In Russian folk tales and epics, phrases like: "Oh, you goy thou, good fellow!" We are sure that you have come across them more than once. As a rule, this is found in some references. Here comes, say, Ivan Tsarevich to the far-away kingdom, and then from the doorway to him - "goy thou" and that's it.
Have you ever wondered what this actually means?
Intuition tells that this is something good, benevolent. But it is not clear why they suddenly call “a good fellow” a “goi”. Let's figure it out.
The word “goy” in this case has ancient roots and comes from gojiti, which in the Proto-Slavic language meant “to live”. In the course of evolution, this base turned into gojь, hence - "goy".
That is, the meaning of this mysterious word is simple - to live. Hence, by the way, the Old Russian word "goit" with the same meaning.
Well, “are” is a form of the verb “to be”, applied to the second person singular.
Putting it all together and it turns out: "you live." It also sounds a little strange for a modern ear. This is not a question, since it is pronounced with an affirmative tone. And as a question, there would be little sense here - everyone already sees that the good fellow is alive and well.
By the way, the word "healthy" crept in here not by chance. It is this that gives a hint on how to correctly translate this expression from Old Russian.
Promotional video:
Remember how it is customary to greet each other now? No, not by exclamations like “yo, people”, but in normal literary Russian. That's right - hello. Only “hello” is a borrowing from the Old Church Slavonic language. And its analogue in Old Russian is just "goy thou".
ANASTASIA ALEKSEEVA
