Is Malamza a curse word? And what about the ragfuck? 10 powerful words from Dahl's vocabulary, the meanings of which you are unlikely to guess

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Some of these examples are easy to imagine in modern speech as well.

Vladimir Ivanovich Dal published his "Explanatory Dictionary of V. I. Dal" Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language "of the Living Great Russian Language" in the middle of the 19th century. The first edition contained more than 200 thousand words, including many dialect words - capacious, sonorous, interesting. Here are just a few examples that once again make it possible to be convinced of how diverse and bright the Russian language is.

1. Anchutki

In East Slavic mythology V. V. Artyomov. Slavic encyclopedia anchutka - a little evil spirit, a demon. In Aleksey Remizov's fairy tale "Bathing Anchutki" it is said that these are the children of the bannik, "they themselves are small, black, furry, hedgehog legs, and the head is bare, that of a Tatar, and they marry kikimors, and the same leprosy." In addition to the bath, Anchutki can live in fields and reservoirs.

The meaning of the word "anchutki" in Dahl's dictionary is "devils". It also contains the expression "drank to anchutki" - very similar to the familiar, probably, to everyone "drank to the devil."

2. To bum

The meaning of this word will not be so difficult to unravel if we recall the child's kindred "byaka", which means something bad, disgusting. And one of the meanings of the verb "byakat", which we find in Dahl's dictionary, is "to do something bad, rude."

Also, this verb meant “to bleat like a sheep,” which is logical: the word itself looks like onomatopoeia “byashkam”. Another thing is close in meaning to this meaning - “to speak or read indistinctly, to mumble”. "Why are you bleating ?!" - we turn to someone when we are outraged by an illegible speech.

Another meaning of "byakat" is "to throw, to drop with a knock, a crash." It seems less obvious, but even here one can suspect onomatopoeia: "byak" is very similar to the sound of a falling object.

3. DBat

No, there is no typo here. Probably, the peasants of the 19th century had very good diction, since they could pronounce this word, which meant “to take care of the farm; save up, save up. " Dahl also gives an interesting synonym for "dbat" - "gono-do".

4. Nurses

Many people are familiar with the expression "dissolve the nuns." But what kind of nuns are they? It was once called the saliva flowing down the lips. This noun also has one more meaning - "drooping, drooling lips." The word is outdated, but the memory of it remained in the popular phraseological unit.

5. Zhurapki

These are colorful Persian wool socks. M. Fasmer took the floor. The etymological dictionary of the Russian language from Turkish or Azerbaijani, where it meant "sock, stocking, leggings", and it has other spelling and pronunciation options - "dzhurapki", "shurapki".

6. Chalice

The meaning of this ancient word is easy to guess: it was the name of the towel. The dictionary says that "chalice" was found in songs. Indeed, the word itself indicates a utilitarian function, but at the same time it sounds very nice. Dahl cites it in the dictionary entry "Rubbing", and also gives a curious and equally cute synonym - "scrub".

7. Malamza

It looks like a curse, but that's not it. Although, if desired, the word "malamza" could be used as a strong word.

But Dahl writes that this is a blind man, and supplements the explanation with a curious synonym - "squint".

8. Country

The words "country" and "strange" immediately come to mind. And this conclusion is too far from the truth - in Dahl's "country" is given in the dictionary entry "Country".

This word has many different meanings. One of them is a neutral "stranger". Although, perhaps, this had a negative connotation: they are afraid of strangers even now, and even then even more so.

Other meanings of "strange" - "eccentric, unsociable"; "Rod, scoundrel"; "Wild, crazy, fool." All these are negative characteristics, the origins of which are most likely in the same xenophobia. By the way, an interesting synonym is indicated for the meaning of "crazy" - "god-willed".

But the word "country" was used not only for people. Another inherent meaning in it is "nonsense, nonsense, nonsense", and it is obviously connected with the adjective "strange."

But the meaning of "goal, target" is rather mysterious for a modern native speaker of the Russian language and raises questions, but Dal nevertheless indicates it for the word "country".

9. Khurdy-murdy

Not khukhry-mukhry, of course, although these words have a common component of meaning. This was also the name for household belongings, belongings, and all kinds of rubbish, junk.

This bright word can be considered a synonym for English stuff (in colloquial speech - rubbish, garbage, chatter), which some now use in Russian. So if you are annoyed by the dominance of English words, you can answer the overseas "stuff" with the wonderful "khurdy-murdy". Or choose from two equally curious synonyms that Dahl cites - "sharabara" and "butor".

10. Crackling

Shushlepnem was called a lazy person, a bummer, a lazy person. There is a version that M. Vasmer happened. The etymological dictionary of the Russian language is a word from the verb "slap".

It is a pity that it is no longer used in speech: it sounds very interesting. I just want to see from a popular blogger something like “I am a goofy today, because I’m not in the resource”.