Everyone knows what Russian swearing is. Someone will be able to reproduce the Cossack swear word by heart, while others will have to turn to the famous “Dictionary of Russian Swearing” by Alexei Plutser-Sarno to clarify the meaning. However, for many, the history of the emergence of Russian swearing remains a mystery behind seven seals. How swearing is connected to Indo-European mythology, who is meant by “mother” in the swear language and why only men used to communicate in it - in the T&P material.
“The mythological aspect of Russian expressive phraseology”
B.A. Uspensky
Works by B.A. Uspensky, shedding light on the origin of Russian swearing, have become classic. Exploring this topic, Uspensky mentions its extreme taboo nature, in connection with which in the literary tradition only “Church Slavonicisms such as copulate, penis, reproductive organ, aphedron, seat” can be considered permissible. Unlike many Western European languages, other “folk” obscene vocabulary in the Russian language is actually taboo. That is why curse words were removed from Dahl’s dictionary, the Russian edition of Vasmer’s “Etymological Dictionary”, and Afanasyev’s fairy tales; even in academic collected works of Pushkin, obscene expressions in works of art and letters are replaced with dots; “Barkov’s Shadow”, known for its abundance of swear words (for example: Already the night with the *** [lustful] moon / Already the *** [fallen woman] was in the downy bed / Falling asleep with the monk) was not published at all in many collections essays. Such a taboo of swearing, affecting even professional philologists, is connected, according to Uspensky, with “the chastity of censors or editors,” and Dostoevsky even speaks of the chastity of the entire Russian people, justifying the abundance of swear words in the Russian language by the fact that, in essence, they are not always mean something bad.
Images of peasants from the 12th–14th centuries: a peasant at work; resting peasant; games
Indeed, swearing can serve as a friendly greeting, approval, and expression of love. If it is so polysemantic, then the question arises: where did swearing come from, what are its historical roots? Uspensky's theory suggests that swearing once had cult functions. To prove this, we can cite examples of swear words and expressions from Russian pagan wedding or agricultural rituals, in which swearing could be associated with fertility cults. It is interesting that the Russian philologist Boris Bogaevsky compares Russian swearing with the Greek foul language of farmers. The Christian tradition prohibits swearing in rituals and everyday life, citing the fact that “shameful barking” defiles the soul, and that “Hellenic...words” [verbib] is a demonic game. The ban on Russian “shamoslovya,” that is, obscene language, was directly related to the struggle of Orthodoxy against the pagan cults in which it was used. The meaning of the ban becomes especially clear in view of the fact that swearing “in some cases turns out to be functionally equivalent to prayer.” In pagan thinking, it was possible to find a treasure, get rid of illness or the machinations of the brownie and goblin with the help of swearing. Therefore, in Slavic dual faith one could often find two parallel options: either read a prayer in front of the attacking devil, or swear at him. Finding the roots of Russian swearing in pagan ritual spells and curses, Uspensky connects the so-called main formula of Russian obscenities (“*** your mother”) with the archaic cult of the earth.
Only one person will be elected once a day in obscenity, -
The mother of cheese the earth will shake,
The Most Holy Theotokos will be removed from the throne
In connection with the dual-faith Slavic ideas about the “three mothers” - the earth mother, the Mother of God and the native - swearing, aimed at insulting the addressee’s mother, simultaneously conjures sacred mothers, desecrating the maternal principle itself. In this one can find echoes of pagan metaphors about the pregnancy of the earth and copulation with it; at the same time, this can explain the belief that the earth opens up under a swearing word or that swearing can disturb the ancestors (lying in the ground).
Having clarified the object of the obscene formula, Uspensky moves on to the subject: analyzing the forms of the expression “*** your mother,” he comes to the conclusion that previously the phrase was not impersonal. The desecration was carried out by a dog, as evidenced by older and more complete references to the swear formula: for example, “So that the dog takes your mother.” The dog has been the subject of action in this formula since at least the 15th century in many Slavic languages; Thus, “dog barking,” as swearing was called from ancient times, is associated with the mythology of the dog, “given by the dog.” The uncleanness of the dog is an ancient category that preceded Slavic mythology, but also reflected in later Christian ideas (for example, in the stories about the Pseglavians or the transfiguration of the Cynocephalus Christopher). The dog was compared to a Gentile, since both have no soul, both behave inappropriately; It was for the same reason that confessors were not allowed to keep dogs. From an etymological point of view, the dog is also unclean - Uspensky connects the lexeme “dog” with other words of Indo-European languages, including the Russian word “***” [female genital organ].
Thus, Uspensky suggests that the images of the desecrating dog and the earth mother in the phrase “f***ing dog” go back to the mythological marriage of the thunderer and the earth mother. The sacred marriage, during which the earth is fertilized, is desecrated in this formula by the travesty replacement of the Thunderer with a dog, his mythological rival. Therefore, an obscene phrase becomes a blasphemous spell, desecrating the divine cosmogony. In a later folk tradition this myth is reduced, and mother earth becomes the mother of the interlocutor, and the mythological dog becomes an ordinary dog, and then the phrase is completely depersonalized (the verb “***” [to engage in sexual relations] can correspond to any singular person).
At the deep (original) level obscene expression correlated, apparently, with the myth of the sacred marriage of heaven and earth - a marriage that results in the fertilization of the earth. At this level, the god of the sky, or the thunderer, should be understood as the subject of action in obscene terms, and mother earth as the object. This explains the connection between swearing and the idea of fertilization, which manifests itself in particular in ritual wedding and agrarian foul language.
“About swearing, emotions and facts”
A.A. Belyakov
A.A. Belyakov, referring to the legends of Russian folklore, traces the origin of swearing to the myth of the “Slavic Oedipus”: once a man killed his father and desecrated his mother. Then he gave the “obscene formula” to his descendants - in order to use it to bring curses of the ancestors on opponents or to call on the ancestors for help. Belyakov agrees that the deeper roots of this legend are in early pagan cults associated with the veneration of “the mother of damp earth and the idea of fertilization.”
“Obscene joke as a modeling system”
I.G. Yakovenko
I.G. Yakovenko in his article on mate notes that traditional culture, patriarchal in nature, tends to profane the role of women. It is this motive that we see in obscene formulas - almost always they are associated with crude images of violence against women. Yakovenko contrasts the “sign of the highest danger” (“…” [female genital organ], the feminine principle) with the male phallus, the “protector sign,” citing as an example many obscene expressions. As it turns out, there are much fewer women’s obscene formulas than men’s; Moreover, the female paradigm is tinged with something wretched, false, related to misfortune, theft, lies (“..." [end], "..." [steal], "..." [liar]), while the male The swearing paradigm refers to taboo or danger. The harmful nature of a woman, perceived through the female symbol, the vagina, is emphasized in numerous proverbs and sayings, fairy tales and legends: we can recall those cited by V.Ya. Proppom's idea of a "toothy vulva" with which the male hero had to fight.
Russian swearing is a form of existence of pagan consciousness in a monotheistic culture
Subsequently, the tradition of speaking obscene language passed from pagan cults into Russian buffoonery, which the state actively fought against starting from the 17th century. From the almost extinct buffoons, however, the tradition passed on to lubok, tavern songs, parsley theater, to fair barkers and so on. The taboo vocabulary of the patriarchal and pagan period of Russian culture continued to live in slightly different forms.
“Russian swearing as a male obscene code: the problem of origin and evolution of status”
V.Yu. Mikhailin
In the work of V.Yu. Mikhailina’s tradition of linking the genesis of Russian swearing to fertility cults is disputed; Despite the fact that Mikhailin largely agrees with Uspensky, he offers a significant refinement of his theory and examines the history of swearing from pagan cults to modern hazing. The connection between the theory of the “main myth” of Toporov and Ivanov with the mythological enemy of the Thunderer, the dog, does not suit him: “I will allow myself one single question. For what reason is the eternal opponent of the Thunderer, whose traditional iconography presupposes, first of all, not canine, but serpentine hypostases, in this context, takes the form of a dog, and takes it invariably and formulaically?”
Fertile land, according to the author, could not be associated with the masculine principle in the archaic: it is a purely female territory. On the contrary, the purely male territory was considered to be that which had to do with hunting and war, a marginal space in which a good husband and family man is ready to shed blood and rob, and a decent young man, who does not dare to look up at the neighbor’s girl, rapes the enemy’s daughters.
Mikhailin suggests that in such territories swearing was once associated with magical practices male military alliances identifying themselves with the "dogs". That is why swearing was also called “dog barking”: symbolically, warriors were the embodiment of wolves or dogs. This can also explain the fact that until recently, swearing was predominantly a male language code.
Indo European culture every man went through an initiation, one way or another accompanied by a period that can be designated as the “dog” stage. A “dog” warrior living outside the home zone, in marginal territory, exists outside the culture of the hearth and Agriculture. He is not full-fledged, not mature, has “combat rage”, part of which can be called the use of unacceptable swear words at home. “Wolves” and “dogs” have no place on human territory, for which their mere presence can be fraught with desecration: the corresponding norms and forms of behavior are strictly taboo, and their carriers, without undergoing purification rites and thereby turning from “wolves” back into people do not have basic civil rights. They, by definition, are carriers of the chthonic principle, they are magically dead and as such simply “do not exist.”
Thus, the formula “*** your mother” in male “dog” unions was a spell that magically destroyed the opponent. Such a spell symbolically compared the opponent to the son of a chthonic being, identified his mother with a bitch, and brought him into extremely marginal, non-human territory where such coitus could occur. Consequently, all swear words imply dog genitals and animal coitus, which has nothing in common with human coitus, occurring in the home space and framed by ritual tradition and other signs of culture.
Subsequently, the purely male nature of swearing in Russia is transferred to a more general context. Beginning with revolutionary events Since 1917, the language paradigm undergoes great changes. Swearing, along with Newspeak, becomes one of the means of communication of the patriarchal (albeit outwardly anti-sexist) elite. Played a role and Soviet camps, And increased interest to the exploitation of female labor - including in the army, where swearing directly inherited the communication function of archaic male unions. Therefore, soon the taboo of swearing in a female or mixed environment ceased to be strong, and then became a thing of the past. Male obscene code became universal.
There are a lot of myths around Russian swearing that do not correspond to reality. For example, Russian linguists and historians have spread two myths about swearing: that Russians began to swear in response to the “Tatar-Mongol yoke” and that swearing is supposedly “a product of Slavic paganism.”
Our ancestors divided some words into:
1. Swear words are words from the mother, i.e. her blessing!
2. Swear words are words used on the battlefield to intimidate the enemy!
3. Foul language is the very bad thing you shouldn’t say!
All these points were reduced by the enemies of our Race to one thing and now mean the same thing, that is, bad words!
A lot has been written about the dangers of swearing. A long time ago I read an article by one writer, I no longer remember his name. He attacked the mat with noble anger. For a long time and convincingly he proved how disgusting and disgusting this was. In conclusion, he brought the only one to him famous case usefulness of the mat.
I will retell this incident too. A freight train is traveling, but it is carrying people. I don’t remember why, but there was a man on the other side of the carriage. He is holding on with all his strength. It's about to fall off and die. The men in the carriage are trying to open the door and get him in. But the door is jammed and it won’t budge. The men are already exhausted and have mentally come to terms with the loss, but they continue to fiddle around. And then the unexpected happened.
A modest, quiet girl will shout: “Oh, you guys, fuck you! Anu got it!” And a miracle happened. Wild strength was revealed in men. The muscles tensed in one impulse, the door flew off, and the man was saved. Then they asked the girl how she decided to say such a thing. And she blushed, looked down and couldn’t utter a word out of shame.
Here the author hit the nail on the head, without even suspecting it. The point is that the mat is designed for exceptional cases. In Russia, swear words are also called swear words. Here you are standing on the battlefield, wounded, exhausted and, staggering, leaning on your sword. And your enemies are attacking you. For them and even for you, the outcome of the meeting is obvious. But you raise your head, look at them for a long time and say: “Well, come here, damn it, so get over you!!” And a miracle happens. A wild power is revealed in you. And your sword whistled like the blades of a helicopter, and the heads of your enemies rolled with an astonished expression on their faces. Then you yourself are surprised. This is what a mat is, this is why it is needed.
Our ancestors knew and understood the power of swearing very well. They carried it for centuries, and maybe even millennia, but they were not fools. Mat is exactly what is needed in emergency, critical situations. The ban creates a reserve of energy, like a battery, or more precisely, like a capacitor. Because the battery releases energy slowly, and the capacitor discharges instantly. This burst of energy works wonders. Any nation, people and even tribe have forbidden words, words that are tabooed. This general property people, or more precisely, the property of a community of people. Fighting this property is as stupid as creating a new person. Why is Russian swearing so developed? Yes, because our history is difficult. Who knows, maybe thanks to swearing they survived and survived as a people.
To combat swearing, they propose to introduce swear words into everyday use and stop considering them swear words. And that will be? Here's what. You stand on the battlefield, wounded, exhausted and staggeringly leaning on your sword. And your enemies are attacking you. For them and even for you, the outcome of the meeting is obvious. But you raise your head, look at them for a long time and say: “Well, come on, damn it, so get over you. And then do the same again.” But a miracle does not happen. There is no longer any energy in these words. These words sound like: the weather has turned bad. You don't have a hidden reserve. And they take you lukewarm and rape your wife in front of your eyes, and take your children into slavery. Reducing swear words to ordinary ones discharges the people, making them sluggish and flabby.
MYTHS AND TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIAN MATE
There are a lot of myths around Russian swearing that do not correspond to reality. For example, Russian linguists and historians have spread two myths about swearing: that Russians began to swear in response to the “Tatar-Mongol yoke” and that swearing is supposedly “a product of Slavic paganism.”
In fact, the Slavs never swear. Including Belarusians and Ukrainians, as well as Poles, before the Russian occupation of 1795, the worst curses were only “curva” (corrupt girl) and “cholera” (disease). Neither Kievan Rus, nor the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, nor the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth have preserved a single document with obscenities and not a single order from the authorities on the fight against swearing, although in Muscovy there is a huge abundance of such documents.
If it were not for the Russian occupation, then Belarusians (Litvins), Ukrainians and Poles would not be swearing today. Today, however, Poles still hardly swear, and Slovaks and Czechs do not swear at all.
And this is quite normal, because most peoples of the world do not know swear words - just as the Slavs, Balts, Romans, and Germans did not know them. Their sexual vocabulary is extremely poor (compared to Russian), and many languages do not use sexual themes at all when using foul language. For example, the French “con” conveys the name of both the male and female genital organs with different articles, and the limit of foul language in the French is to simply call the opponent with this word. And only in the English language and only at the beginning of the twentieth century, and only in the USA, did the curse “mother fucker” appear, which has no analogue in Europe, and which was a copy of Russian obscenities - it was introduced into the US language by emigrants from Russia (see. V. Butler “The Origin of Jargon in the USA”, 1981, New York).
Thus, swearing is not at all a “product of Slavic paganism,” for the pagan Slavs did not swear.
The statement that “in ancient Rus' they swore” is also a myth. In Kievan Rus, no one swore - they only swore in Muscovy, but it was not Russia.
First mentions of strange habit Historians find Muscovites using obscenities in 1480, when Prince Vasily III, along with Prohibition, demanded that Muscovites stop swearing. Then Ivan the Terrible ordered to “click on the auction” so that the Muscovites “would not swear and would not reproach each other with all sorts of obscene and nasty speeches.”
Then the German traveler Olearius, who arrived in Muscovy, noted with regret the wide prevalence of swearing: “Little children, who do not yet know how to name either God, or mother, or father, already have obscene words on their lips.”
In 1648, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich conceived the idea of “getting rid of the infection” and gave a royal decree so that “they should not sing demonic songs, swear, or use any obscene barking... And if people teach someone to scold someone with swearing and all sorts of barking - and to those people for such opposite Christian law for the fury of being from Us in great disgrace and cruel punishment."
Moscow priest Yakov Krotov notes:
“Throughout the 17th and most of the 18th centuries, Muscovy was calm about swearing. A simple example: near the Savinno-Storozhevsky Zvenigorod Monastery, located three kilometers from Zvenigorod, a stream flows, and in all scribe books, starting from the end XVI century, when the first one was compiled, it was completely normal for scribes to record the name of this stream, which flowed through the land that belonged to the monastery. The first letter was "p", the second half ended in "omoy". Who came here to wash from Zvenigorod, several kilometers away? Not quite clear. But, one way or another, at the end of the 18th century, when the general survey of Russia was carried out, drawing up full map Russian Empire, by decree of Catherine the Great, all names that contain obscene language and obscene roots are replaced with more euphonious ones. Since then this Zvenigorod stream has also been renamed.”
Until now, on the maps of Muscovy-Russia there were thousands of toponyms and hydronyms created on the basis of swear words.
There was nothing like this at that time either in Belarus-Lithuania or in Rus'-Ukraine then - the people there did not know curse words.
This circumstance could seemingly be explained by the fact that the Belarusians and Ukrainians were never under the Horde, and the Muscovites lived in the Horde for three hundred years, and then seized power in it, annexing the Horde to Muscovy. After all, before Soviet historians That’s what they believed: that the Muscovites’ curses were supposedly their response to the “Tatar-Mongol yoke.”
For example, Vladimir Kantor, a fiction writer and member of the editorial board of the Russian journal Voprosy filosofii, recently wrote:
“But in Russia, during the Tatars, the word “eble” appeared, which is a derivative for us, Russian people, understandably, associated with defamation of the mother and so on, in Turkic it simply meant to get married. The Tatar, capturing the girl, said that he was “eble” her, that is, he was taking her. But for any Russian commoner whose daughter, wife, or sister was taken away, he committed violence against a woman, and as a result, this word absolutely acquired the character of rape. What are swear words? This is the language of the raped, that is, of that lower layer who always feels outside the zone of action of high culture and civilization, humiliated, insulted, raped. And like any raped slave, he is ready to use this violence against his comrade, and if it works out, of course, against a noble one.”
At first glance, the version seems foldable. However, she is wrong.
Firstly, the current Tatars of Kazan (then Bulgars) were just like that “languishing from the Tatar yoke” (for Kazan was in equally vassal of the Tatars, like Moscow), but for some reason they did not give birth to the world.
Secondly, the Tatars of the Horde were not Turks, but were a mixture of Turkic and Finno-Ugric tribes. For this reason, they annexed the Finns of Suzdal-Muscovy (Mordovians, Moksha, Erzya, Murom, Merya, Chud, Meshchera, Perm) to the Horde and sought to unite all the Finno-Ugric peoples who left the Volga for Europe, including those who reached Hungary, the people which they considered “ours by right.”
Thirdly, there was no “Tatar yoke”. Moscow paid the Tatars only a tax (half of which it kept for itself for the labor of collecting it - which is how it rose) and sent its Moscow army to serve in the army of the Horde. It never happened that the Tatars captured girls from Muscovy as wives - these are modern inventions. They were captured as slaves during wars, but in the same way, hundreds of thousands of Slavs were captured as slaves by the Muscovites themselves (for example, 300 thousand Belarusians were captured by the Muscovites as slaves in the war of 1654-1657). But a slave is not a wife.
Generally speaking, this whole version of Vladimir Kantor is “sucked up” only on two dubious grounds: the presence in the Turkic language of the word “eble” (to marry) and the myth about the notorious “Tatar yoke”. This is very little, especially since other main swear words in the Russian language remain without explanation. How were they formed?
Although I must note that this hypothesis of Cantor is already a kind of breakthrough in the topic, because earlier Soviet historians generally wrote that the Muscovites simply adopted swear words from the Tatar-Mongols, they say they taught the Muscovites to swear. However, there are no obscenities in either the Turkic language or the Mongolian language.
So, there are two serious circumstances that completely refute Cantor’s hypothesis about the origin of one of the Russian mats from the Turkic word “eble” (to marry).
1. Excavations by academician Valentin Yanin in Novgorod led in 2006 to the discovery birch bark letters with obscenities. They are much older than the parish in Principality of Suzdal Tatars Which puts a BOLD CROSS on the general attempt of historians to link the obscenities of the Muscovites with the language of the Tatars (Turkic).
Moreover, these mats on the birch bark letters of Novgorod are adjacent to elements of Finnish vocabulary - that is, the people who wrote them were not Slavs (colonists encouraged by Rurik, who sailed from Polabye and built Novgorod here), but local semi-Slavicized colonists of Rurik, Finns (or Sami, or miracle, all, muromoy).
2. There is another people in Europe, besides the Muscovites, who have been swearing for a thousand years - and with the SAME RUSSIAN cuss words.
These are Hungarians.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF RUSSIAN MATES
For the first time about Hungarian mats Russian historians They found out quite recently - and were extremely surprised: after all, the Hungarians are not Slavs, but Finno-Ugric peoples. Yes, and we weren’t under any “ Tatar-Mongol yoke", for they left the Volga for Central Europe centuries before the birth of Genghis Khan and Batu. For example, Moscow researcher of the topic Evgeny Petrenko is extremely discouraged by this fact and admits in one of his publications that “this completely confuses the issue of the origin of Russian obscenities.”
In fact, this does not confuse the question, but rather provides a complete answer.
The Hungarians have been using mats absolutely similar to those of Muscovy since the time they came to Europe from the Volga.
It is clear that Cantor’s hypothesis about the origin of one of the Russian mats from the Turkic word “eble” (to marry) is in no way applicable to the Hungarians, because the Turks did not force their girls to marry. And there are no Turks around the Hungarians in Central Europe.
Evgeniy Petrenko notes that the Serbian swear expression “ebene sluntse in pichku” appeared historically recently - only 250 years ago, and was adopted by the Serbs from the Hungarians during the period when Serbia came from the Turkish yoke to the rule of Austria-Hungary under Empress Maria Theresa. The Hungarian chronicles of the Middle Ages are filled with such obscenities that did not exist anywhere else and among no one else around (Slavs, Austrians, Germans, Italians, etc., including Turks). The Hungarian colonial administration then carried them to the Serbs, Hungarian army and the Hungarian aristocracy.
Why are the Hungarians’ swear words absolutely identical to the Muscovite swear words?
There can be only one answer: THESE ARE FINNO-UGRIAN MATS.
Let me remind you that Hungarians, Estonians, Finns and Russians are one and the same Finnish ethnic group. The Russians, however, were partly Slavicized by the priests of Kyiv, who instilled Orthodoxy among them. But studies of the gene pool of the Russian nation, conducted in 2000-2006 by the Russian Academy of Sciences (which we previously described in detail), showed that in terms of genes, Russians are absolutely identical to the Finnish ethnic group: Mordovians, Komi, Estonians, Finns and Hungarians.
Which should not be surprising, since all of Central Russia (historical Muscovy) is the land of the Finnish peoples, and all its toponyms are Finnish: Moscow (of the Moksha people), Ryazan (of the Erzya people), Murom (of the Murom people), Perm (of the Perm people) etc.
The only “blank spot” remains the question of the ancient presence of mats in Estonia and Finland. Judging by the fact that the birch bark letters of Novgorod with mats could most likely be written by the Sami (and not the Chud or Muroma), who also inhabited Estonia and Finland, the Estonians and Finns too must have had mats since ancient times. This nuance needs clarification.
On the other hand, in the Finno-Ugric ethnic groups, it was the Ugrians who could have given birth to mats. That is, the Hungarians and those who remained to live in the lands of the future Muscovy are related peoples to them. Ugric group languages includes today only Hungarian and Ob-Ugric Khanty and Mansi. In the past, this group was much more powerful, including, presumably, the Pecheneg people, who went with the Hungarians to Central Europe and along the way settled widely over the Crimea and in the steppes of the Don (they were allegedly exterminated by the Tatars). In Muscovy itself, the main ethnic group was the Mordovian ethnic group Moksha (Moksel in its language), which gave the name to the river Moksva (Moks Moksha + Va water), changed in the Kiev language to the more euphonious “Moscow” for the Slavs. And the Erzya ethnic group (with the capital Erzya and the state Great Erzya, later changed to Ryazan). In the Perm group of Komi and Udmurts, the state of Great Permia stood out. All this - historical territory the original distribution of mats.
Thus, the very term “Russian swearing” is absurd. For they are not Russians at all (in the understanding of Rus' as Kyiv State), and Finnish ones. Those who remained in the language of the native Finnish population of Muscovy as subjects of their pre-Slavic language.
ESSENCE OF MATES
What is the essence of Russian obscenities?
It is clear that Russian researchers of the issue have always been confused by the fact that the Russians have mats, while the Slavs and other Indo-Europeans do not have them at all. Therefore in this issue Russians have always, under the shadow of some kind of “inferiority complex,” instead of scientific consideration, tried to justify themselves or “make amends.” They tried to drag the Slavs into swearing - they say, this is Slavic paganism. But it didn’t work out - because the Slavs never swear, and the Russians are not Slavs. They tried to show that Russian obscenities were invented for a reason, but in response to the yoke of the Tatars. And it didn’t work out: the Hungarians had exactly the same mats, but they didn’t have any “Tatar yoke”.
In fairness, it should be said that the Russians are truly an unfortunate people of the former Finnish ethnic groups, whose fate over the last thousand years has been simply terrible.
At first, he was conquered as a slave by the younger princes of Kyiv, who simply did not get their principalities in the Rus of Kyiv. Since there were no Slavs here in future Muscovy, the princes and their squads treated the local Finnish population as slaves. Exactly Kyiv princes They introduced serfdom (that is, slavery) in Muscovy, which was wild in Kyiv in relation to the peasants of their own ethnic group. Let me remind you that neither in Ukraine nor in Belarus-Lithuania there was ever serfdom before the Russian occupation of 1795, and besides Muscovy, serfdom existed in Europe only in one place - in Prussia, where, in exactly the same way, the Germans made local foreign Prussians slaves and local Slavs.
Then these Finnish lands enslaved by Kievan Rus fell under the rule of the Horde of Trans-Volga Tatars, whose capital was located near present-day Volgograd. They created the Empire of the Turks and Finno-Ugrians, therefore mentally Suzdal lands were drawn to the Horde, and not to the Indo-European Rus of Kyiv and Lithuania-Belarus of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the country of the Western Balts). Moreover, the princely elite of the lands of the future Muscovy found in the Horde a very successful justification for their slaveholding power over the local Finnish population: Eastern traditions elevated rulers to the rank of God, which the Europeans never had, including Byzantium and the Russian Orthodox Church of Kyiv, which baptized Rus'.
These two main arguments turned Muscovy away from Rus' and Kyiv forever and created a new eastern type of state - a complete satrapy.
Therefore, the Finno-Russians (Muscovites) had every reason to swear at everyone: they lived freely only in their national Finnish states (of which only Finnish place names) before the arrival of the Kyiv enslavers. And then came a thousand years of complete slavery: first, slavery as part of Kievan Rus, then the same slavery, but when the Tatar enslavers were sitting on top of the Kyiv enslavers, and then the enslavers began to be called “Moscow Sovereigns.” Until 1864 (the abolition of serfdom), the people remained in the state of enslaved natives, that is, slaves, and the aristocracy despised them with the same degree of contempt as the British and French despised the African blacks they conquered in the 19th century.
Yes, from such a thousand-year oppression of Kievan Rus, the Horde and then Muscovy-Russia, there is enough hatred in the Finnish people to give birth to obscenities - like native slang of foul language towards the oppressors.
But... We see that these mats existed among the Finno-Ugrians even before their enslavement by their neighbors from the West and the East. And they exist among the Hungarians, who very successfully escaped from the Volga to Europe, avoiding the fate of their fellow tribesmen.
This means that the mats of the Finno-Ugric peoples did not originate as a response to the enslavers, but as something internal, purely primordial and without any external influence. Because the Finno-Ugric people ALWAYS swore.
Some researchers express the following point of view: swearing is part of some mystical culture, in a series of conspiracies or curses. Including some (A. Filippov, S.S. Drozd) find that the series swear words in essence does not mean something offensive, but a wish for death. For example, going to “n...”, as they write, means the desire to go to where you were born, that is, to leave life again into oblivion.
Is it so? I doubt.
Did the Finno-Ugric peoples in the past, during the era of the birth of swearing, have such a mystical culture in which sexual themes of swearing would be used? Personally, it’s hard for me to imagine this. Yes, sexual themes are present among all ancient peoples - but as symbols of fertility. But in our case we are talking about something completely different. And there is simply no “mystical culture” or “pagan cults” here.
It seems to me that the Moscow priest Yakov Krotov finds the essence of the obscenities most correctly:
“One of the modern Orthodox publicists, Abbot Veniamin Novik, published several articles against foul language, against swearing. In these articles, he emphasizes that swearing is associated with materialism. There is a kind of play on words here, with dialogue. “Why should release, and swearing, foul language, this is often justified as an emotional release, have to happen,” writes Abbot Veniamin, “at the expense of other people? A swearer certainly needs someone to hear him. Swearing is, first of all, a symptom evolutionary underdevelopment. Biologists know that in the animal world there is a bright expressed connection between aggressiveness and sexuality, and some “especially gifted” (hegumen Veniamin writes sarcastically) individuals use their genitals to intimidate the enemy. And some equally gifted representatives of the homo sapiens family do the same verbally. Exhibitionists are simply more consistent." This is a refutation of foul language and a rebuff to it from the standpoint of a modern, good educated person».
Exactly.
The Indo-Europeans did not swear because their ancestral ethnic group was formed as more progressive and excluded in communication the ape habits of “using your genitals to intimidate the enemy.” But the ancestral ethnic group of the Finno-Ugrians, who are not Indo-Europeans, was formed in a different way - and used monkey habits.
That’s the whole difference: Russians and Hungarians swear because they are not Indo-Europeans. And because their ancestors developed differently than the Indo-Europeans - in a completely different cultural environment.
Moreover, the use of swear words in communication necessarily retrospectively means that in the distant past the ancestors of Russians and Hungarians used these swear words as an illustration of ACTIONS - that is, the Finno-Ugric people used to show their genitals to their opponent as a SIGN OF INSULT. And various other indecent ACTIONS.
Does it seem wild? But this is no more savage than the very fact of almost COMPLETE approval of obscenities in Russia - primarily by cultural figures. How, for example, should one react to such statements: GALINA ZHEVNOVA, editor-in-chief of the joint editorial office of Gubernskie Izvestia, shares with readers: “I have a positive attitude towards swearing. Russian people have two ways of letting off steam. The first is vodka, the second is swearing. Let it be better to swear.”
Why don’t other nations have “ways to let off steam” only in the form of vodka and swearing? And why is swearing “better” than vodka?
WHAT IS MAT BETTER THAN VODKA?
In Russia they don’t understand that swearing destroys the foundations of Society. Swearing, being an animal behavior of “using one’s genitals to intimidate the enemy,” is already antisocial. But swearing has evolved compared to animals: the very name “swearing” means insulting the opponent’s mother in sexual violence from the speaker's side. What animals don't have.
For Finno-Ugric peoples (Russians and Hungarians) this is perhaps their own normal local traditional form communication. But for Indo-Europeans this is unacceptable.
Each of us was a child and knows that all sorts of nasty things easily penetrate into children's brains. Likewise, the swear words of the Hungarians and Russians were introduced into Europe not through our adult Europeans, but through children who had contact with the children of these peoples who spoke swear words. This fact alone shows that swearing enters the minds of people through the corruption of our children and, in essence, differs little from child pornography or the corruption of minors.
Let them always use obscenities in Russia. But why should we be like them? Our ancestors did not know these foreign obscenities.
It is very bad when sexual education of children begins with their knowledge of obscenities and their meaning. This is exactly what happened to me: teenagers taught me swear words and explained their meaning - they were the discoverers for me of the mystery of the relationship between a man and a woman - through swear words.
This is fine? This is absolutely abnormal.
Therefore, the opinion of the editor of a Russian newspaper that swearing is better than vodka seems completely erroneous. Our children don’t drink vodka at the age of 10, but learn swearing. For what?
Russian publicists say with pride and joy that Russian obscenities completely replace any transmission of thoughts and concepts. Olga Kvirkvelia, head of the Russian educational Christian center“Faith and Thought”, a Catholic, in a Radio Liberty program in February 2002 said about swearing: “In principle, swearing is like a good swearing, real, not the street one that we hear today, it’s just a sacred language that can be used to tell really absolutely everything. I became interested in swearing when I accidentally heard in the Novgorod region, in a village, how my grandmother explained to my grandfather how to plant cucumbers. There were only non-obscene pretexts, which is understandable perfectly. She didn’t swear, she very kindly, very friendly explained how to plant cucumbers correctly. This is a language that, unfortunately, we have practically lost and turned into something vulgar, disgusting, vile and bad. Actually this is not true. And this reflects very deep layers of consciousness.”
I'm shocked. Why can’t grandma talk normally about planting cucumbers in normal human terms, but replaces them all with sexual terms? Olga Kvirkvelia sees this in “sacred language.” What is “sacred” about it, besides the animal display of its genitals?
She also says that “This is a language that, unfortunately, we have practically lost.” It turns out that the Finno-Ugric language of Russians and Hungarians is the language of complete obscenities, where all concepts are replaced by them?
Unfortunately, everything bad and nasty tends to spread around like a disease. So Russia brought its mats to the neighboring peoples of the Belarusians, Ukrainians, Balts, Caucasians, peoples it conquered Central Asia who speak their own language, but insert Finnish obscenities through each word. Thus, Finnish “sacred words” became the everyday vocabulary of distant Uzbeks. Moreover, they began to swear in the USA - already in English, and it is quite normal in the film “Police Academy” to see a plot, the action of which takes a long time to unfold against the background of an inscription written in Russian on a telephone booth from the familiar three letters “x..”. Who wrote it there? Yankees?
But there is nothing like this anywhere else in the world: writing obscenities on the walls. And even Vysotsky noticed: in public French toilets there are inscriptions in Russian. Writing obscenities on a wall is tantamount to the animal behavior of displaying your genitals. Than "sacred" eastern neighbors and they work like monkeys. This is the exhibitionism of our eastern neighbor.
Is this the norm of behavior for us Europeans, including Belarusians and Ukrainians? Of course not, because we cannot express anything sacred, that is, sacred, simply because our ancestors did not know curse words. These swear words are foreign and foreign to us.
Our European languages have enough means to express any concept without obscenities, just as there are no obscenities in the works of Lev Tolstoy. He did not use the “sacred language”, but created literary masterpieces of world culture and the Russian language. Which already means that the Russian language will not lose anything without these obscenities. But he will only get richer
Annotation
Russian ballet, Russian caviar, Russian vodka, Russian swearing. Which of these national treasures has not become scarce in recent years? Only the fourth and to some extent the third.
And about the fifth - about Russian literature - there is nothing to remember. Unless - in connection with the holiday of foul language on printed pages.
Mat is the most expressive area of the Russian language. Our “three-letter” ones jokingly beat the English “four-letter” ones. They say respectfully about a person: “Talentedly swears!”
Politicians and military leaders, writers and artists, bankers and businessmen swear. Only in the criminal environment are other curse words accepted - innocent to the uninitiated ear.
New big dictionary Mata is not the first publication of its kind, but the most complete and original. It is original, in particular, in that the author of the dictionary managed to mercilessly ridicule in print all the predecessor dictionaries published both in Russia and abroad.
Well, the flag is in his hands!
Alexey Plutser-Sarno
Experience in building a reference and bibliographic database of lexical and phraseological meanings words
Gratitude
"And it's all about him"
0. Introductory remarks
1. Castration and phallus
2. Phallus and dick
3. Instead of a conclusion
Literature
Language and body
1. Towards knowledge of the hidden
2. Something about Slavic “expletive” lexicography
3. "The most powerful word"
4. Dictionary of one, "most" strong words"language
Literature
Swearing dictionary as a phenomenon of Russian culture
1. Sanctification of the obscene
2. Find in the Department of Manuscripts
3. Lawlessness according to Phlegon
4. American dictionaries Russian swearing
5. Amazing story about how the famous writer Pyotr Fedorovich Aleshkin skimmed the Russian obscene lexicography, or Notes about the book of the non-existent professor T.V. Akhmetova “Russian swearing: Dictionary", published in the third edition in Moscow by the Kolokol-press publishing house in 2000 (521 pp.)
b. Checkmate in heaven
7. Plagiarism in Russian
8. Mat in thieves' dictionaries
9. Mat in the dictionary of dialects
10. Dictionary without words
11. Mat in etymological dictionaries
12. The lexicographer’s Procrustean bed
About the semantics of the word "mate"
DICK, m. Neodush. and shower (1-7th digits); and also: unism. in func. neg. places (8th value); adv. (9th digit); in funk, tale. (12th digit), frequent. (11th digit), int. (12th digit);
[Grammar of substantive forms:]
[Meanings, sub-meanings, shades of meaning, shades of use:]
[Phraseology, language clichés:]
The concept of a database of a dictionary of Russian “obscene” vocabulary
General remarks
Russian swearing database structure
List of abbreviations
List of sources vocabulary base data
Consolidated alphabetical index processed in the preparation of a database of handwritten anonymous sources contained in the pseudo-Barkovian lists, as well as some compilations of these sources published in the 1990s.
Conditional abbreviations in the text index:
Bibliography of dictionaries containing obscene vocabulary and used in preparing the database
List of informants
Alexey Plutser-Sarno
Experience in building a reference and bibliographic database of lexical and phraseological meanings of words
"dick"
19 values,
9 subdivisions,
9 shades of meaning,
23 shades of using the word dick,
523 phraseological articles,
which presents
about 400 idioms and language cliches and more than 1000 phraseologically related meanings of the word dick
Introductory articles by Doctor of Philology, Professor, Head. Department of Slavic Studies of the University of Tartu, Academician A. D. Dulichenko and Doctor of Philology V. P. Rudneva
Gratitude
E. A. Zhdanova took part in compiling the database. She also carried out scientific editing of all dictionary entries. this volume, the section “Database Sources” was compiled and all citations in this volume were verified with citation sources.
E. A. Belousova took part in compiling the observable part of the database.
The principles of construction were discussed with A. S. Gerd at the Department of Mathematical, Applied and Structural Linguistics of St. Petersburg State University, which he heads. The help and support provided by A.S. Gerd cannot be overestimated.
In 1994, draft materials of the database were edited by I. A. Bogdanova (dictionary department of the St. Petersburg State University Publishing House).
I express my gratitude to Yu. S. Stepanov and Yu. N. Karaulov, who reviewed the manuscript and provided support to the author.
Preliminary materials of the database were discussed in 1994 with A. N. Baranov in the Sector of Experimental Lexicography of the Institute of the Russian Language, which he led.
Yu. D. Apresyan, E. E. Babaeva, A. K. Bayburin, A. D. Dulichenko, E. V. Dushechkina, M. M. Bolduman, Yu. A. Kleiner kindly agreed to read and discuss fragments of the obscene database , V. D. Lukov, S. Yu. Mazur, N. V. Pertsov, V. P. Rudnev, A. L. Sobolev, S. A. Starostin, V. N. Toporov and M. I. Shapir, critical whose comments and advice were extremely valuable for the author.
Thanks to A.K. Zholkovsky (Santa Monica), M.A. Kolerov (Moscow), I.P. Smirnov (Konstanz), A.M. Pyatigorsky (London), who showed interest in this work.
Computer assembly, networking and software over the past five years have been carried out by Alexander Mozhaev, to whom the author expresses his endless gratitude.
V. I. Belikova, A. F. Belousova, Alexandra Brenera, V. V. Gushchina, D. Ya. Kalugina, T. Yu. Kibirova, R. V. Klubkova, V. K. Kondratiev, Vladimir Kotlyarov ( Tolstoy), T. M. Levin, A. I. Mashnina, E. Yu. Podvalnaya, E. I. Revzin,
S. A. Savitsky, A. I. Sosland, V. Yu. Stepantsov, M. S. Trofimenkov, A. E. Shaburov, Y. Shilov and V. I. Erlya.
The author is infinitely indebted to the editor-in-chief of the Logos magazine V.V. Anashvili, the executive secretary of the Logos magazine V.P. Rudnev, the director of the Ad Marginem publishing house A.T. Ivanov, the editor-in-chief of the publishing house "Languages of Russian Culture" A.D. . Koshelev, editor of the magazine " New world" To A. A. Nosov, editor-in-chief of the magazine "New Literary Review" I. D. Prokhorova, editor of the magazine "New Literary Review" K. R. Kobrin, editor of the magazine "New Russian Book" G. A. Morev, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Ex libris" to I. A. Zotov and the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Entourage" E. Yu. Men for their selfless support of this project.
I also wanted to express my deepest gratitude to my teachers L. I. Sobolev, who carried me away with professional philological work, I. A. Chernov and A. D. Dulichenko, who supported the author during the Tartu period, Z. G. Mints and Yu. M. Lotman, who to their personal example doomed the author to fruitless attempts to complete this endless work.
"And it's all about him"
(“Hui”: Phenomenology, anthropology, metaphysics, pragmasemantics)
0. Introductory remarks
"Dick" is the most important object in human life, starting from early childhood, as well as in history human relations, culture, science, art and philosophy - and accordingly the most important word in the language (even if it is not actually pronounced). The present study will mainly be devoted to substantiating this thesis.
1. Castration and phallus
One of the most important discoveries of psychoanalysis (the first devotees of which at the beginning of our century were just as accused by ordinary people of frivolity, immorality, depravity, etc. (see about this in detail, for example, the biography of Freud [Jones 1998]), as they were at the end of the century Vladimir Sorokin, Viktor Erofeev, Oleg Kulik, Alexander Brener are accused of the same thing, and as, of course, the author of this book will also be accused) there was the discovery of several fundamental facts regarding the subject of our research (here we must apologize to the enlightened part of our readers for several paragraphs psychoanalytic educational program, without which we will not be able to move forward in the study of what we are talking about). The point is that, as Freud showed, Small child, whether boy or girl, believes that all people are or should be endowed with a penis.
In 1908, in the article “On the Theory of Infantile Sexuality,” Freud wrote: “Already in childhood, the penis is the leading erogenous zone and the main autoerotic object...
At the end of June, the State Duma supported a bill providing for increased punishment for using swear words in the family and in public places. There have been attempts to tighten liability for obscene language more than once - both under tsarism and after the revolution. About how unprintable words penetrated into social life here and in the West, Lidia Malygina, associate professor of the Department of Stylistics of the Russian Language, Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University, spoke about the history and meaning of the “KP” swear word, scientific adviser systems distance learning
– If there were no problem, there would be no law. The question arises: who originally taught Russian people to swear?
– One of the common versions is the Tatar-Mongols. But in fact, this vocabulary has nothing to do with them. Russian mat of Slavic origin. Four roots known to every Russian person can be found in Macedonian, Slovenian, and other Slavic languages.
Most likely, swearing was an element of pagan cults associated with fertility, for example, with the spell of cattle or the call of rain. The literature describes in detail this custom: a Serbian peasant throws an ax into the air and utters obscene words, trying to make it rain.
– Why did such words become taboo?
– When Christianity came to Rus', the church began an active fight against pagan cults, including swear words as one of the manifestations of the cult. Hence the strong taboo nature of these forms. This is what distinguishes Russian obscenities from obscenities in other languages. Of course, since then the Russian language has actively developed and changed, and with it Russian swearing. New ones have appeared swear words, but they are based on the same four standard roots. Some previously harmless words have become obscene. For example, the word "dick". "Her" is a letter pre-revolutionary alphabet, and the verb “poherit” was used to mean “cross out.” Now this word is not yet included in the category of swear words, but it is already actively approaching this.
– There is a myth about the uniqueness of Russian obscene language. Is it so?
– It’s interesting to compare with English language. Obscene words have always puzzled British philologists with their nature. As early as 1938, the linguist Chase emphasized: “If someone mentions sexual intercourse, it does not shock anyone. But if someone says an ancient Anglo-Saxon four-letter word, most people will freeze in horror.”
The premiere of Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion in 1914 was highly anticipated. A rumor was started that, according to the author's plan, the actress playing the main female role should utter an obscene word from the stage. Answering Freddie's question whether she was going to walk home, Eliza Dolittle had to very emotionally say: “Not bloody likely!” The intrigue remained until the last moment. During the premiere, the actress still uttered an obscene word. The effect was indescribable: noise, laughter, whistling, stomping. Bernard Shaw even decided to leave the hall, deciding that the play was doomed. Now the British are complaining that they have actually lost this favorite curse word, which has already lost its former power, because the word has begun to be used too often.
Lidia MALYGINA - Associate Professor of the Department of Stylistics of the Russian Language, Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University Photo: "KP" Archive
– Probably, after the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the situation changed a lot, and obscene words literally poured onto the pages of the press?
- Certainly. Remember Great Britain late XIX– beginning of the twentieth century. Back then, even the legs of the piano were covered in covers so that they would not evoke random erotic associations! In the second half of the twentieth century, contraception developed rapidly and the pornography industry grew. Marriage for life and fidelity between spouses began to look like old-fashioned prejudices. Yes, and heterosexuality in marriage has ceased to exist prerequisite. It is noteworthy that at this time the attitude towards obscene words also changed. Two linguistic collections dedicated to obscene language appear. The first was published in the USA in 1980. The second was published in the United Kingdom and the USA in 1990. These reference books already contain several articles about vulgarisms. Examples of the use of obscene language were given in plain text.
– And yet they were punished for swearing. There is a well-known case when, at the height of anti-war protests in the United States in 1968, a young man who did not want to serve under conscription was prosecuted for wearing a jacket with the inscription: “F... the draft!”
- Yes. Another well-known case is the 12-minute radio program “Obscene Words.” Satirist George Carlin listed seven words that should not be said on the radio, and then began to discuss the problem. One of the listeners was driving in a car with a child and accidentally heard the program. He immediately called the show's editor and complained.
Another famous scandal was caused by newspapers in the late 1970s. published an obscene statement that a player uttered to a referee during a sporting competition: “f... cheating cunt.” And even in works of art, the rudest words began to appear without any disguise. In the guide to St. Petersburg, Western authors do not hesitate to explain Russian vulgarisms, for example, b... (whore) – which is usually rendered as simply b... (short version of the word - Ed.) – and plays an equivalent role to 'f ...'in English for those who use it as a verbal stutter.
– Russian journalists also like to use obscene words and expressions, slightly disguising them so as not to formally violate the law banning swearing in the media...
– Yes, softer expressions instead of rude ones often cover up easily guessable ones in the text obscene language, swear words and curses: “Dick Lawyer: UEFA for yourself!”; “Hugh Hefner and Dasha Astafieva: Hugh knows her...”; “And he stole 2 billion worth of deposits... But he himself ended up in complete “khopra””; or “Russia in CHOP” - heading special report about private security companies or the title of a film about weight loss “I’m losing weight, dear editors!”
– Are there other languages, besides Russian, in which obscene vocabulary is divided into ordinary swear words and strictly taboo words, the use of which is prohibited in any situation and in any context?
– In this sense, the Russian language is unique. Although, for example, the obscene vocabulary of the Spanish language is also associated with the sexual sphere, unlike German (in German this is the sphere of excrement). But in Spanish there is no such taboo, so the first academic dictionaries Spanish contained similar vocabulary, but Russian dictionaries did not. In general, the first dictionary fixation of obscenities dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. We are talking about the third edition of Dahl's dictionary, edited by Baudouin de Courtenay. But such activities of dictionary compilers quickly ended, because Soviet authority banned the use of obscenities, and the third edition of Dahl's dictionary was sharply criticized.
Some people don't swear at all. Someone inserts abuse through a word. Most people use strong words at least sometimes. What is Russian swearing and where did it come from?
Russian swearing has a rich history
©Flickr
Attention! The text contains profanity.
The notorious social opinion does not allow you to study the good old mat. This is what most researchers who choose such a difficult path complain about. Therefore, there is very little literature about swearing.
One of the mysteries of Russian profanity– the origin of the word “checkmate”. According to one hypothesis, “mate” originally means “voice.” That is why phrases like “shouting obscenities” have come down to us. However generally accepted version reduces the word “mat” to “mother”, therefore - “swear at mother”, “send to hell”, etc.
Another problem with swearing is the impossibility of compiling an accurate list of swear words, because some native speakers highlight certain words as obscene, others do not. This is the case, for example, with the word “gondon”. However, typical swear words come from only four to seven roots.
It is known that different peoples have a different “reserve” of mate, which can be raised to different areas. Russian swearing, like the swearing of many other cultures, is tied to the sexual sphere. But this is not the case among all nations, since there are whole line cultures where everything related to sex is not taboo. For example, among the indigenous population of New Zealand - the Maori people. One of the tribes - the ancestor of the Maoritans - quite “officially” bore the name “Ure Vera”, which translated means “hot penises”, or “hot penis”. In European culture, the sphere of swearing, by the way, is also not necessarily associated with sexual relations. If you look at Germanic languages, then it will become clear that many curses there are related to bowel movements.
The basis of Russian obscene vocabulary, as in many other languages, is the so-called “obscene triad”: the male genital organ (“x.y”), the female genital organ (p..da), and the verb describing the process of copulation (“e ..t"). It is interesting that it is typical for the Russian language complete absence designations for these words are literary native Russian terms. They are replaced either by bare Latin and medical soulless equivalents, or by emotional ones - swear words.
In addition to the obscene triad, the Russian swear word is also characterized by the word “bl.d” - the only one that does not mean genitals and copulation, but comes from the Slavic damn, which translated into Russian means “fornication – error, error, sin.” IN Church Slavonic word“bl..stvovat” means “to lie, deceive, slander.”
©Flickr
Also popular are “m..de” (male testicles), “man.a” (female genitalia) and “e.da” (male genitalia).
The above seven lexemes famous explorer Russian swearing Alexey Plutser-Sarno proposes to take Russian swearing as the basis for the concept, citing, however, another 35 roots that survey participants considered obscene (among them, by the way, such words as “eat” and “vomit”).
Despite the very limited number of roots, Russian swearing is characterized by a simply gigantic number of derivative words. In addition to existing ones, new ones are constantly emerging. Thus, researcher V. Raskin gives far from full list derivatives from the word “e..t” (verbs only): e..nut, e..tsya, e..tsya, e.izdit, e.nut, e.tsitsya, e.sti, v..bat, you.fuck, you.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck.fuck, forget.fuck, forget.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck..fuck, b..fuck, stop..knock, kick..knock, kick..knock, kick..knock, kick.knock, fuck..knock, kick..knock, kick..knock, raz..knock, break up, fuck up, fuck up, fuck up, fuck up, fuck up, etc.
No one knows for sure where the Russian swear word came from. The once popular hypothesis that we got it “from the Mongol-Tatar yoke” (“Tatar version”) was completely refuted with the discovery of Novgorod birch bark letters of the 12th-13th centuries. It was not possible to blame it on the yoke. This is understandable, because obscene language is, in one way or another, characteristic, apparently, of all languages of the world.
But there are other versions. Two of them are basic. The first is that Russian swearing is associated with erotic pagan rituals that were played important role in agricultural magic. Second - swear words in Rus' once had different meaning, for example, double. But over time, one of the meanings was supplanted, or they were merged together, turning the meaning of the word into a negative one.