The meaning of obsolete words in Russian. Epic words and expressions

Vocabulary is the totality of all the words we use. Ancient words can be considered a separate group in the vocabulary. There are many of them in the Russian language, and they belong to different historical eras.

What are old words

Since language is an integral part of the history of a people, the words that are used in this language are of historical value. Ancient words and their meaning can tell a lot about what events took place in the life of the people in a particular era and which of them were of great importance. Ancient, or outdated, words are not actively used in our time, but are present in the vocabulary of the people, recorded in dictionaries and reference books. They can often be found in works of art.

For example, in the poem by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin we read the following passage:

"In the crowd of mighty sons,

With friends, in the high grid

Vladimir the sun feasted,

He gave away his youngest daughter

For the brave prince Ruslan."

There is the word “gridnitsa” here. Nowadays it is not used, but in the era of Prince Vladimir it meant a large room in which the prince, together with his warriors, held celebrations and feasts.

Historicisms

There are different types of ancient words and their designations. According to scientists, they are divided into two large groups.

Historicisms are words that are now not actively used for the reason that the concepts they denote have fallen out of use. For example, “caftan”, “chain mail”, armor”, etc. Archaisms are words that denote concepts familiar to us in other words. For example, mouth - lips, cheeks - cheeks, neck - neck.

In modern speech, as a rule, they are not used. Clever words and their meanings, which are incomprehensible to many, are not typical for our everyday speech. But they do not disappear completely from use. Writers use historicisms and archaisms to truthfully tell about the past of the people; with the help of these words they convey the flavor of the era. Historicisms can truthfully tell us about what once happened in other eras in our homeland.

Archaisms

Unlike historicisms, archaisms denote those phenomena that we encounter in modern life. These are smart words, and their meanings do not differ from the meanings of words familiar to us, they just sound differently. There are different archaisms. There are those that differ from ordinary words only in some features in spelling and pronunciation. For example, hail and city, gold and gold, young - young. These are phonetic archaisms. In the 19th century there were many such words. This is klob (club), stora (curtain).

There is a group of archaisms with obsolete suffixes, for example, muzeum (museum), assistance (assistance), rybar (fisherman). Most often we come across lexical archaisms, for example, oko - eye, right hand - right hand, shuitsa - left hand.

Like historicisms, archaisms are used to create a special world in fiction. Thus, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin often used archaic vocabulary to add pathos to his works. This is clearly evident in the example of the poem “The Prophet”.

Words from Ancient Rus'

Ancient Rus' gave a lot to modern culture. But then there was a special lexical environment, some words from which have been preserved in modern Russian. And some are no longer used at all. Old obsolete Russian words from that era give us an idea of ​​the origins of the East Slavic languages.

For example, old curse words. Some of them very accurately reflect the negative qualities of a person. Pustobrekh is a chatterbox, Ryuma is a crybaby, the thick-haired forehead is a fool, and shabby is a disheveled person.

The meaning of ancient Russian words sometimes differed from the meanings of the same roots in the modern language. We all know the words “jump” and “jump”; they mean rapid movement in space. The Old Russian word “sig” meant the smallest unit of time. One moment contained 160 whitefish. The largest measurement value was considered to be “far distance,” which was equal to 1.4 light years.

Ancient words and their meanings are discussed by scientists. The names of coins that were used in Ancient Rus' are considered ancient. For coins that appeared in the eighth and ninth centuries in Rus' and were brought from the Arab Caliphate, the names “kuna”, “nogata” and “rezana” were used. Then the first Russian coins appeared - zlatniks and silver coins.

Outdated words from the 12th and 13th centuries

The pre-Mongol period in Rus', 12-13 centuries, is characterized by the development of architecture, which was then called architecture. Accordingly, a layer of vocabulary related to the construction and construction of buildings appeared then. Some of the words that appeared then remained in the modern language, but the meaning of ancient Russian words has changed over all this time.

The basis of life in Rus' in the 12th century was the fortress, which then had the name “Detinets”. A little later, in the 14th century, the term “Kremlin” appeared, which then also meant the city. The word "kremlin" can be an example of how old, outdated Russian words change. If now there is only one Kremlin, the residence of the head of state, then there were many Kremlins.

In the 11th and 12th centuries in Rus', cities and fortresses were built from wood. But they could not resist the onslaught of the Mongol-Tatars. The Mongols, when they came to conquer the lands, simply swept away the wooden fortresses. The stone cities of Novgorod and Pskov survived. The word “Kremlin” appears for the first time in the Tver chronicle of 1317. Its synonym is the ancient word “kremnik”. Then kremlins were built in Moscow, Tula and Kolomna.

The social and aesthetic role of archaisms in classical fiction

Ancient words, the discussion of which is often found in scientific articles, were often used by Russian writers in order to make the speech of their works of art more expressive. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in his article described the process of creating “Boris Godunov”: “I tried to guess the language of that time.”

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov also used ancient words in his works, and their meaning exactly corresponded to the realities of the time from which they were taken. Most of the ancient words appear in his work “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich.” This is, for example, “you know”, “oh you goy are you”, Ali.” Also, Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky writes works in which there are many ancient words. These are “Dmitry the Pretender”, “Voevoda”, “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”.

The role of words from past eras in modern literature

Archaisms remained popular in the literature of the 20th century. Let us remember the famous work of Ilf and Petrov “The Twelve Chairs”. Here, ancient words and their meaning have a special, humorous connotation.

For example, in the description of Ostap Bender’s visit to the village of Vasyuki, the phrase “The one-eyed man did not take his only eye off the grandmaster’s shoes” appears. Archaisms with Church Slavonic overtones are also used in another episode: “Father Fedor became hungry. He wanted wealth."

Stylistic errors when using historicisms and archaisms

Historicisms and archaisms can greatly embellish fiction, but their inept use causes laughter. Ancient words, the discussion of which often becomes very lively, as a rule, cannot be used in everyday speech. If you start asking a passerby: “Why is your neck open in winter?”, then he will not understand you (meaning your neck).

In newspaper speech, there is also inappropriate use of historicisms and archaisms. For example: “The school director welcomed young teachers who came to practice.” The word "welcomed" is synonymous with the word "welcomed". Sometimes schoolchildren insert archaisms into their essays and thereby make the sentences not very clear and even absurd. For example: “Olya came running in tears and told Tatyana Ivanovna about her offense.” Therefore, if you want to use ancient words, their meaning, interpretation, meaning must be absolutely clear to you.

Outdated words in fantasy and science fiction

Everyone knows that genres such as fantasy and science fiction have gained enormous popularity in our time. It turns out that ancient words are widely used in works of the fantasy genre, and their meaning is not always clear to the modern reader.

The reader can understand such concepts as “banner” and “finger”. But sometimes there are more complex words, such as “komon” and “nasad”. It must be said that publishing houses do not always approve of the excessive use of archaisms. But there are works in which the authors successfully use historicisms and archaisms. These are works from the “Slavic fantasy” series. For example, the novels by Maria Stepanova “Valkyrie”, Tatyana Korostyshevskaya “Mother of the Four Winds”, Maria Semenova “Wolfhound”, Denis Novozhilov “The Far Away Kingdom. War for the throne."

Depending on the reasons why a particular word is classified as obsolete, historicisms and archaisms are distinguished.

Historicisms

Archaisms

The role of obsolete words in the Russian language is varied. Historicisms in special scientific literature are used to most accurately describe the era. In works of fiction on historical themes, historicisms and archaisms help to recreate the flavor of the era, and are also a means of speech characterization of characters.
Examples of such use of outdated vocabulary can be the novels “Razin Stepan” by A.P. Chapygina, “Peter I” A.H. Tolstoy, “Emelyan Pugachev” by V.Ya. Shishkova, “Ivan the Terrible” by V.I. Kostyleva and others.
In the text of any of these works of art you can find various types of archaisms:
I learned this: according to information from Taty Fomka, thieves were caught outside the Nikitsky Gate (Chapygin).
Archaisms can be used to create a solemn style, which is especially characteristic of poetry of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Examples include the works of A.N. Radishcheva, G.R. Derzhavina, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Pushkina and others.
Archaisms can also be used to create comic and satirical effects: Finally, look at your own person - and there, first of all, you will meet the head, and then you will not leave the belly and other parts without a sign (S. Shch.)

U old words, as well as dialectal, can be divided into two different groups: archaisms And historicisms .

Archaisms- these are words that, due to the emergence of new words, have fallen out of use. But their synonyms exist in modern Russian.

Eg:

right hand- right hand, cheeks- cheeks, ramen- shoulders, loins- lower back and so on.

But it is worth noting that archaisms may still differ from modern synonymous words. These differences may be in the morphemic composition ( fisherman- fisherman, friendship - friendship), in their lexical meaning ( stomach- life, guest- merchant,), in grammatical form ( at the ball- at the ball, fulfill- perform) and phonetic features ( mirror- mirror, Spanish- Spanish). Many words are completely outdated, but they still have modern synonyms. For example: destruction- death or harm, hope- hope and firmly believe, so that- to. And in order to avoid possible mistakes in the interpretation of these words, when working with works of art, it is strongly recommended to use a dictionary of outdated words and dialect phrases, or an explanatory dictionary.

Historicisms- these are words that denote such phenomena or objects that have completely disappeared or ceased to exist as a result of the further development of society.

Many words that denoted various household items of our ancestors, phenomena and things that were in one way or another connected with the economy of the past, the old culture, and the socio-political system that once existed became historicisms. Many historicisms are found among words that are one way or another connected with military themes.

Eg:

Redoubt, chain mail, visor, arquebus and so on.

Most obsolete words refer to items of clothing and household items: prosak, svetets, endova, camisole, armyak.

Also, historicisms include words that denote titles, professions, positions, classes that once existed in Rus': tsar, footman, boyar, steward, stable boy, barge hauler,tinker and so on. Types of production activities such as horse tram and manufactory. Phenomena of patriarchal life: purchase, quitrent, corvée and others. Disappeared technologies such as mead making and tinning.

Words that arose during the Soviet era also became historicisms. These include words such as: food detachment, NEP, Makhnovist, educational program, Budenovo and many others.

Sometimes it can be very difficult to distinguish between archaisms and historicisms. This is due both to the revival of the cultural traditions of Rus', and to the frequent use of these words in proverbs and sayings, as well as other works of folk art. Such words include words denoting measures of length or measurements of weight, naming Christian and religious holidays, and so on and so forth.

Dictionary of obsolete words by letter of the alphabet:

We often find outdated words in classical literature. Footnotes and explanations are often provided for them, since these words are not used in modern language, and many may not know their meanings.

Examples of obsolete words:

inda - even

lanita - cheeks

saryn - rabble, crowd

week - week

lazy - lazy

Obsolete words include archaisms and historicisms. These are words that are rarely used in living modern speech or are even found only in the literary works of writers of past centuries. We will classify outdated words as passive vocabulary of the modern Russian language.

Archaisms are characterized by the fact that, as a rule, they have synonyms in modern speech.

Examples of archaisms:

hand - palm,

neck - neck;

belts - shoulders,

sail - sail,

piit - poet,

fisherman - fisherman,

lips - lips.

Historicisms, as you can guess from the name of these words, are associated with a certain era in the history of the country and are the names of those objects that have already disappeared, and the word, as a reminder to descendants, remained in the literature, archival documents or periodicals of those years.

I will give these examples of outdated words - historicisms:

kulak - a wealthy peasant in the 20-30s of the last century;

workers' faculty - workers' faculty;

worker's faculty, workers' faculty - workers' faculty students.

Among the historicisms there are many ancient names of monetary units, measures of length and weight, names of objects and clothing, etc., for example:

club, pood, verst, arshin, ten-kopeck piece, student, barge hauler, policeman, coachman, tavern, etc.

Obsolete words mean those words that, due to a time period, have fallen out of previously habitual active use, but in the passive dictionary they have been preserved and, to a greater extent, remain understandable to native speakers.

Among obsolete words, there are two types: archaisms and historicisms.

For example, lanits - cheeks in Old Russian. Hand - palm. Down - down, below. Eyes - eyes. Chelo - forehead. Or an archaic appeal - dear sir :-). Virgo is a girl. There is such a word - tuck in - tuck in / shirt /. Get excited - hang out with someone. This is folk speech, I heard the last two words from my grandmother / Smolensk region /.

To what has already been written by other authors, I can add that words used today can be considered obsolete if in former times they were used in different meanings than in the present. Such words are called semantic archaisms.

Archaisms.

Otrok is a teenage boy.

Otrokovitsa is a teenage girl.

Astrologer - astrologer.

Actor - actor.

A creature is a living being.

The shame is a spectacle.

Vulgar - ordinary.

Domovina is a coffin.

Zolotar is a jeweler.

To hope - to hope.

Dark - blind.

Crown - wreath.

Supper - dinner.

Vitia is a speaker.

This one is this one.

Rest - fall asleep.

City - city.

Arab is a black man.

Innocent - innocent.

Lamb - lamb.

The husband is a mature man.

Scoundrel - not fit for military service.

Whorehouse is a brothel.

Abode - monastery.

Historicisms.

Likbez, Berkovets, carriage, rattler, stagecoach, serf, oktyabrnok, pioneer, bast shoe, inquisition, posadnik, Komsomol, torch, archer.

The works of the classics of the 18th and 19th centuries are full of outdated words. The meaning is not always clear.

The poet Pushkin has blueberries. An obsolete word. That means a nun.

Pay at his place. The word appears in the conversation of old villagers. A bed for sleeping on the stove.

The obsolete word used today is now.

OBSOLETE words, or ARCHAISMS, denote objects, phenomena and concepts that have not disappeared from our modern life, but continue to exist in it, but under a different name. That is, they are denoted by modern words.

There are a lot of archaisms known. And they are listed in dictionaries.

Here in front of me is Ozhegov’s dictionary. I open the page at random and immediately come across outdated words: lanita- cheek; bastweed- peasant; word dealer used in the meaning reseller And horse trader.

I close the dictionary. What can I remember myself?

This is not difficult to do if you recall some expressions and phrases of our famous classic writers. For example, A, P, Chekhov has the following appeal: WISE secretary! That is wise.

From a poem by A.S. Everyone knows the lines of Pushkin’s Prophet:

I think that it is not worth translating the highlighted outdated words into a modern language, because we all know them from the school curriculum.

Here are a few more outdated words: full - captivity; shelom - helmet; pawn - infantryman; tuga - melancholy, sadness; right hand - right hand; guard - watchman; finger - finger; existing - existing; thief - thief, robber, etc.

I repeat that there are a lot of archaisms, both native Russian, Old Church Slavonic, and borrowed.

It is simply impossible to list them within the framework of this project.

There are a lot of obsolete words (this is the name for words that were previously used quite actively, but now are rarely or not used at all in the meanings in which they used to be) in the Russian language. Because the process of obsolescence is constant. Such words are sometimes even divided into obsolete and obsolete.

Here are some of them:

Screen. Archaism. Many people are now thinking about screenshots, which are called screenshots for short. But it turns out that this was what small chests and stacks used to be called. For example, if Dostoevsky lived not in the 190th century, but earlier, he would have called the old woman’s casket (packing), from which Raskolnikov pulled out money and jewelry, a screen. Hide from the word.

Chernitsa. Archaism. And that was the name of the nuns. By the color of their clothes.

Belenkaya. Historicism. This substantivized adjective once meant a banknote with a face value of 25 rubles.

Zlachny. Archaic meaning. This word had the now outdated meaning of rich, fertile. From the word cereal.

Aspid is a poisonous snake, yell is to plow, namale is soap, in advance - in advance, nabolshiy is the eldest, spring is a well, finger is a finger, get out - dress up, hustochka is a handkerchief, nikoli - never, odnova - once.

Obsolete words are divided into historicisms and archaisms; we will give examples of both.

Historicisms:

district, boyar, volost, king, clerk, altyn.

Archaisms:

belly is life,

mirror - mirror,

hand - palm.

eye - eye,

cold - cold.

Read about the differences between these two groups of obsolete words here.

It doesn’t matter what faith you are, what social status you have,
sexual orientation and food preferences,
You will definitely need a dictionary of outdated words.

Abiye - immediately, since, when.

Aki - as, since, like, as if, as if.

Even - if, although, when.

Barber - barber, hairdresser.

To be vigilant is to take care; be on guard, vigilant.

Fluency is speed.

Take care - be careful.

Incessantly - unconditionally, undoubtedly, incessantly.

Shameless - shameless.

Blagoy - kind, good.

Bo - for, because.

Blockhead - statue, idol, block of wood.

Will - if, if, when, if.

Shafts are waves.

Suddenly - again, again.

Guilt is a reason, a reason.

Vlasno - exactly, actually.

Wave is wool.

In vain - in vain.

In vain - in vain, in vain.

I will take it out - always, at all times, incessantly.

Greater - greater, higher.

Gehenna is hell.

Grief is upward.

Actors are actors.

Dennitsa - morning dawn.

Gum, right hand - right, right hand.

Ten - ten times.

Divyy - wild.

Today - now, now, today.

To suffice is to be sufficient.

Dominates - follows, should, must, decently.

Dondezhe - until then.

When - when.

Hedgehog - which.

Eliko - how much.

Epancha - cloak, blanket.

Eating is food.

Nature is nature.

Lives - it happens.

Belly - life, property.

They live - they happen.

Jealous - envious.

The gap is a shame.

Legal - illegal.

Here - here.

Zelo - very.

Green - huge, strong, great.

Zenitsa - eye, pupil.

Evil deeds are atrocities.

Hydra - hydra.

Also - what, who, which.

Inde - somewhere, somewhere else, ever.

Art is experience.

Executor - preacher.

Execution is punishment, retribution.

The Cartagineans are the inhabitants of Carthage.

Which one, which one, which one - which one, which one, which one.

Koliko - how much, how.

Kolo - wheel, circle.

Concha - true, certainly, of course, very much.

Inert - slow, unhurried, motionless.

Krasik is handsome.

Red - beautiful, wonderful, decorated.

Cres<т>tsy - crossroads.

Kruzhalo is a tavern, a drinking house.

A lazy person is a lazy person, a couch potato.

Deprivation - excess.

Lovitva - hunting.

Loskiy - smooth, shiny.

Lzya - it’s possible.

To flatter - to deceive, to seduce.

Metaphrase is an arrangement, an allegory.

Multi-species - diverse.

Wet - It's possible.

Mraz - frost.

Me - me.

Nan - at him.

The boss is the founder, the initiator.

No - no.

Below - and not, not at all, also not.

To coerce - to force.

Obesity - gluttony, gluttony.

Abundance - wealth, treasures.

The image is resentment, insult, dissatisfaction.

Ov, ova, ovo - this, this, this; that, that, that.

Right hand - right.

One-person - the same, unchangeable, the same.

This one is the one.

Cool - trouble, resentment, insult, shame, annoyance.

From here - from here.

From now on.

To get rid of - to suffer, to lose, to lose.

Weaning - removal.

Oshuyu is on the left.

Sinus - bay.

Packy - again, again.

More than that.

Percy - chest.

Fingers - fingers.

Finger - ashes, dust.

Flesh is the body.

Habit is a habit.

A disgrace is a spectacle, a performance.

Full is enough.

Polk - stage.

More gently - because.

Breed - origin (noble).

After - after.

Pottage - flattery, servility.

Right - fair, true.

Charm is deception, temptation, deceit.

To abhor - to prohibit.

The butt is an example.

Attribute - dedicate.

Providence - destiny, care, thought.

Contrary - opposite, on the contrary.

Coolness - pleasure, pleasure.

Five - five times.

To please is to care.

To blush is to blush, to be ashamed.

Decide - say, utter.

A freedman is a freedman.

In other words, that is.

Dignified - worthy, decent, appropriate.

The caretakers are spectators.

One hundred times.

Path is a road, a path.

Bitch is dead.

Stoolchak - stoolchak, toilet seat.

Obstinate - obstinate.

Stud is a shame.

Also - then, later.

Ti - for you.

Current - flow.

To hurry is to be timid, fearful.

Three times, three times - three times.

Thorough - generous, diligent, caring.

Ubo - because, since, therefore.

Oud - sexual organ (male)

Convenient - capable.

Charter - order, custom.

Phrasis is a phrase, expression.

Praiseworthy - worthy of praise.

Frail - weak, frail.

Chernets is a monk.

Chin - order.

Loins - hips, lower back, waist.

Reader - reader.

Honorable - respected, revered.

Alienated - alienated.

Shipok, spike - rose, pink.

Edition - publication.

Ephesians are the inhabitants of Ephesus.

South - what, which.

Even - what, which.

Language - people, tribe.