Initially, civilians were called those people whose appearance was characteristic of a non-military person. But over time, military intelligence began to develop, and the overall appearance ceased to be a guarantee that this person has nothing to do with military forces.
What does the word "civilian" mean
The explanatory dictionary of S. I. Ozhegov reveals that civilian is non-military, civil, or something inanimate (dress, shoes), intended for a non-military person. From the etymological dictionary of M. Fasmer one can learn that this word came from the outdated German expression staat, meaning state and government. Then he was influenced by the Latin word status - status. From this it can be inferred that a civilian is a person who is in a public service that does not intersect with the military field.
Brief description of the word according to the rules of the Russian language
The word civilian can be described as follows:
- high-quality adjective;
- "state" is the root, "ck" is the suffix, "i" is the ending;
- transcription - [ΛΚtatΝ‘skΚ²ΙͺΙͺΜ―];
- synonyms: secular, civil, civil and so on;
- Antonyms: military, army and so on.
Plainclothes
On the Internet there is a biographical reference book "Chronos", which contains information about all Soviet intelligence workers from 1917 to 1991. It goes without saying that the majority of biographies refer to military intelligence. But among them one can see both Chekists punishing everyone whom they considered a potential enemy of the Soviet regime, as well as members of the MGB, NKGB, OGPU, and NKVD. In their arsenal of funds was such a favorite way of working as penetrating into any society or the environment of a famous person by wearing ordinary clothes and using civilian documents without military regalia. This made it possible to gain confidence in the necessary person and secretly gather all the necessary information from him. Therefore, the word "civilian" is a lexical unit that has a very conditional definition.