Remember the famous quotes from the beloved “Ivan Vasilievich”, which changes the profession: “Why did you offend the noblewoman, stink?”, “Oh, you tramp, mortal pimple, stink!”? We laugh together at the bewilderment of Yakin (Mikhail Pugovkin), admire Grozny (Yuri Yakovlev), but when we start re-reading the immortal comedy of Bulgakov, we pay attention to the wonderful language with which the work was written.
Smerd Smerdu strife
A modern reader, who quickly forgets lessons in a school subject such as history, will probably not immediately say what stink is, or rather, who it is. But the inquisitive, of course, will be interested to find out what the inhabitants of the Old Russian state were called by this, with the exception of the nobility (boyars) and the clergy. Those. this concept meant merchants, merchants and artisans, vagrant buffoons and townspeople, as well as peasants. So what is
stink? This is a commoner, a man of diverse backgrounds. However, over time, the word acquires a different semantics.
Peasant question
Now some clarifications. Peasants in Russia were once free plowmen. Then, as enslavement, they began to be divided into three categories: "people", "serfs", "stinks". “People” were called citizens of low origin who did not have boyars. As the Russian Pravda states (test legal document of the 11th-16th centuries), if someone kills a free man and is caught, he must pay a fine of 40 hryvnias. And what is stink, if his life cost no more than the life of a slave (serf) - 5 hryvnias? It also turns out to be a slave. Whose? Prince, i.e. the boyar.
The category of smerds gradually began to include those free peasant farmers who enslaved as the social stratification and growth of landowners' lands. This meaning of the word is characteristic precisely of the times of Kievan Rus.
Smerd "in Novgorod"
The Novgorod Republic was a special territory. And the rules there acted their own. What is local law stink? This is a farmer, dependent on the state, and not on the private owner. Then all peasants were generally classified in this category. In Russia, it was the farmers who were the largest category of citizens. The state gave them land allotments, for which the Smerds paid taxes to the treasury, and to the princes - service in kind: food, linen, domestic animals, etc. Such peasants were obliged to live in villages (from the word "villages", t. e. "settled"). By about the 15th century, the term "smerds" was replaced by "peasants." And since the army was recruited from the common people, during the time of Ivan the Terrible and somewhat later, servicemen were called that word.
In documents (orders, letters, letters, petitions) of that time, this is an officially adopted form when the king addresses soldiers. After several centuries, the concept of "smerd" turned into a contemptuous, almost swearing designation of serfs and raznochintsy. By the way, during the time of princely strife, there was a specific, then obsolete word "to stomp": to capture prisoners of the enemy prince.
And more about etymology and usage
If we talk about the origin of the word, then it belongs to the Indo-European language group. We examined the lexical transformation. It remains to be said about the additional semantic meaning obtained in the process of use. From the word "stink" the verb "stink" was formed, i.e. "Smell bad." The fact is that in the huts, where the poorest peasants and slave-servants lived, the windows were drawn in with a bull bubble, which did not let air through at all. Furnaces were fired “black”, smoke barely left the premises, smoking through and through. And in late autumn, winter and early spring, together with people in the huts, a poultry with cattle was kept. It is clear that the "aroma" of smerd could be sensed a mile away. Therefore, over time, the word "stink" instead of "serf" began to mean a dirty, untidy, stinking person. The modern synonym is “homeless”.