the words that interest you.

Stage 6

To restore the oldest stages of the history of a word accessible to us, to reveal the reasons that led to the emergence of a word, to determine its closest “relatives” - these are the main tasks facing etymology.

Such tasks are now facing us.

Task 4. “Find relatives”

Goal: to trace the “pedigree” of words up to its etymological birth, to learn to argue the relationship of words through comparative historical analysis.

1. Words given: swamp, lord, wet, hairy, parish, cure, elbow, possess, get along, hobby. Among them there are three words that go back to the same common Slavic root. Find them.
2. Group the following words into word-forming slots: crafty, bend, beam, radiant, Lukomorye, splinter, basket, radiant, pay, archer, case, better.

Task 5. “Let’s sort it out piece by piece”

Purpose: to compare the morphemic structure of words from a modern and historical point of view.

Reflection on tasks 3-5.

By completing the previous tasks, you became more closely acquainted with what etymology does. You have explored the origin of words, the historical processes occurring within words. Try to make a syncwine with the word “etymology”.

Algorithm for compiling a syncwine:

Line 1 – noun (“etymology”)

Line 2 – 2-3 adjectives that you associate with this noun

Line 3 – 2-3 verbs

Line 4 – a noun that is for you an antonym for this concept (fashionably situational)

Line 5 – a phrase reflecting our concept

If any of you have not yet encountered compiling syncwines, then perhaps this example will help you understand the essence of completing the task:

Coniferous, green, vast
Grows, fascinates, gives
The Siberian taiga is generous
Take care!

Stage 7

There are many different games in the world. But is it possible to play etymology? It turns out that it is possible. This game was invented by linguists, pursuing an entertaining, humorous goal, since they gave a deliberately false etymological interpretation of words in the Russian language, hence the unusual name “pseudo-etymology”.

Let's take for example the word left-handed. It was formed from the adjective left + sha and means “a person who does everything with his left hand.” But you can also give a humorous interpretation: to the noun a lion add suffix -sh-, the word was formed left-handed meaning “female lion”. Or, for example, the word contract in scientific etymology means “agreement”, then in pseudo-etymology dog-o-thief will mean “a person who steals dogs”.

The following words can be explained in the same way: breakfast- “dream about the future”, insured- “intimidated”, colic- “syringes”, superman- "soup lover" blank- "stupid woman", banker- “sweeping bank”, solarium- “place of salt extraction.”

In pseudo-etymology, the main thing is to find in a given word a sound complex that would, to some extent, resemble the sound complexes of the root part of another word, similar to the first. It is the sound that is linked to the content. For example, martin- “woman in flippers.” Thus, pseudo-etymology is a deliberate misinterpretation of a word, which is based on the sound similarity of words having different meanings.

Task 6. “Pseudo-etymological dictionary”

Goal: to compile your own “pseudo-etymological” dictionary.

Execution algorithm:

1. Look around you. Make a list of objects and phenomena that surround you. You can choose adjectives and verbs for them.
2. Try to look at the written words from a different, unusual point of view. Maybe rutabaga will turn into a pant leg for you, and a fork will turn into a small country house.
3. Write down your definitions of objects. Choose the ones that are most successful and interesting from your point of view.
4. Write down the dictionary entries you have compiled in alphabetical order.
5. If you wish, you can format the resulting dictionary. Be creative when composing it. Maybe there will be illustrations in it?

Reflection on the task: write a miniature “Is it difficult to be a linguist?”

Stage 8

The word for us is the most important means of communication, a means of perceiving works of fiction. But the word is also of interest in itself: each word has its own origin, its own history, its own phonetic and morphological appearance, its own meaning. All the words we speak keep the secret of their birth. And it’s very interesting to solve it. And of course, you can’t do without a wide variety of literature - you’ll want to look into encyclopedias and dictionaries, open a geographical atlas, leaf through history books. You will have to reason, think logically, and compare. But the result is worth it. After all, etymology is a science full of unsolved mysteries, mysteries that go back to the ancient past, and the persistent and inquisitive are sure to be discovered.

Etymology is a complex and multifaceted science. She always requires a creative approach. Here you cannot, having learned a few specific rules, wait for ready-made answers to all questions. In many cases, these answers do not yet exist and are yet to be discovered by future researchers.

Etymology is a science in which there is a place for discoveries and findings. For a long time it will attract those who are thoughtful about the word, interested in its history, and strive to understand and explain the changes that occur in it.

Task 7. Lesson reflection.

1. Remember the content of the lesson. Note which tasks were difficult for you, which were simple and uninteresting. Pick up epithets for each of the tasks.
2. At the beginning of the lesson, you formulated questions to which you would like to receive an answer. Mark the ones to which you received this answer. Are there any unanswered questions? Do not despair! After the lesson, we will choose a direction together and outline ways to find answers to your questions.
3. Remember your goals that you set at the beginning of the lesson. Which ones have you achieved? What helped you realize your goals? Maybe it was some kind of personal qualities? What else do you have to work on? Divide a sheet of paper into two halves. On the left, write down those skills and abilities that you, from your point of view, already possess, and on the right, those that you still lack. If there are entries on the right side of the sheet, it means you have something to strive for, which means there is a goal ahead! I wish you success!

When we speak a 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.

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. It is believed 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 common noun, and the word is international, characterizing a person who grossly violates public order.

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.

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 tasty orange balls from eastern countries. And they began to trade them with their neighbors. They, of course, asked: “Where do the apples come from?” - because we haven’t heard of oranges, but the shape of this fruit is similar to an apple. The traders answered honestly: “The apples are from China, Chinese!” The Dutch word for apple is appel and the Chinese word is sien.

Doctor

In the old days they treated with incantations, spells, and various whisperings. An ancient doctor or healer would say something like this to the patient: “Go away, disease, into the quicksand, into the dense forests...” And muttered various words over the sick person. Do you know what muttering or chatter was called until the beginning of the 19th century? Muttering and chatter were then called lies. To mumble meant “to lie.” He who trumpets is a trumpeter, who weaves is a weaver, and who lies is a doctor.

Scammer

In Rus', swindlers were not called deceivers or thieves. This was the name of the craftsmen who made the purse, i.e. wallets.

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.

Heaven

One version 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 last century, the French doctor 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.

When we speak our own language, we rarely think about how the words we use originated 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 used silver coins called “tenge” (Middle Persian dāng “coin”), 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 character. 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.

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.

In contact with

Classmates

​Stages of development of 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.

Words of Russian origin also 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. Speakers of the Indo-European language lived over a fairly large territory. Some researchers call this place the land from the Yenisei to the Volga. Their opponents talk about the settlement of Indo-Europeans along the banks of the Danube and on the Balkan Peninsula. But they are all unanimous in the opinion 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 relationship, numerals. Their spelling and pronunciation are almost identical in many languages ​​of the Indo-European family. For example:

In East Slavic languages There are quite a lot of words common to Indo-European languages. These include nouns meaning:

• 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), and actions (sew, go) are of Indo-European origin.

Common Slavic language

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

The common Slavic native Russian vocabulary is diverse. Examples of nouns:

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 to words of Indo-European origin, more lexical units from the common Slavic vocabulary remain in our language, denoting actions, characteristics and qualities of objects.

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

Common Slavicisms are distinguished by a simple structure. They consist of a base and an ending. Moreover, the number of words derived from their stems is very large. Several dozen words are formed from the root slav: disgrace, glorify, glorify, glorious, love of glory, glorify.

The meaning of some common Slavic words changed in the process of language formation. The word “red” in common Slavic vocabulary was used to mean “beautiful, good.” The modern meaning (color designation) has come into use since the 16th century.

There are about two thousand common Slavicisms 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, based on 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, which 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 in the period 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

Since the 14th century The actual Russian or Great Russian stage in the development of our vocabulary begins. It continues to this day. The beginning of the formation of Great Russian vocabulary coincided with the formation of Russian statehood and the long-term division of the development of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalities. Therefore, in the vocabulary of these languages, the same objects are denoted by different words. For example: wallet - Ukrainian. Gamanese - Belarusian. Kashalok; palace - ukr. palace - Belarusian. palace; sparkle - ukr. vibliskuvati - Belarusian. zikhatsets.

Words that appeared during this period are characterized by a derivative stem. They appeared on the basis of 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 stems. Such word forms are considered original. Actually, Russian words make up a significant part of the Russian vocabulary.

Formation of new words in Russian

The vocabulary of our language is replenished quite intensively. 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

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

Adding native Russian prefixes to the base at-, pa-, pra-, su-, in-, voz-, na-, ob-, pre-, re- and so on. For example: by adding the prefix to the common Slavic base city, the word suburb is formed; by adding the prefix o- to the same stem, we get the noun vegetable garden.

The formation of new words from two or more bases: from the common Slavic bases -truth- and -lyub- the complex Russian word truth-loving 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 mouse was formed. Methods of forming verbs.

Ways to form verbs

One of the common ways to form verbs is simultaneous addition of a prefix and suffix to the stem. For example: from the common Slavic base run, with the help of the prefix raz- and the suffixes -at and -sya, the verb to run away appeared; from the common Slavic base -bogat- with the help of the prefix o- and the suffixes -it and -sya, the original Russian word enrichment appeared.

In the Russian period of vocabulary development itself, verbs formed from nouns are quite common. From the German word storm, borrowed in the 18th century, the verb to storm was formed using the suffix -ova. Using the suffix -i, the verb to glorify was formed from the common Slavic word slava.

The Russian vocabulary is one of the most extensive and actively developing in the world. By borrowing vocabulary from other languages ​​and forming new words on its basis, the Russian language is expanding. By using online word origin dictionaries, you can become more familiar with the etymology of Russian vocabulary. 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.

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 Dutch, 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 bourgeoisie 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 offered 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, 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 “deed” 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.