Vocabulary is the collection of all the words that we use. A separate group in vocabulary can be considered ancient words. There are many of them in the Russian language, and they belong to different historical eras.
What are ancient words
Since language is an integral part of the history of the people, the words that are used in this language are historical value. Ancient words and their meaning can tell a lot about what events took place in the life of the people in a particular era and which of them were of great importance. Ancient or obsolete words are not actively used in our time, but are present in the lexical stock of the people, recorded in dictionaries and in reference books. Often they can be found in works of art.
For example, in a poem by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, we read this passage:
"In a crowd of mighty sons,
With friends in a high grid
Vladimir the Sun feasted
He gave out a smaller daughter
For the Prince of the Brave Ruslan. "
Here is the word "grid woman." Now they do not use it, but in the era of Prince Vladimir it meant a large room in which the prince, together with his warriors, held festivities and banquets.
History
Ancient words and their designation are of various kinds. According to scientists, they are divided into two large groups.
Historisms are words that are not actively used now because the concepts that they denote have become obsolete. For example, "caftan", "chain mail", armor ", etc. Archaisms are words that denote concepts that are familiar to us in other words. For example, the mouth - lips, lanitis - cheeks, and the neck - neck.
In modern speech, as a rule, they are not used. Smart words and their meanings, which are incomprehensible to many , are not characteristic of our everyday speech. But they do not completely disappear from use. Writers use historisms and archaisms in order to truthfully tell about the past of the people, with the help of these words they convey the flavor of the era. History can truthfully tell us about what happened once in other eras in our homeland.
Archaisms
Unlike historicisms, archaisms denote the phenomena that we encounter in modern life. These are clever words, and their meanings do not differ from the meanings of words that are familiar to us, but they only sound different. Archaisms are different. There are those that differ from ordinary words only in some features in spelling and pronunciation. For example, hail and city, gold and gold, young - young. These are phonetic archaisms. In the 19th century there were many such words. This is a club (club), a store (curtain).
There is a group of archaisms with outdated suffixes, for example, a museum (museum), assistance (assistance), a fisherman (fisherman). Most often we encounter lexical archaisms, for example, an eye - an eye, a right hand - a right hand, a shuytsa - a left hand.
Like historicisms, archaisms are used to create a special world in fiction. So, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin often used archaic vocabulary to give pathos to his works. This is clearly seen in the example of the poem "Prophet".
Words from Ancient Russia
Ancient Russia has given much to modern culture. But then there was a special lexical environment, some of which were preserved in modern Russian. And some are no longer used at all. Old obsolete Russian words from that era give us an idea of ​​the origin of East Slavic languages.
For example, ancient curses. Some of them very accurately reflect the negative qualities of a person. Wasteland - a chatterbox, ryuma - a crybaby, a thick forehead - a fool, a sucker - a disheveled man.
The meaning of ancient Russian words sometimes differed from the meanings of cognate in the modern language. We all know the words "shig" and "shig", they mean a quick movement in space. The old Russian word "whitefish" meant the smallest unit of time. One instant contained 160 whitefish. The largest measurement value was considered the “far distance”, which was equal to 1, 4 light years.
Ancient words and their meanings are discussed by scientists. The names of coins that were used in Ancient Russia are considered ancient. For coins that appeared in the eighth and ninth century in Russia and were brought from the Arab caliphate, the names "kuna", "legata" and "rezana" were used. Then the first Russian coins appeared - these were goldilocks and silver coins.
Obsolete words from the 12th and 13th centuries
The pre-Mongol period in Russia, the 12th-13th centuries, is characterized by the development of architecture, which was then called architecture. Accordingly, a layer of vocabulary appeared then, associated with the construction and erection of buildings. Some of the words that appeared then remained in the modern language, but the meaning of ancient Russian words has changed over the whole time.
The basis of the life of Russia in the 12th century was a fortress, which then had the name "detinets". A little later, in the 14th century, the term “Kremlin” appeared, which then also denoted a city. The word “Kremlin” can be an example of how old obsolete Russian words change. If now the Kremlin is alone, this is the residence of the head of state, then there were a lot of Kremlin.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, cities and fortresses of wood were built in Russia. But they could not resist the onslaught of the Mongol Tatars. The Mongols, having come to conquer the land, simply dared the wooden fortresses. The stone cities of Novgorod and Pskov resisted. For the first time the word “Kremlin” appears in the Tver annals of 1317. Its synonym is the old word "cremator". Then the Kremlin was built in Moscow, Tula and in Kolomna.
The socio-aesthetic role of archaisms in classical fiction
Ancient words, the discussion of which is often found in scientific articles, were often used by Russian writers in order to make the speech of their work of art more expressive. Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin in his article described the process of creating "Boris Godunov": "I tried to guess the language of that time."
Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov also used ancient words in his works, and their meaning exactly corresponded to the realities of the time from where they were taken. Most of the ancient words appear in his work "Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich." This, for example, “know”, “oh you goy you, ali.” Also, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky writes works in which there are many ancient words. This is “Dmitry the Impostor”, “Voivode”, “Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk”.
The role of words from past eras in modern literature
Archaisms remained popular in 20th century literature. Recall the famous work of Ilf and Petrov “The Twelve Chairs”. Here, ancient words and their meaning have a special, humorous connotation.
For example, in the description of Ostap Bender’s visit to the village of Vasyuki, the phrase “One-eyed did not take his only eye out of a grandmaster’s shoe” appears. Archaisms with Church Slavonic coloring are used in another episode: “Father Fedor hung up. He wanted wealth. ”
Stylistic errors in the use of historicisms and archaisms
Hystorisms and archaisms can significantly decorate fiction, but their inept use causes laughter. Ancient words, the discussion of which often becomes very lively, as a rule, cannot be used in everyday speech. If you start asking a passerby: “Why is your winter open for you?”, He will not understand you (I mean the neck).
In newspaper speech, too, there is an inappropriate use of historicisms and archaisms. For example: "The headmaster welcomed young teachers who came to practice." The word “welcomed” is synonymous with the word “welcomed”. Sometimes schoolchildren insert archaisms into their works and thereby make sentences not very clear and even ridiculous. For example: "Olya came running in tears and told Tatyana Ivanovna about her insult." Therefore, if you want to use old words, meaning, interpretation, their meaning should be absolutely clear to you.
Outdated words in fantasy and fiction.
Everyone knows that in our time such genres as fantasy and science fiction have gained immense popularity. It turns out that ancient words are widely used in works of the fantasy genre, and their meaning is not always clear to the modern reader.
Such concepts as “banner” and “finger”, the reader can understand. But sometimes there are more complex words, such as “komon” and “nasad”. I must say that publishers do not always approve of the excessive use of archaisms. But there are works in which authors successfully find application to historicisms and archaisms. These are works from the series of Slavic Fantasy. For example, the novels by Maria Stepanova “The Valkyrie”, Tatyana Korostyshevskaya “The Mother of the Four Winds”, Maria Semenova “The Wolfhound”, Denis Novozhilov “The Far Far Away Kingdom. The war for the throne. "