Old Russian words and their meanings. Examples of ancient Russian words

Old Russian words are often found in modern language, but sometimes they seem strange and incomprehensible to us. Splinters of ancient dialects spread throughout the territory of distant Kievan Rus, they can denote the same words and concepts as thousands of years ago, may change their meaning slightly, and may revive, adopting new, modern interpretations.

Old Russian or Old Slavic?

Travel to the ancient world can begin with common words that are still found in modern speech. Mother, homeland, uncle, land, wolf, work, regiment, forest, oak - old Russian words. But with the same success they can be called both Old Belorussian and Old Ukrainian. Until now, they are found in these languages in almost the same form as thousands of years ago. Old Russian words and their meanings can be found in many monuments of Slavic literature. For example, the textbook "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" is a real treasure trove for collectors of different ancient words.

Perhaps, it is necessary to divide Russian and obscheslavian words, but there is no possibility to do this in this article. We can only observe the development of the old word - from its original meaning to the modern one. And an excellent visual aid for studying such development can be the Old Russian word "fishing".

History of the word

"The Initial Chronicle" tells how Prince Vsevolod in 1071 on the lands of the city of Vyshgorod "animal beasts" performed. This word was also known in the days of Monomakh. In his "Instruction", Prince Vladimir says that he himself "kept the hunting unit", that is, kept in order the stables, dog packs, tame falcons and hawks. The term "fishing" was already a common word and meant hunting, catching the beast.

Later, already in the 13th and 14th centuries, the word "fishing" began to occur in testamentary documents. The legal lists mention "fishing", "beaver lions". Here the word "fishing" is used as a reserve, zakaznik - land in private ownership with great opportunities for hunting and fishing. But in the old and new meaning of "fishing" means hunting by catching a beast or a fish. The root of the word remained the same.

Modern "fishing"

In modern speech, the word "fishing" is also often found. Only it, like many other Old Russian words, is used in a truncated, other meaning - you can say "herring" or "autumn cod fishing". But we'll never say "fishing wolves" or "fishing beavers." For this, in modern Russian there is a convenient and understandable word "hunting". But in the compound words "fishing" is found everywhere.

Children and grandchildren

Let us recall the words "mousetrap", "trappers", "trap" and others. After all, all this - children and grandchildren of the ancient word "fishing". Some "children" of "fishing" have not survived time and are now found only in ancient chronicles. For example, the word "catch" appeared much later than the "catch", but it never caught on in Russian. Lovitva was known in the 15-17 centuries and was widely used in the meaning of "hunting". But already in the time of Pushkin this concept was not used.

For the contemporaries of the great poet, "lions" and "catches" are obsolete, lifeless words. Old Russian "catches" do not exist in modern speech, but seeing them in the old book, one can understand the meaning of this word without much difficulty.

"Nadolba" and "goalkeeper"

Old Russian words with translation can be found in many explanatory dictionaries. But what if an old word is used in a new, modern sense? Old Russian words and their meanings, apparently, change with the passage of time. A good example is the well-known ancient Russian literary words "nudolba" and "keeper".

The word "nudolba" was known in the all-Russian military terminology many thousands of years ago. So called the knotted thick boughs and logs - an impenetrable obstacle for infantry and cavalry in ancient, remote times. The appearance of guns and cannons made the construction and the words themselves unnecessary. Old Russian warriors invented new effective methods for defense and attack, and the "bastards" had to be scrapped.

After a thousand years, at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the bastards returned from the past. Now they were built from reinforcing blocks, logs, construction debris. Such designs were designed to stop the advance of fascist tanks and disrupt the attack of enemy troops. After the war, the holes were disassembled, but the word remained. Now it occurs in many literary war works, in eyewitness accounts, in stories and novels about the war.

Back in modern language and the word "goalkeeper." True, his story is not so heroic as the previous word. Goalkeepers used to be called modest monks-gatekeepers, who opened the gates of monasteries and temples in the morning and shut them with sunset, fearing dashing people. Goalkeepers almost disappeared from our lives, but until a certain point. The development of collective sports, the success of our teams in hockey and soccer competitions led to the emergence of modern "goalkeepers" - athletes who guard the gate of their own team from attacks of an opponent. And the word not only spread widely, but also put a foreign "goalkeeper" on both shoulder blades.

An ancient "plane"

Do you think that during the time of Peter the Great, was the word "airplane" known? And not as a fabulous flying object (carpet-plane), but quite a real engineering design? It turns out that in those days self-propelled ferries were called airplanes, allowing large transports with weapons and food to be delivered to the other side of the river. Later the word passed into a narrowly specialized lingo and began to be used in the weaving business.

A similar story happened with the word "bicycle". It turns out that it was used in full in medieval Rus - in Muscovy. So then called runners, speed skaters. The surname of Bicycles may be translated as "Bystronogov", and not "belonging to a bicycle". Therefore, a bicycle and an airplane can also be referred to old, ancient Russian words with good reason. Unlike catch, these terms have gone through several of their meanings, have become actual in modern speech, however, completely changing their interpretations.

Shards of the past

Remarkable monuments of ancient usage have become, oddly enough, many modern adverbs. Old Russian words, examples of which you can not already find in the initial form, feel great in a fixed, immutable form. For example, everyone knows such words as "evil", "luck". There are no difficulties for understanding, and the derivatives of these concepts - "spitefully", "at random". They have long become understandable and simple bits of speech.

Other words are also known, compiled on a similar principle. For example, "hastily". "Obliquely", "nabekren." But the "slant", "bekren" or "hurry" - these are obsolete words. Old Russian, their initial values - a headache of lexicographers and linguists.

Results

As you can see, Old Russian words and their meanings leave a wide field for research. Many of them managed to understand. And now, when we meet in the old books the words "tweet", "wedges" or "frets," we can easily look for their meanings in dictionaries. But many of them are still waiting for their researchers. Only a painstaking work with ancient words will help explain their meanings and enrich the modern Russian language.