Modern Russian language is very different from how our ancestors used it a hundred or more years ago. Lively and agile, he changes with society. By studying, for example, the lexical composition of speech, one can trace what innovations in the field of science, technology, politics, and other areas have been introduced, and what has irrevocably become a thing of the past. After all, neologisms, historicisms, obsolete words - all this is our story, captured in the word.
To know - not to know, to know - not to know
Current native speakers often find it difficult to explain: who the ignorant is who? They confuse it with another word that is close in meaning and meaning - an ignoramus. Let's try to shed light on an entertaining riddle. To do this, look into the dictionary. For example, Vladimir Dahl interprets the lexeme as follows: “Ignoramus is a word formed from verbs not to know, not to know, not to be able to. Ignorant, uncivil, not knowing how to behave, keep on people. For example: you’re ignorant to plant a horse, so he will climb under the image. ”
Along the way, Dahl points out that even though the word “ignoramus” goes back to the same roots, its meaning is different: an uneducated person, not burdened with book knowledge, is dark. As an example, Vladimir Ivanovich cites the saying: "the scribe - his own, the ignoramus - his own", "do not demand knowledge from the ignorant." At the same time, he emphasizes that "ignorance is equal to ignorance." Thus, according to Dahl, an ignoramus is a person with gaps in education, behavior, and an ignoramus is in education, knowledge, and academic subjects.
Ushakov dictionary
Continuing our language research, we turn to another authoritative source - Explanatory Dictionary edited by Ushakov. It indicates that the word refers to both the male and female gender. The author distinguishes two meanings from the token. First: the ignorant is a rude man, an inconsiderate. The second is a synonym for colloquial “ignoramus”. The following examples are used as synonyms : a wahlak, a peasant, a collective farmer, a hillbilly man, a snapper, etc. That is, Ushakov combines both concepts into one. How competent is this position, we will figure it out a bit later.
Dictionary Ozhegova-Shvedova
In the Explanatory Dictionary of the Modern Russian Language, edited by Ozhegov, we read: “The ignoramus is a rude, impolite, ill-mannered person.” That is, a clear boundary has already been drawn between “being literate” and “being educated”. It turns out that Ozhegov more accurately than Ushakov takes into account the semantics of the word, the shades of its meaning and possible situations of use. This interpretation fits more into the model of modern society. For example, such a phenomenon as a barbaric, disregard for works of art, architectural monuments, picturesque corners of nature just testifies not to the absence or lack of education, knowledge, but to gaps in education, spiritual, moral savagery and lack of culture. It is in this sense that the word “ignoramus” is used in the address of modern savages. And the synonym “Balls” cited in the dictionary approaches him very well.
Grammatical aspect
Let us now dwell on the grammatical categories that determine the morphological and syntactic nature of the word. They will also help clarify its lexical meaning. The ignoramus is a noun, animate, of a general gender (i.e., it can be used for both male and female), the first declension. It can be in the singular or plural form. In word-formation analysis, the prefix "not" is singled out, the root is "vezha", the ending is "a". By origin goes back to the Church Slavonic “ignoramus” (with the word) from “know”. See the detailed evidence below.
To the question of etymology
The tokens “ignoramus”, “know”, “polite” enter the nest of kindred, but not
cognate words. “Veda” is a verb dating back to the old Russian “Vedi,” that is, “to know.” “Polite” comes from the word “vezha” - “connoisseur”, long gone out of use. Thus, initially, tokens were delimited in origin, meaning, stylistic use. Namely: the “ignoramus” has Old Russian roots. It was formed with the prefix “not-” precisely from the old Russian word “vezha”, that is, “expert”, as indicated by a characteristic sign: disagreement. The word “ignoramus” has a completely different origin, Old Slavonic. The combination “zhd” indicates this absolutely obvious, as well as in such words: clothes, give birth, between. At the end of the 18th and in the 19th century, both words were synonyms, denoting the same concept: they referred to an uneducated person, little knowledgeable, a living ignoramus. Then, in the language practice, a transformation of meanings occurred. More ignorant people are called rude people, uncivilized.
The shade of the meaning of “poorly educated” is gradually being supplanted, becoming obsolete. But modern native speakers often confuse both words, operating with one instead of the other. Such a phenomenon, when words sound almost the same, but are written in different ways and denote various concepts, is called paronymy, and the lexemes themselves are called paronyms.
These are the interesting words the brothers have in our language!