What Did The Russian Obscene Words Originally Mean? - Alternative View

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What Did The Russian Obscene Words Originally Mean? - Alternative View
What Did The Russian Obscene Words Originally Mean? - Alternative View

Video: What Did The Russian Obscene Words Originally Mean? - Alternative View

Video: What Did The Russian Obscene Words Originally Mean? - Alternative View
Video: TOP 11 RUSSIAN CURSE WORDS 2024, May
Anonim

Swearing has been accompanying Russia since its inception. The authorities, social formations, culture and the Russian language itself are changing, but the mat remains unchanged.

Native speech

Almost the entire XX century was dominated by the version that the words that we call obscene came into the Russian language from the Mongol-Tatars. However, this is a delusion. Swearing is already found in Novgorod birch bark letters dating back to the 11th century: that is, long before the birth of Genghis Khan.

Revolt against matriarchy

The concept of "checkmate" is rather late. In Russia from time immemorial it was called "barking obscene". I must say that initially the obscene language included exclusively the use of the word "mother" in a vulgar, sexual context. The words denoting the reproductive organs, which we today refer to as mate, did not refer to “barking obscene”.

There are a dozen versions of the mate function. Some scholars suggest that swearing appeared at the turn of the transition of society from matriarchy to patriarchy and initially meant the imperious assertion of a man who, having passed the rite of copulation with the "mother" of the clan, publicly announced this to his fellow tribesmen.

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Canine tongue

True, the previous version does not explain in any way the use of the word "bark". On this score, there is another hypothesis, according to which "swearing" had a magical, protective function and was called "doggie language". In the Slavic (and Indo-European in general) tradition, dogs were considered animals of the "afterlife" and served the goddess of death Morena. A dog who served an evil witch could turn into a person (even an acquaintance) and come with evil thoughts (bring an evil eye, damage or even kill). So, sensing something was wrong, the potential victim of Morena, just had to utter a protective "mantra", that is, send him to "mother". It was his time to expose the evil demon, "the son of Morena", after which he had to leave the person alone.

It is curious that even in the XX century the popular belief that "swearing" scares away devils and swearing makes sense even "for the sake of prevention", not seeing a direct threat.

Good calling

As already mentioned, the Old Russian words denoting reproductive organs began to be attributed to "swearing" much later. In the pagan era, these lexemes were in common use and did not have abusive connotations. Everything changed with the arrival of Christianity in Russia and the beginning of the ousting of the old "filthy" cults. The words of sexual connotation were replaced by “Church Slavisms: copulate, fertile oud, penis, etc. In fact, there was a serious rationale behind this taboo. The fact is that the use of the former "terms" was ritualized and associated with pagan fertility cults, special conspiracies, appeals for good. By the way, the very word "good" (in the old Slavic - "bolgo") meant "a lot" and was used at the beginning in the "agricultural" context.

It took the Church many centuries to reduce agrarian rituals to a minimum, but the "fertile" words remained in the form of "relics": however, already in the status of curses.

Censorship of the Empress

There is one more word that today is unfairly referred to as swearing. For the purpose of self-censorship, we will designate it as a "word with the letter" B ". This lexeme quietly existed in the element of the Russian language (it can even be found in church texts and official state documents), meaning "fornication", "deception", "delusion", "heresy", "mistake". The people often applied this word to dissolute women. Perhaps during the time of Anna Ioannovna this word began to be used with greater frequency and, probably, in the latter context, because it was this empress who imposed a ban on it.

"Thug" censorship

As you know, in the criminal, or "thug" environment, swearing is strictly taboo. For a carelessly dropped obscene expression, a prisoner can face much more serious liability than an administrative fine for public obscene language in the wild. Why are “urkagans” so dislike Russian mat? First of all, that swearing can pose a threat to "give a damn" or "thug music". The keepers of thieves' traditions well understand that if mate supplants argo, then they will lose their authority, their "uniqueness" and "exclusivity", and most importantly, the power in prison, the elite of the criminal world - in other words, "lawlessness" will begin. It is curious that criminals (unlike statesmen) understand well what any language reform and borrowing of foreign words can lead to.

Renaissance mata

Today's time can be called a renaissance of swearing. This is facilitated by the boom of social networks, where people got the opportunity to swear in public. With some reservations, we can talk about the legitimization of foul language. There has even appeared a fashion for swearing: if earlier it was the lot of the lower strata of society, now the so-called intelligentsia, the creative class, the bourgeoisie, women and children also resort to "savory words". It is difficult to say with what such a revival of "obscene bark" is connected. But we can safely say that this will not increase the harvest, matriarchy will not win, it will not drive out demons …