Clever is an outdated book word that today has a pronounced negative connotation. It is associated with complicity in acts that are clearly disapproved of by society. But in the old days, the negative component in the understanding of this token was completely absent. More information about who this is - is slandering, earlier and now it will be written further.
Interpretation and example sentences
The meaning of the word “libel” is mentioned in the dictionary. This is an outdated term, which is used mainly in book speech. It designates a supporter, a henchman, a permanent assistant in any unseemly matters.
To better understand the interpretation of the word, you should familiarize yourself with examples of its use. These include the following:
- An entrenched official, at his own discretion, began to distribute appointments and put his slander in the warm places.
- Many of these people allowed themselves to openly object to the Secretary-General and criticize the Brezhnev’s libels at the meetings of the Politburo.
- With all his passion, he called on the people to take up arms and fight to the end against tyrants oppressing the human race and their vile libels.
Next, lexemes close to the subject will be considered.
Synonyms
In the "libel" these are words such as:
- friend;
- fellow believer;
- companion;
- fellow tribesman;
- classmate;
- couple;
- colleague;
- assistant;
- countryman;
- the interlocutor;
- peer;
- drinking companion;
- fellow;
- compatriot;
- tribesman;
- correspondingly;
- kindred
- ally;
- colleague
- employee
- participant;
- companion;
- associate;
- accomplice;
- paladin;
- satellite;
- accomplice;
- accomplice;
- minion;
- fellow;
- adherent;
- stuck;
- partner in crime.
Continuing the study of the question of who these are libels, we will consider the transformation of the meaning of this linguistic object.
Discoloration
As linguists explain, language is a living, developing organism. And the words in it often change their meaning over time. Sometimes stylistic shades experience sharp fluctuations, and this affects the logical content of the word.
A vivid example of this is the church-book noun "libel." For modern consciousness, it is outdated. As already mentioned above, it means an adherent, a henchman in a bad deed. It is inherent in a brightly negative expressive tone. She expresses feelings such as contempt, resentment, or even hatred.
However, until about the middle of the 19th century, emotionally expressive shades were alien to this token.
Etymology
By origin, slander is Old Church Slavism contained in the Russian literary language. Etymologically, it goes back to the folk Latin collivertus, which comes from the Latin collibertus. The meanings of the latter are: “freedman,” “one who has received freedom with someone else.”
It is formed of two parts. The first of these is the cum form, which has the variants co, com, con, and means “together”, “c”. The second part is the Latin verb liberāre, the meaning of which is “liberate”. It is descended from the adjective liber, which translates as “free”, free, and is formed from the pre-Indo-European form of leudheros.
In the Old Slavonic language, the word had such meanings as “co-worker”, “comrade”. By definition, given in the dictionary of A. Kh. Vostokov, slander is a “servitor”. The manuscript titled “Lexicon for vocabulary new”, created on behalf of and with the personal participation of Peter I, states that the colleague is “merchandise, slander”.
In the Old Russian language, the studied term was used in the meanings: “comrade”, “combatant”, “participant in some business”. That is, no pejorative, condemning shade was observed in it. In the explanatory dictionaries relating to the XVIII century, it is considered as a high book synonym for the word "comrade", referring to household.
Thus, over the course of centuries, the word denoting a comrade acquired an explicit negative connotation.