Sometimes a person, wanting to express his derogatory, negative attitude to the subject under discussion or another person, pronounces the word "foul". Everyone knows about its negative meaning, but is everyone aware of its origin and what it actually indicates?
Origin
If we turn to the history of origin, we can see that "foul" - these are words descended from the noun "paskuda". The method of word formation is suffix (-n-).
In fiction, this word can be found, for example, in Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection”. It is pronounced by the accused of theft Efimya Bochkova against her accomplice Ekaterina Maslova.
Also, this word was used by Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak in the work "Fighters". Porsche calls Marishka after she stole the bayonet.
In turn, the "Paskuda" etymologically dates back to the old Russian "Paskudn", which meant poverty, scarcity. If you look even further, it turns out that the source word is the pre-Slavic "skǫ", meaning "thin", "poor", to which the prefix "pa" was later added.
What does this word mean? First use
Foul - it is vile, unpleasant, ugly, vile. Usually used in relation to a person or phenomenon. For example, "foul little woman", "foul physiognomy", "foul case", "foul deception", "foul words". Same-root words have the same meaning, for example: "foul", "foul", "foul".
This word is abusive and abusive, carries a negative connotation. Its use is unacceptable in official business or scientific speech. However, it is not abusive, albeit insulting.
This word has a similar meaning in the related Belarusian and Ukrainian languages - "vile person", "one who commits dirty deeds."
Usually they use it when they experience strong negative emotions and want to either insult an opponent or express an extremely contemptuous attitude.
Another use case
Since the noun "paskuda" is sometimes characterized also by girls of easy virtue, prostitutes. The described derivative may also indicate some obscene phenomenon or a person characterized as depraved or corrupt.
Example: "What a foul look!"; "She just has foul behavior!"
Such a meaning is now quite rare, mainly this word is used when they want to emphasize the vileness and abomination of a person or an act.