The phrase "old grunt" is well known to the native speaker of the Russian language. The "old" part does not raise any questions, but what does the mysterious word "grunt" in itself mean? And why it is sometimes useful to look into the dictionary.
Who is grunt?
We turn to one of the most authoritative sources in the field of the Russian language - Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. According to him, the meaning of the word "grunt" is "old man," "old man." The dictionary article provides an example from the works of Pushkin, starting with the words "shut up, grunt" - without the adjective "old".
But where did this strange word come from?
To determine the etymology of a word, one will again have to turn to dictionaries. There are several versions about the origin of the word "grunt". Max Fasmer’s etymological dictionary associates it with the onomatopoeic “hry”, also preserved in the word “grunt”. In addition, the assumption made by Academician Oleg Trubachev of the Russian Academy of Sciences that the origin of the word "hrych" is a relative of the Old Russian "grig", which means a dog, is mentioned in a dictionary article.
In Shansky’s etymological dictionary, we also find information that the word “hrych” is formed in a suffixive way (like the words “owl” or “rook”) from the onomatopoeic “hry” that imitated snoring. A version of the relationship with the word "grin" is mentioned as unlikely.
Scary grunt
The unknown always gives rich scope for imagination. Especially lovers of tickling nerves are greedy for him. On the Russian-speaking Internet, you can easily find a lot of chilling posts about demonic creatures with the mysterious name "hrych".
Someone even associates the word with Slavic mythology. However, explanatory dictionaries clarify the situation: in modern Russian, "grunt" is nothing more and no less than a derogatory name for an elderly person. So the name of an unknown monster from the numerous "creep pasta" can be replaced without any loss of meaning with "old man."