2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
We understand where the words "ensign", "glasses" and "laundry" came from.
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Why are some words in Russian not true? Why ensign, if flag; why glasses, if an eye; laundry if washing?
Sergey Yukhimenko
All the words listed above correspond to reality - but only to the one that was several hundred (or even a thousand) years ago. The language has changed a lot since then, and many words have disappeared from it without a trace. But some still left a memory of themselves, passing on their roots to the words “descendants”, which we use until now, without understanding their internal form and original meaning. These are the "ensign", "glasses" and "laundry".
Original meaning The word "ensign" in the etymological dictionary of Max Vasmer. the words "ensign" - "standard-bearer" or "flag-bearer". It is formed from the already lost noun "prapor" - "banner", "gonfalon", which is already lost, but found in written monuments. And it, in turn, is akin to the words “soar” (fly) and “feather”, because the banner is something that rises and, in a sense, really hovers above people.
And "glasses" - what is put on "eyes", and this is how the word "glasses" was previously called in the etymological dictionary of GA Krylov, eyes. Now this word has survived except in the stable expressions “lower my eyes down”, “the light of my eyes”, “cherish like the apple of an eye” (literally: “like the pupil of an eye”), in the blink of an eye (“into the blink of an eye”), “an eye for an eye "and others.
It is curious, but from the same "eye" there is also formed a "window" - "a hole for observation". And the word "eye" at first denoted the Word "eye" in the etymological dictionary of Max Vasmer. "Glass ball". It is probably related to the German glas - "glass". In one of the chronicles there is even a story about how children found "glass eyes" on the banks of the river. But over time, this slang and rude word, which can be compared with the word "balls" in the expression "roll out the balls", became common, and the "eye" was forgotten.
"Laundry" - from the verb "prati" The word "praet" in the etymological dictionary of Max Vasmer. (wash). Even 100 years ago, peasant women washed their clothes right in the river. Yes, they did not just wash, but beat them with a special wooden roller - "pralnik". Hence the "washerwoman" - a woman who washes clothes.
You can find such information about the origin of words in etymological dictionaries. The most famous and authoritative are the dictionaries of M. Fasmer, N. M. Shanskiy, P. Ya. Chernykh. They are available on the web, so it's easy to use them.
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