The great Russian poet immortalized the word with a bold stroke of the pen. In the tale of Alexander Sergeyevich, the princess appeared "as if pava." Did the poet praise her or laugh at her?
Definition
The meaning of the word is quite casual, there is nothing grandiose in it. Pava is a bird, more precisely, a female, and more precisely - a female peacock. Just as a sparrow has a sparrow, an eagle has an eagle, a rooster has a chicken, so a peacock has a pava.
Meaning of the word pava
There are always comparisons in human speech, including metaphors, when people are assigned attributes, qualities, animal behavior patterns. Sharp as an eagle; dirty as a pig; as clumsy as an elephant. Even if in fact the animal does not possess these qualities, they are only invented by man (pigs are fairly clean animals, an elephant can be very quick and dexterous).
But not in the case of pava. Have you seen the peacock female in the zoo? Notice how she keeps herself? Watching these wonderful birds, you can see that they themselves give first place to the bird beauty contest. Their movements are always smooth, there is no fussiness, they look proudly, their beak is raised up, as if the pava is really a queen among birds!
Just all these qualities are assigned to a woman, calling her a pava:
- celebrate her external beauty;
- proud posture;
- slow and smooth movements;
- calm, restrained manner of communication.
Neither fish nor fowl
But, as they say, everything is good in moderation. If in a woman the above qualities are expressed in good self-esteem, restraint and elegance, then, of course, “pava” is a compliment.
When she is arrogant, proud, biased, her behavior is inappropriate, there is nothing to be proud of, although in this case she can be called a pava. Each stick has two ends.
There is also an expression about the pava and the crow: they say that the person under discussion cannot be attributed to either this or that order of birds . Here everyone perceives it as he wants. One may be offended by uncertainty, or one may rejoice at the golden mean.
In its true meaning, albeit allegorical, pava is a word with an exclusively positive meaning. Majestic, proud, sedate, stately, slim, beautiful. And you wanted to "walk the pavoy"?
Negative coloring "pave" give human features that have nothing to do with peacocks. When a woman is attractive, but does not know how to appreciate it, she behaves cheekily, arrogantly, inappropriately, disrespectfully with everyone around her, speaks loudly, a lot, out of business - this, unfortunately, is also a pava. They only say this with irony, referring more to the chicken in the subtext, because the peacock belongs to the order Kuroobraznyh.
They domesticated them even in Ancient Egypt, Asia, Arabia, kept in the palaces of Rome and Greece, sometimes almost like chickens. Some foodies even ate their eggs. Although, of course, the beauty of their plumage was more appreciated.
From Pushkin to the present day
The word "pava" is unlikely to be heard in a conversation at a nearby table in a cafe or read in a modern detective story. It has lost its popularity, relevance, like many others (bass, paired, rowdy).
Language is like a living organism, it develops, grows, some cells (words) die off (are forgotten), new ones appear.
Several hundred years ago, the great poet complimented the heroine of his work. If the word "pava" then was not popular, widely used, then after the Swan Princess, probably, many proud, confident beauties heard it in their address.
Although, if you specifically pay attention, it turns out that quite often such a comparison was used in the literature. Turgenev, Chekhov, Derzhavin, Melnikov-Pechersky, Pasternak have a "pava", later in Egorov’s song.
It is possible that this word will return to the active Russian language, and again clouds will float in pavas, girls will go, roses will open ...