A cage is not a cage, a right hand is not a hand: The most common mistakes in ancient words by modern authors

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Fantasy and historical novels about people who fell in love and great love in the times of Moscow or even Kievan Rus encourage numerous authors to use old words for the atmosphere and transmission of the realities of the time. The problem is that few of them bother to check the meaning of a word first, and as a result, the amount of embarrassment and absurdity in their stories is discouraging. We present a quick guide to the words most often misused when trying to "write the old days."

The hand is not a hand

That is, of course, the hand. But strictly right. Recently, you can often find phrases like "left hand" or "both hands." So, if the "right hand" is left - it is "shuytsa". This is where the ancient words "right hand" (on the right hand) and "oshuy" (on the left hand) come from. And it's absolutely absurd when a character's complaint to a doctor about “pain in the right hand” turns out to mean a problem with the gums in the mouth.

A cage is not a cage

A cage is traditionally called an unheated part of a wooden house outside the main living space. It can be used as a summer outhouse - then guests are placed there to sleep, for example, for household purposes - and then something is stored in it. At the same time, it is completely different from a cage; it is exactly the same log cabin as the main house. A cellar was also traditionally placed under the cage, hence the word "underclothes" and the expression "underclothes" in the meaning of "in the basement" appeared. If a character is kept under lock and key, this does not mean that it is worth writing about him - “sitting in the basement”!

Sketch is not a dirty word

And not even just a designation of "a representative of the rabble", that is, any commoner. Chernavka is a servant of the lowest rank, the one who gets to wash, clean, clean up, especially the dirtiest, that is, to do the “dirty work”. In a large house, there were always many servants, and they were divided according to their functions. In addition to the chernavka, the house could have a maid (a maid serving the inmates of a room), a housekeeper, a nanny, and so on. By the way, the word "vile" originally also meant not moral qualities as such, but belonging to the lowest estates. A commoner could call himself a vile little man, and at the same time not at all in a fit of self-criticism.

By the way, the upper room is not just a room

In the old days there was the word "high" - that is, upper. From him comes the word "room" - originally the name of the living room upstairs, where very often women from wealthy families were placed, who, as it was believed, had no need to step down once again, unlike men who had to run to and from the house on business … Later, the word "upper room" was transferred to the brightest and most spacious room of the hut, often unheated, used to receive important guests, festive gatherings and the like.

This room was sometimes called a parlor, but in general, a parlor is a room in which women's work was performed, which required good lighting and eye strain, for example, embroidery.

Chambers and mansions

Not everyone knows the difference, although in general, writers of new generations understand that we are talking about large structures like a palace. So, mansions are always wooden, chambers are brick or stone. In addition, a chamber in the singular is not just any room, but a hall. At the same time, they could feast not in the ward, but in a separate extension-tower of the tumbleweed. Later, the bumpkin in the peasant hut was the name of the same room-room. Also, a tower was attached to the mansions and chambers from above - the second floor, which looked like a separate building. The mansion did not necessarily have only women's chambers, this is a myth from the nineteenth century. But what is obligatory for the tower is windows in each of the four walls, which made it the brightest part of the house.

Arshinny

Nobody knows why, but the word is increasingly used to mean "very long." For example, you can read in another book about the "arshin" growth of a stately good fellow. Of course, the oblique arshin may also be meant, which is much longer than usual, but nevertheless, the arshin is usually less than a meter in length, and there is no need to admire a handsome man of such height, throwing his head back. You can look down without straining.

Hog and gelding

Can you imagine that a Slavic youth of athletic build was called Borovoy, and the owner of a gelding gave him a mare so that the foals would go? If yes, then you are obviously not aware that the "hog" is not a "big man", but a castrated male pig, and a gelding cannot have his own foals for the same reason. For the same reason, it makes no sense to compare with a gelding a man who seeks to copulate with as many women as possible. The examples, meanwhile, are taken from real contemporary works with thousands of readers.

Mirrors are not eyes, sail is not a hurricane

The first word is an old synonym for the modern “mirror”, the second is “sail” (remember the expression “without a rudder or sails” - when a person is like a ship without control, rushing with the flow or at the behest of any wind). If the writer does not like the borrowed word "hurricane" so much, he can describe a strong wind as a "wind", as a "storm", as a "fierce wind", in general, a way can be found.

The actor and the elder

These two words also get it. The actor is passed off as a hypocrite, although the meaning of this word is, first of all, an actor. An elder is not just any old man, but rather a social status.

And just one last thing. A wagon train is not a cart, but a string of carts (the second word for such a caravan is a train). Konka is not just any carriage that harnessed horses, but a type of public transport that was widespread a little over a hundred years ago. Novgorod merchants and Kiev princes did not ride in carriages, this word came from abroad very late. The Execution Ground is a well-defined structure in Moscow, the name of which began to be used as an allegory for the place of execution, and not at all a stage or podium from which a lecture is read.

Language is a very interesting and difficult part of any culture. Why and how the Russian language will change in a generation or two.