Do you know what a coachman is? This is an old word, the meaning of which and examples of use in the literature are given in the article.
The meaning and origin of the word
The word "driver" has turksike roots. In Old Russian, it sounded like "yamshchik." The word is formed from the root of “pits” - this is how in ancient times in Russia were called post stations, which also replaced tired horses with fresh ones. What is a coachman? This is a worker whose duties included the maintenance of the station, horses, transportation of mail and passengers.
The word coachman has many synonyms. For example: a postman, a charioteer, a carriage driver, a yag, a cabman, a coachman on mail horses, and so on.
A bit about the life of coachmen
As usual, the boxes were ordinary peasants who were engaged in horse-drawn transportation of goods between postal stations and were in the public service, as well as transporting officials, state parcels and urgent news. They also engaged in the transport of ordinary people.
What is a coachman? This is an ordinary charioteer. The coachmen lived in villages with settlements of 16-30 houses near the postal tracts with their families in the so-called Yam houses, had land shares and mowings allocated by the state. It was their duty to keep the horses so that, upon first request, they could immediately move out on the road. For their work, they received a salary from the state. However, the tsar later decided not to pay them a salary, since he believed that they were living well, collecting crops from their arable land. After this, the coachmen of all the provinces began to scatter.
There was a tax, the so-called “Yam service” for the villagers and citizens. Coachmen got rid of tax.
Value for Power
What is a coachman for a power in the 16-17th centuries? Then these drivers were of great importance for Russia: they brought the boyars from one province to another on official business, ordinary people to trading places, and also transported a lot of goods. With the help of coachmen, a connection was established between Moscow and the outskirts of the state. Carriers were very important for the economy of Russia until the wide development of railway transport.
Examples of use in the literature
The image of the coachman also influenced the culture and literature of Russia, as it was described in many literary works, poems and songs:
- “Well, master,” cried the coachman, “trouble: blizzard!” (A. Pushkin, "The Captain's Daughter").
- "The steppe and the steppe are everywhere, far away lies; in that steppe the coachman was freezing deaf ." (Russian folk song).
- " Having lulled, the coachman was frozen by the yellow sun ..." (V. Vysotsky).
Now you know the meaning of the word "coachman".