The history of the word “work” is known to most native speakers of the Russian language very superficially. It is known that the word comes from "slave" - ​​a bonded worker, which, of course, gives rise to many jokes about low salaries, poor workers and that it would be nice to replace the ungrateful "work" with a more proud "work" everywhere. Nevertheless, no one digs deeper, and most people seem to have enough of this tip of the iceberg. For those who are interested in the whole process of word formation as a whole, the full history of the word “work” from etymological dictionaries will be told in this article.
Slavic roots
The history of the origin of this word is inextricably linked with the common Slavic root "orb". Translated, it literally means the following: "helpless", "powerless", "weak." It is noteworthy that in addition to the above-mentioned “slave” and “work”, the word “child” also came from this root - a helpless, weak creature. So “worker” and “child” are kindred words in a sense.
Early meaning of the word “work”
The history of the word “work” (which, incidentally, was previously written through “about” rather than “a”) remembers the time several hundred years ago, when this term was understood as an ungrateful, hard, forced labor. Slaves literally called those who did not work of their own free will, but by any means of compulsion, because they were obliged to people with a higher position.
According to some sources, the history of the origin of the word “work” is closely connected with the period of the existence of the concept of “corvée” in the Russian Empire. The work was literally considered to be synonymous with corvee labor - days that the peasant worked on a foreign land without receiving payment for this, not counting the right to keep his own small farm.
Related words from other languages
It is noteworthy that the root "orb" almost never took root, not counting the Russian language. Only the German word arbeit, meaning work, can be distinguished from the closest analogues. Its direct synonym - the word werk - comes from the Indo-European root werg. Interestingly, this option took root better than the Slavic one - for example, the notorious English work came from it.
Is "labor" better than "work"?
This is a common misconception, probably related to the obvious negative connotation of the word “slave”. However, with the word “labor”, too, not everything is so rosy, noble and dignified.
The term “labor” has the Latin basis trudo, literally translated as coercion, not voluntary physical effort. In Dahl's explanatory dictionary, one of the meanings of the word labor is suffering, oppression. This negative connotation is reflected in the phrases “hard work”, “hard work” and the like, literally meaning work for which you have to make efforts, that is, to suffer.
Replacing "work" with "work" is a private matter for everyone. If we talk about the history of the words “work” and “labor”, both of them are not too optimistic, since they succinctly reflect the difficult past of the people and the state.
Alternatives
An ideal variant of “positive” substitution would be a word formed from the Latin root of labor - “effort”, “labor” (in its modern, not historical sense). However, this word migrated to the Russian language only within the framework of the words "laboratory" and "laboratory assistant", which in no way fit into the life of an ordinary worker.
The option "employee" also sounds ignoble, because it comes from the word "serve", "serve", that is, to be subordinate to someone, in fact - to be someone else's slave.
In no case should you be upset about this. The Russian language is not the only one in which the history of the word “work” has a negative connotation. Take, for example, the French word travail, derived from the Latin tripalium - “three sticks”, that is, a weapon consisting of three copies. In the Middle Ages, it was used to torture people.