From Greek Icon to American Cashback – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law prohibiting the use of foreign words in the speech of officials and official documents. Exceptions are words that have no commonly used analogues. According to the deputies, the document should protect the language from foreign borrowings. How and with what the Russian language was enriched from the birth of writing in Rus’ to the present day – in the material “Kommersant”.

---

In the beginning was the word

In the 9th-11th centuries, Old Church Slavonic was the literary language of most Slavic peoples. Russian scribes copied and translated church books from Bulgaria and Byzantium, as a result of which the language was enriched with many Greek words.

• Angel – Greek. aggelos (“messenger, ambassador”)
• Devil – Greek. diabolos (“slanderer”, later – “evil spirit”)
• Icon – Greek. eikona (“picture, image”)
• Bed – Greek. krabbati(o)n (“bed, bed”)
• Metropolitan — Greek. mitropolitis (“capital, residence”)
• Monk – Greek. monachos (“monk”) from monos – “alone, lonely”
• Fritter — Greek eladion from elaion (“oil”)
• memorial service – Greek pannychida (“vespers” (service))
• Ward – Greek palation of lat. palatium (“palace”)
• Meal – Greek trapeza (“table”)

---

Two centuries with a horde

A noticeable trace in the language was left by more than two centuries of dependence of the Russian principalities on the Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde (XIII-XV centuries). The economic vocabulary (money, treasury, master), military (guard, dagger, ataman), household vocabulary has been replenished.

• Diamond — Arab. Almas from Greek adamas (“invincible”)
• Watermelon — kypch. Harbuz from Persian. harbuza (“melon”, literally – “donkey cucumber”)
• Braga — Chuv. pεraGa (“squeeze”)
• Shack — Turk. alasuɣ (“tent, felt tent”)
• Sundress — Turk. sarapa from Persian. separa (“dress of honor”)
• Cup — Turk. tostakan (“small wooden bowl”)
• Box – Chuv. sundǝχ (“drawer, cupboard, box”)
• Earring — Turk. syrγa (“ring”)
• Braid — Tur., Tat., Chagat. tasma (“ribbon, belt”)
• Jail — Turk. turma from tur (“put, place”, literally – “room”)

---

Polish speech

In the 14th century, due to the strong influence of the Western Russian business language, words from the Polish language (polonisms) penetrated into Russian, especially into business and military vocabulary. Often these words were formed from roots that came to Polish from other languages. For example, the word “mail” (Polish. poсzta) goes back to the Italian posta (“station for changing horses”). Under the influence of the Polish language, grammatical units also arose that were previously absent in Old Russian, for example, the union “if” (jesli).

• Author – Polish autor (“creator, creator”)
• Riot — Polish riot (“mutiny, indignation”) from German bund (“union”)
• Monogram – Polish węzeł (“knot”, “bundle”)
• Coat of arms — Polish herb or Czech herb (“inheritance”)
• Captain – Polish captain from lat. caput (“head”)
• tradesman – Polish mieszczanin (“citizen”)
• Opportunity — Polish okazja (“case”)
• Bullet – Polish kula (“ball”)
• Duel – Polish pojedynek from jeden (“one”)
• Knight — Polish rycerz from ritter (“rider”)

---

From the window of Europe

At the end of the 17th – the first quarter of the 18th century, thanks to the “window to Europe” cut through by the reformer Peter I, a massive borrowing of words from Western European languages ​​began: from German, French, Italian, English and others.

• Army — German armee from French armer (“to arm”)
• Ball — French bal from baller (“to dance”)
• Exchange — German borse from French bourse (“purse”)
• Painting – it. picturena (“thin, beautiful paper”)
• Candy – ital. confette from confettare (“cook in sugar”)
• Shop – German store, goes back to Spanish Magacen of Arab. mahazin (“warehouse”)
• Police — Polish milicja from lat. militia (“army”)
• Theater — French theater from Greek theatron in the same sense
• Factory – Polish fabryka from lat. fabrica (“processing”)
• Headquarters – German stab (“wand, stick, staff”)

In the 1720s, the first dictionary of foreign words in Russia was compiled – “The Lexicon of New Words in Alphabet”. It included about 500 words, and Peter personally participated in the development. Most of the new words have remained in the language to this day, but many synonyms later left: victoria – victory, treatise – feast, fortecia – fortress and others.

---

“But pantaloons, tailcoat, vest,
All these words are not in Russian … “

By the second half of the 18th century, an excessive passion for everything French began in court circles – gallomania. According to the historian of that time, Ivan Boltin, “a lot of French words were introduced into the Russian language, not out of necessity, but out of a violent predilection for everything that is called French.”

• Bouquet – French bouquet from bouquet d`arbres (“grove”)
• Waltz – French valse from German walzer, from walzen (“to rotate”)
• Conductor — French diriger (“to manage”)
• Ideal — French ideal from lat. idealis, idea (“idea”)
• Costume — French costume from ital. costumo (“custom, habit”)
• Cologne – French eau de Cologne (“water from Cologne”)
• Paperweight — French presse-papiers from press (“press”) and papiers (“paper”)
• Restaurant — French restaurant from restauer (“restore”)
• Bottle – French bottle from lat. flasca (“bottle”)
• Etude – French etude from lat. studium (“diligence”, “zeal”)

At the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th century, a phenomenon opposite to gallomania began – purism, intolerance towards any borrowings, especially from French. The reasons for this were the fear of the trends of the Great French Revolution and the Patriotic War of 1812. The compilers of the “Dictionary of the Russian Academy” even tried to replace well-known foreign language terms with artificially composed words from Russian roots: botanist – herbalist, astronomy – star-gazing; audience – listening and etc.

---

Change of eras

In the second half of the 19th – early 20th century the assimilation of new foreign words continued. Philosophical (absolute, individual, reflection), socio-political terms (communism, proletarian, intellectual). The vocabulary includes the English word “sport” and related terms (boxing, football, champion). In the last decades of the 20th century, the language was actively replenished with Anglicisms. (business, jeans, rock). Scientific terms fixed (electronics, computer), and economic (privatization, indexation).

• Bus – German bus from French auto (“car”)
• Detective – English detective from to detect (“reveal”)
• Overalls – French combinaison from combiner (“to connect”)
• Cruise – English cruise (“make a trip”)
• Record player – English magnetophone from addition Greek magnes (“magnet”) and phone (“sound”)
• Metro – French metro (in the same sense)
• Mixer – English mixer from mix (“interfere”)
• Service – English service from lat. servire (“to serve”)
• Movie – English film (in the same sense)
• Chauffeur – French chauffeur (“stoker”)

---

information age

The fall of the “Iron Curtain” in the 1990s led to intensive borrowing as words for which there were no corresponding concepts. (default, marketing, dealer, offshore, voucher), and to the replacement of Russian words (beer – Pub, murderer – killer). The further development of the Internet and social networks have replaced many existing terms in Russian (spam, cashback, hacker, like, repost, fake, hype, hate, abuse and others).

In modern Russia, there have already been attempts to protect the Russian language. In 2005 the State Duma was accepted the law “On the State Language”, which prohibited the use of foreign words “not included in the literary Russian vocabulary, in the presence of commonly used analogues in the Russian language.” For example, instead of the word “speaker” in official documents, it was required to use “chairman of the legislative assembly.”

In 2013, LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky proposed to ban the use of borrowed words by the media and officials, and even introduced a corresponding bill. IN interview “Kommersant” he explained: “Let’s say commercial vocabulary: “dealer” – the Russian word “intermediary” … “Manager” – This is a clerk, a manager. Why did you introduce someone else’s word “manager”? “Distributor” – this is mailing, distribution, therefore, a distributor … “Condom”, household word. In Russian – “fuse” … Children do not understand what it is. We have to explain.”

---

Andrey Egupets