From the forest - to dictionaries (etymology of familiar words) |
|
There are many words in this short improvisation that come from the names of animals.
Until now, we have used words of the native Russian language as examples. However, there are many words - people from the forest, newcomers from the mountains and plains - in other languages.
Wanting to talk about a solar eclipse, the Tupi Indians of the South American tribe to this day utter the following splendid phrase: "The jaguar ate the sun."
The analogies of the same concept in the languages of different peoples are very curious.
By the way, about flies. Among the Spaniards, "catching flies" means "rooting out"; sparks are also called flies (we speak of snow - "white flies"). When an Italian exclaims "Fly!", It is equivalent to our "Hush!", "Silence!" In Italian, "swarm of flies" - troubles, worries; "Blind fly" - blind man's buff.
Among the camouflaged foreign words are the vaccine (from the Latin "vacca" - cow), serpentine (French serpentin, from serpent - snake), torpedo (from the Latin name for sea fish, electric ray, torpedo).
Isn't it a modern term "comrade"? This word is borrowed from the Turkic languages, in which it originally meant "trade companion". The word of the same root "commodity" meant "cattle", then "property, good" and, finally, "commodity". A clear evidence of the process of the emergence of commodity-money relations: among the nomads, cattle served as the main measure of wealth and an item of sale and purchase. In Russian, "commodity", in its current meaning, has been fixed since the XIII century.
The words “coquette” and “cockade” are also "cocky" in origin. The word "cocktail" was born in the last century in the United States, when cockfighting was in vogue there. With a truly American entrepreneurial spirit, the owners of drinking establishments began to mix various drinks so that the mixture looked bright and multicolored - exactly like a rooster's tail (in English - "cocktail"). Since we are already talking about birds, the word "frill" (bird goiter), borrowed from the French in the 18th century, can also be placed in the same family of words.
According to Greek mythology, Zeus was fed by the goat Amalthea with her milk. Even after her death, she benefited her pupil - from the skin of Amal-teya, Zeus made a shield that had a truly wonderful property: no weapon could pierce it. Zeus never parted with this "aegis" in battles.
The donkey played an extraordinary role in the Iranian languages. Here is what Lev Uspensky says about this:
Here are some more interesting and not too widely known data.
Krasnopevtsev V.P. |
The Russian language is rich and expressive. Have you ever wondered what role animals played (and continue to play today) in the formation of our vocabulary?
We say: "I got up with the first roosters." And at the same time, it does not matter at all that there are no roosters in our house or nearby. We inherited the proverb from those ancient times, when all peasant Russia, which did not know other alarm clocks, except for the living, got up in the morning at the cock's signals.
We wash milk bottles with a brush; in winter we skate with enthusiasm; conducting the next event, put a tick in the registration journal; we call a slow-moving - grouse, talkative - magpie, a lover of repeating other people's words - a parrot, a slow bumpkin - a seal, a lazy man - a bobak (marmot). Engaging in cosmetic procedures, another fashionista will not fail to plant an artificial mole on her cheek - the so-called fly; Also a sighting device known to all in any type of small arms is called a front sight. “This is just a newspaper duck,” we say dismissively about the deliberately false press report.
The animals gave the names to the oxen of the bridge and the caterpillars of the tractor, the well crane and the sun bunny, goose bumps and the notorious hedgehog mittens, ivory and bear disease, a loading winch (the English call it a crab) and stuffed cabbage rolls, a toy spinning top (by the howling sound with which it spins ) and goats (it is curious that in the Polish, Czech and German languages in the same sense the word “goat” is used in the singular).
The names of many plants are associated with various representatives of the fauna. Here are just a few: chicken millet, goat grass, horse chestnut, mouse peas, blackberries, delphinium, poultry farms, goose feet and goose onions, cuckoo tears, foxtail, deer moss, snapdragon, hare cabbage, maral root, camel, bear thorn , lupine (from the Latin "lupus" - wolf), geranium (from the Greek "geranos" - crane).
Our speech greatly benefits from figurativeness when we apply definitions based on precisely noted characteristics of an animal: feline ingratiation, lion's courage, eagle eyes, chicken mind, bird brains, hare soul, lion's share, bear strength, horse dose, turtle speed, mosquito bite, snake cunning, dog loyalty, fox resourcefulness, wolfish appetite, fish blood, sheep's obedience, dove meekness, mouse fuss, bull tenacity, calf tenderness, goatee. The following expressions applied to the place are also magnificent: "with a gulkin's nose", "sleep like a marmot", "look like a wolf", "pout like a turkey", "like a sleepy fly", "count a raven", "like a wet chicken", "a cat cried ”,“ like a cow licked her tongue ”,“ take the bull by the horns ”,“ like water off a duck's back ”. Can't you say it better?
The verbs “say”, “speak”, “pronounce” are precise, but dry and impassive. It is quite a different matter when we take "for rent" from animals their characteristic sound definitions - they immediately give the speech of a particular person a characteristic emotional coloring. Compare, for example: "Ivan Petrovich mumbled", "hum a song", "grumbles endlessly", "scream misfortune", "laughed greasy", "Svetlana chirped," "all ears were buzzing," , "Barked", "squealed", "ek cackled!", "Stop barking!" (Note - not "bark"; but "bark": the figurative meaning here even required the creation of a special verb form).
Analogies can be found in other languages as well.For example, in English dron means "buzz" and "speak monotonously", chuckle - "cluck" and "giggle"; cackle - ". cluck" and "chatter", bark - "bark" and "cough" (rude).
Remember also “paw” meaning “hand”, “muzzle” meaning “face”, etc. The word “leg”, in its primary meaning - “hoof”, was so fond of our distant ancestors that they completely deleted it from their dictionary the former Indo-European name for the leg. "Nail" is also, by the way, a derivative of "hoof", that is, "feet" ...
To mislead, disheveled, to swallow, to monkey, to piggy, to pinch, to groom, to move - the list of such words-images can be continued if desired.
... Several people, having gone into the forest for mushrooms, wander in single file. The narrow path they follow snakes. Meanwhile, it becomes chilly, so much so that you will involuntarily shrink. One of the company, an unlucky mushroom picker, is gloomy and upset: he goes without looking at anyone, overwhelmed. And the trophies of the other keep growing and growing. Try to outdone him! "That's all you, falcon, frown, there is no one to take you, poor man, to savor!" - the friend mocked the loser. And when he, angry, snapped and threw something hot in response, he added calmly: “Okay, okay, please don’t be a cock.”
Linguists are well aware that often in one or another familiar word, sometimes completely unexpectedly, either a "wolf's tail" or a roguish "fox's face" will appear.
Take, for example, the word "link" (and its derivative - "vertebra"). It would seem simpler - a word akin to “ringing”, “ringing”. But no! The common Slavic "link" came from the disappeared in Russian language zъvь - fish (compare the Lithuanian zuvis in the same meaning). In some dialects, to this day, the original meaning of the word "link" is preserved - a part of fish.
The old female headdress kokoshnik is a direct relative of ... chicken. The word is derived from "kokosh" (brood hen), by the external resemblance of a headdress to a chicken comb.
“Vyturit” (drive away) presumably goes back to “tur” - “bison”, which served as an epithet for a brave man (remember “Buitur Vsevolod” from “The Lay of Igor's Campaign”). Originally "turit" meant "scare".
The first meaning of the word "sleigh" (singular - "san") is runners, snakes. Words of “forest” origin turn out to be, in fact, for the colors blue and red: the first is associated with the color of the plumage of the pigeon's neck, the second - with the “worm”, “worm”, from which bright red paint was extracted in the old days.
In 1766, the French scientist Louis Antoine de Bougainville went on a trip around the world, during which he and his companions visited, in particular, the island of Haiti. In a book published later (in 1771), Bougainville gave an excellent description of the life of the islanders, and also included a dictionary of the inhabitants of Haiti in the appendix. The word "emao" in the language of the natives meant both "shark" and ... "bite". A lot, to know, the sharp-toothed sharks annoyed the Haitians, one of whose main occupations was sea fishing!
The Greeks, like many other peoples of antiquity, chose the butterfly, a charming light-winged creature, as their favorite symbol of the concept of "soul". Greek psyche meant both "butterfly" and "soul".
A person who dresses according to the latest fashion shout, "fashion", we usually call a dandy. This word and the name of the bird - goldfinch - are related, and the first comes from the second.Indeed, why not compare a dandy with a smart goldfinch? But the Poles in a similar situation drew attention to another variegated bird: in Polish "dude" - "bazhant", that is, a pheasant. From the French came to us the word "dude", meaning an empty dandy man. Literally translated "dude" is a dove. The Spaniards call the dandy lagartijo (small lizard); Italians - moscardino (musk rat). Our Russian "prim" (in dialects "chapurnaya" - dapper) comes from the dialect "chapura" (heron).
Likewise, our everyday expression "rears up", which is completely transparently associated with a horse, corresponds to the Polish "stand up with a perch."
The fact that for the well-known type of mushrooms - yellow chanterelles - “among the people this name is firmly entrenched, and not any other, is to blame, of course, the red cheat - the fox. "Fox" origin (from "fuchs" - fox) and the words of the German language, meaning a red-haired person, a gold coin, and also a rogue. The Italians call the chanterelle mushroom, however, "gallinaccio" (turkey); but fox ("volpe") refers to rust, a disease of cereals.
Just like the Germans, on the basis of color similarity, the Spaniards call the red-haired person, but they chose not a fox for comparison, but a lion: in Spanish "leonado" - similar to a lion, under a lion. The English vixen (female fox) call the grumpy woman.
The Russian verb "cram" (with the root "bison") exactly corresponds to the German "buffel" (from "buffel" - bison, bison, buffalo).
The Germans also have another synonym for blind mechanical memorization: "oxen" - from "ock" (bull). And in Spanish "cram" - "hatch chicks" ...
It is impossible to deny the wit of the Germans, who called the quotation marks "gensefuschen" - "crow's feet", doesn't it seem like? We must pay tribute to the observantness of the Americans, who adopted the verb "opossum" (to pretend, to play the fool). The opossum (marsupial rat), which lives in North America, has an amazing ability to pretend to be dead at the moment of imminent danger: the deceiver lies with his head thrown back, open mouth and glazed eyes - neither give nor take the dead!
From Latin, the word "muscle" migrated to many European languages, the ancestor of which was "mus" (mouse). The common Slavic word “muscle” (cf. “under the arm”) is derived from the same “mouse”.
The ordinary “special handkerchief for a Frenchman to this day is inextricably linked with ... flies:“ mushoir ”(handkerchief) comes from“ mush ”(fly). This has been the case since the 13th century, when the novelty of the toilet came to France from neighboring Italy. Obviously, in those days, a handkerchief was used not so much for its intended purpose, as in order to brush off annoying insects.
Gazelle is not only an antelope, it is also called a couplet stanza of eastern origin.
The name of the geometric figure - oval - came to us from the French, and they formed it from the Latin word ovum, which means "egg".
The kind of conveyor "auger" is a German word (Schnecke), meaning "snail".
The term "moleskin" is of English origin, applied to especially dense and durable cotton fabric. The literal meaning is "mole skin".
In many languages, including Russian, the expression "cat in a poke" is used; more detailed metaphors are based on this image: “do not carry a cat in a sack” - to speak plainly (Italian); "To take the cat out of the bag" - to divulge a secret (German).
Having first got acquainted with a new material for themselves - cotton wool, the French compared it with the usual goose down: “watt” (cotton wool) is formed from “ya” (goose).
The swear word "karga" came to the Russian language from the Tatar language, where it means "crow".The "vacation" has already been discussed in the chapter "The oldest inhabitants of space". "Pesie" origin and the Italian word "canalya".
"Snake" is the progenitor not only of "serpentine", but also of "hose" - words of German origin. It came to us in the 1920s, that is, quite recently.
The ancient Greeks attached great importance to the festivities dedicated to the god of fertility Dionysus. Participants in the festivities usually dressed up in goat skins, and the singers attached goat horns to themselves, depicting the mythical companions of Dionysus - goat-legged deities, satyrs. The choir sang praises in honor of God, on the basis of these folk ideas, tragedy arose later - a special kind of dramatic art. The distant childhood of the tragedy left an indelible mark on its name: the ancient Greek "tragos" means "goat" in translation, and "ode" means "song". Thus, the literal meaning of the term is nothing but "song of the goats"!
“Loud applause, turning into a standing ovation,” - we often hear on the radio or read in the newspapers when they talk about crowded meetings. The word "standing ovation" also has a solid background dating back to the days of the Roman Empire. As the historian Plutarch wrote in his Comparative Biographies: “there was a custom according to which a commander sacrificed a bull at a great triumph, and a sheep at a small one. Sheep is Latin for "oves", hence the name "ovation".
And such a modern technical term as "aggregate" owes its origin to animals: in Latin, "grags" is a herd. From the Roman participle "aggregatus" (gathered in a herd, in a heap) was born the international concept of the aggregate as a complex machine.
The word "exam" also came from Latin into European languages. It turns out that the ancient Romans called an outgoing swarm of bees an exam, and later (by the similarity of oscillatory movements) also called an arrow on an ordinary scale. Even later, examen came into use as "weighing" in a figurative sense, that is, "testing, checking" - in this sense it is used by the poet Ovid.
From birds, man learned to fly; exploring the patterns of flight of birds, he created his first aircraft heavier than air. The closest connection between engineering and a living winged model is reflected in modern terminology. The word "aviation" and its many derivatives go back to the Latin avis (bird). The first flying vehicles using the principle of flapping flight were also called pticelet ("ornithopter" in Greek).
Also the word "closet", which is of Turkic origin, is translated as "a fence for cows".
The words "magnifying glass", "tungsten", "lyceum" are akin to the "wolf". The Latin lupa ("wolf's tumor", a round tumor under the skin - from "she-wolf"), by the similarity of its shape, switched to a magnifying glass. "Wolfram" is an addition of the German words "wolf" (wolf) and "ram" (mud). Thus, in translation, the name of this refractory metal sounds like "wolf mud" or "wolf foam". The Germans borrowed the name from Latin (spuma lupi - wolf foam).The fact is that tungsten - a companion of tin ores - interfered with the smelting of tin, transforming it into a foam of slags ("he devoured tin like a wolf a sheep"). As for the lyceums - special educational institutions, their prototype was the famous Lyceum in ancient Athens. The name lyceios (wolf) is associated with the cult of Apollo the wolf.
But among the words "cock" should be attributed to "chicken" and "nonsense." "Trigger" came to us from Polish, in which kurek is a semantic tracing paper from the German Hahn - "cock" in the meaning of "gun trigger". The English cock (cock) also means "cock". French galimatias (nonsense) is the word-formation of Parisian students. The original meaning is “the knowledge of the rooster,” since the constituents come from the Latin gallus (rooster) and the Greek mathea (knowledge).
Goats owe their origin to the Russian "casing" (sheepskin coat, tire), French "whim", Greek "aegis" (protection, patronage). The first of them goes back to the word "skin", which originally meant "goatskin". The French caprice (stubbornness) has a predecessor - the Italian capriccio, "goat manner" (in Italian sarga - goat).
"Fox step" is a literal translation of the word "foxtrot" (English "fox trott"), which unknown witches called the newfangled fast dance.
"Horse" origin - "cavalier" and "marshal". The primary source of the first was the Middle Latin cavallarius - horseman (from cavallus - horse). "Marshal" (from Old High German marah - horse and scale - servant) originally belonged in the state of the Franks to the royal servant who looked after the horses; the word acquired the meaning of the highest military chip in the 16th century.
The words "waffle" and "waffle" are derived from the German Waffel, which in turn is derived from Wabe (honeycomb). The checkered surface of the honeycomb gave rise to such a name, first for cookies, and later for towels.
We already know how important the element of external similarity is in word formation. Not an exception - and the name of one of the swimming methods - butterfly (translated from English - "butterfly"): the waves of the swimmer's hands resemble the flutter of a butterfly. Not so long ago, a special kind of style - "dolphin" was spun off from butterfly.
“In Iranian languages, the word“ donkey ”, joining other nouns, can give them a kind of amplifying or magnifying meaning. So, "kharmush", that is, "donkey-mouse" means "rat", "harsang" - "donkey-stone" means "stone block". Therefore, “kharbuza” should be understood as “a cucumber the size of a donkey”, “cucumber” (“kharbuza” - “donkey-cucumber”, “melon”, which in Russian turned into “watermelon”) ”.
Animals gave people many units of measurement. The Arabic feddan (the Persian synonym - dzhuft) means in the first meaning a team of oxen, and in the second - the area cultivated during the season by the same team; its size, depending on the area, ranges from 6 to 7 hectares. There was such a thin unit of measurement as the thickness of a camel's hair. As early as the third millennium BC, the Assyrians used the unit "donkey pack" (imeru)."Donkey pack" (harvar) was a measure of weight in Azerbaijan in the 15th vey, it was 295 kilograms. The Finns still have a measure of length of "peiinkuulum" equal to 10 kilometers - at this very distance it was considered possible to hear a dog barking since ancient times. And finally, the famous "horsepower", equal to 75 kilograms.
The ancient Indians invented a complex system of control over the physical body to improve it - hatha yoga. The complex includes several hundred asanas (postures) corresponding to the characteristic forms of various objects, figures or postures of animals. In the list of asanas, we find the poses of a lion, cobra, crocodile, stork, camel, swan, cat, cricket, frog, rooster, turtle, snail, fish. There is also the asana "cow face". Hatha yoga is officially recognized in India; it is mandatory (along with European gymnastics) taught in the army.
Even more striking is the method for diagnosing diseases, which has its origins in the old Tibetan medicine, which is based on the rhythms of the pulse. There are 400 (!) Types of pulse registered, and each of them is named after a bird. So, the pulse rhythm of a healthy person is called "cuckoo"; a person who is in death throes has a "lark".
| What is ethology? | Spaniels |
|---|
New recipes
