China Town, Moscow, Petersburg ... Why did the city be called a city?

Habitual words, nouns and adjectives, names of rivers and settlements often become the object of etymology research. Scientists want to get to the very essence of the origin of this or that concept. Well, for example. Why did the city be called a city? To answer this question, let's see how the words are transformed and where the letters go.

A and B were sitting on a pipe, or Why the city was called a city

The simplest explanation is that the word "garden" (fence) lost the letter "o" with time. Continuing the etymological "excavation" and following the folk logic, one can draw a parallel and recall that the "outskirts" (entrance to the village) - came from the colloquial reduction of the phrase "near the face." If hail is a kind of settlement for the elite with a strong fence, for example, a palace or a fortress, then the fence (or garden) means "near the city", that is, near a fenced area, beyond its borders. That's why the city was called a city.

Most often, the population of such objects was artisans and traders. When the number of neighborhood residents increased, they built a new wall for protection. So the city spread around the central, closed-walled complex of buildings.

Did the Chinese live in ancient Moscow?

And Moscow was built with rings, as evidenced by the preserved designations: the Garden Ring, the Boulevard Ring , etc. In the 15th century, Ivan III expelled the families of craftsmen, townspeople and merchants for the Kremlin fence. The construction of the next wall was completed by the Italian builders in 1538. The district received an interesting name - China Town, and the wall itself was called Kitaigorodskaya. To date, this territory belongs to the Tver region and is the administrative, cultural and business center of Moscow. Why did they call China-city? The toponym originated from a mixture of Russian-Italian words and means "city wall". According to one version, the word "china" has a Turkic origin and literally translates as a fortress, a fortified place. And according to another hypothesis, it occurred from the East Slavic words "whale", "whale", which means "like a wattle fence," that is, built on the principle of a fence. Such strong wicker walls were set some distance apart, and the gap between them was filled with earth, large stones, gravel and clay. As a result, a very strong wall was obtained, which even the cannonballs could not break through at times . Thus, the Chinese in Moscow was not.

Still an interesting science - etymology! As a result of research, different names become clear. Including you can understand why the city was called a city. But back to our toponym.

After in 1922 Moscow became the capital of the USSR, serious restructuring and reconstruction of the urban space began. The white-stone wall of China Town was completely disassembled in 1934. Some of the remains of this structure were preserved on the square. Revolution, in the Theater Passage and in the subway crossing from the station "Kitay-Gorod" towards "Varvarka".

On the shore of a swampy river

"Here the city will be erected, we will call it Moscow, by the name of the river!" - said Yuri Dolgoruky. Approximately so describe the historical annals of great urban development. In fact, small villages along the banks of the river existed long before this significant event of 1147. Why the city of Moscow was named, it is clear - it bears the name of the river on which it was built. And what exactly does this word mean? There are a huge number of hypotheses that clarify the origin of the name. Etymologists and other researchers still continue to understand the history of its formation and significance. So what does this word mean? And why the city was called a city, and not, say, a neighborhood?

As for the second syllable, there are no differences. It is believed that from the language of the Komi people, a "-va" particle, meaning "wet" or "water," is borrowed. And the first syllable is treated differently. Let's consider several versions:

• "Mosk" - "dark" or "black" in the Baltic languages;
• Among the Komi people this translates as "cow";
• Among the Mari they are "Meska" (bear);
• Translation from Czech - "raw bread";
• Among Slovaks, the word has the meaning of "puddle";
• The people of Erzya "Mazy" - beautiful, "Kuva" - a place.
• In the Proto-Slavonic language "mosk" is a "swampy terrain".

Following simple logic, it turns out that Moscow is a river with slushy, marshy banks, or simply "swampy water". This version is confirmed by the fact that the river began its taking from the Starkovsky bog.

First there was just a fortress

Another Russian city, whose history of the name quite often stirs the minds of inquisitive minds, is Petersburg. In the valley of the Neva River, reclaimed from Sweden and annexed to the Russian Empire, Peter I ordered to build a fortress city. Since the construction (1703) and the 1720th fortress was called St. Peter Burkh. Later this name changed several times, which did not detract from the significance of this object. What good has brought the creation of a new city on the banks of the Neva?

• Russia got access to new sea routes.
• Shipbuilding began to develop actively.
• The future Peter and Paul Fortress has become a reliable barrier for the conquerors.

Later on this fort grew into a beautiful city, which is now called the northern capital of Russia.

St. Peter-Burkh, it's St. Petersburg, it's Petrograd, Leningrad and St. Petersburg

From 1720 to 1914 the capital of the Russian Empire was called St. Petersburg. "St." - a saint, "Peter" - Peter, "burkh" - a city, we get "the city of St. Peter". It seems that comments are unnecessary, because everything is clear. The capital was given the name of its founder. That's why the city was called Petersburg.