Russian language

Archaisms and historicisms - what is the difference between them?

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Cultural, economic, social changes are taking place in the life of society: science is developing, technology is appearing, life is improving, political transformations are taking place.

This leads to the fact that words cease to be used, become obsolete, and are replaced by new words. Let's look at illustrative examples of what historicisms and archaisms are. Two layers of vocabulary coexist. The first is the words that native speakers know and use (active vocabulary).

Another layer is words that do not sound in speech, they are not known by the main part of language users, require additional explanations or understandable names that have ceased to function in speech - passive vocabulary.

The passive vocabulary includes obsolete words. They differ in the level of obsolescence, the reasons for which they became such.

The difference between historicisms and archaisms

Historicisms are not used in speech, there are no those objects, concepts that they called. Archaisms denote objects and phenomena that exist even now, but have been replaced by other phrases. The difference between the two groups is that archaisms have synonyms, this is important.

Examples: ramena (shoulders), tuga (sadness), blight (doom)

Historicisms have been in use for a very long time. Once popular under the Soviet regime, the words have already become forgotten - pioneer, communist, soviet power, politburo. Sometimes words go into the category of common vocabulary: lyceum, gymnasium, police, governor, department

It also happens that obsolete words are returned to speech in a new sense. For example, the word retinue in Ancient Russia meant "princely army". In vocabulary, its meaning is "a voluntary community of people formed for a specific purpose" - folk squad.

Historicism - how did it appear?

Society is developing at a rapid pace, and therefore changing cultural values, some things become obsolete, new ones appear. Fashion is moving forward and the previously popular caftan is now just an outdated word. Such clothes are not worn, and many obsolete names can be found in ancient books or historical films.

For modern man historicisms are part of history, they can be studied for development, but you do not need to use them in speech, others will not be able to understand their meaning. There will be misunderstandings.
To understand historicisms, consider examples and interpretations of words.

Historicisms, examples	Word interpretation
barnkeeper	private owner of barns who buys grain or rents out barns
brushy	food, meals
business card	men's clothing, a kind of jacket with rounded floors diverging in front; originally intended for visits
hryvnia	neck silver or gold jewelry in the form of a hoop
hound bear	a bear specially trained for palace "amusing games"
clerk	officer in command
stoker	court official in Muscovy
bad money	money for unserved term, which the soldier was obliged to return to the community in case of early termination of service
order	governing body of individual industries
cold shoemaker	in Russia until 1917 - a shoemaker who did not have a job, but repaired shoes right on the street near a client who took off his shoes from his foot

Among the reasons for the formation of historicisms: the improvement of tools, the complication of production processes, the development of culture, and political transformations.

The abolition in Russia of the dependence of the peasant on the landowner left in the past the words: master, quitrent, corvée, tribute, serf. The main thing is that historicisms remain in the history of mankind and do not return to speech, therefore they do not matter. No one will now put on a caftan or there will be no corvée and serfdom.

Historicisms forever disappear from speech

Historicisms can be divided into groups to understand the meaning of words:

• antique clothes and shoes salop, armyak, camisole, fizhma, shoe, bast shoes;
• names of social life phenomena - duel, Cominternist, laborer, collective farmer, fist, svokoshtny;
• craft and professions of people: skobar, buffoon, apprentice, water carrier, cooper;
• monetary units - polushka, imperial, five-kopeck piece;
• measures of weight and length - verst, vershok, span, pound, sazhen, pood;
• titles and positions lordship, doezzhachiy, nobility, mayor, hussar, batman;
• military items - mace, chain mail, axe, bludgeon, aventail, pishchal;
• names of administrative units - county, parish, province;
• letters of the ancient alphabet beeches, yat, lead.

Obsolete phrases can be found in a scientific style to refer to phenomena in an epochal period, to give expressiveness to heroes, images in an artistic style.
AT modern language cannot be found synonymous with historicism. What is remarkable is the fact that historicisms can be several centuries old.

Archaisms - what is it?

These are obsolete names of objects and concepts that have been replaced by other words that are familiar modern society. The world is changing, people are changing along with it, and the language is expanding with new concepts, and other words are being invented for the old ones.

Archaisms have taken on a new look, therefore they can be considered as synonyms modern words, but still their use in Russian will be strange than commonplace. For understanding ancient objects, for in-depth study of the culture of ancient people, archaisms and their meaning can play a role.

To understand, consider a table where the interpretation of old words is written. It is not necessary to know them, but for a historian it will be a godsend.

Archaisms are divided into groups. Sometimes not the whole word becomes obsolete, but only part of it. Let's take such meanings that are completely outdated: verses (verses). Some words have obsolete morphemes - prejudice.
The process of formation of archaisms is uneven. Thematic groups of archaisms are different:

• person's character - sower(chatterbox, empty talker), verbiager(scientist, expert) phrase-monger(flatterer), sueslovets(idle talk);
• profession - jump rope(gymnast), cattle breeder(cattle breeder), warehouseman(writer), skorosolnik(messenger, messenger);
• social relations - consonant(companion), friend(friend, partner) suvrazhnik(enemy);
• family relationships - sister(sister), relative, kindred(relative);
• objects of the surrounding reality - selina(a. dwelling, building; b. cleft), sennitsa(tent, tent);
• natural phenomena - arrow(lightning), students(cold, cold);
• things - saddle(chair, chair) server(napkin), shellfish(peel, peel, shell), screenshot(chest, casket) stop(stand);
• abstract concepts - literature(eloquence), thinking(inference) laughing(mockery), commonwealth(acquaintance, friendship).

Archaisms are rarely used in literature. If the writer is literate enough and speaks not only the modern, but also the ancient language, then such words will give the speech a special “zest”. The reader will ponder and delve into the reading, trying to understand and unravel what the author meant. It will always be interesting and informative.

In this function, archaisms appear in rhetorical art, judicial debate, and in fiction.

The word may lose one of its meanings

Types of archaisms

Archaisms in literature and social activities people are divided into types. For a deeper understanding of the language, historical development. No novel based on historical events, cannot do without mentioning obsolete words.

1. Semantic archaisms

Words that previously had a different meaning, but in the modern language they have a new meaning. We understand the word "housing" as a kind of real estate where a person lives. But earlier the word had a different meaning: he feels so bad, like he was going to the fifth housing; (housing - floor).

2. Phonetic archaisms

They differ from modern ones in one or two letters, even the spelling can be similar, as if one letter was removed or added. It may even seem like a mistake, but it's just an obsolete expression.
For example: a poet - piit, fire - fire, dishonest - dishonored.

3. Word-building

Obsolescence occurs only in part of the word and usually in the suffix. It is easy to guess the meaning for understanding, but it is more common to recognize archaisms if you already know which letters have been replaced, removed or added.

• A rubber ball bounces off the floor (rubber - rubber).
• What a beautiful pencil drawing (pencil - pencil).
• The whole audience, competing with each other, shouted out different phrases (competing - competing).
• This nervous person is just terrible (nervous - nervous).

4. Phraseological

When we talk about this kind of archaisms, we understand whole sayings, volatile expressions, a special ancient combination of words that was previously in use.
Among set expressions the following examples can be given: I will buy a farm; little wife coca with juice gloriously makes money; put it on who should.

5. Grammar

Such words remained in modern speech, but their gender has changed. Examples include tulle, coffee. Our coffee is masculine, but they want to make a middle one. The word tulle is masculine, but sometimes it is confused and they want to make it feminine.
Examples of words: swan - was formerly feminine, now has a masculine gender. Previously, poets wrote that a lonely swan swims.

Importance of obsolete words

Outdated vocabulary is a valuable material for the formation of knowledge about the history of the people, introducing it to the national origins. These are the tangible threads that bind us to history. Its study allows you to restore information about the historical, social, economic activities of the ancestors, to gain knowledge about the way of life of the people.

Obsolete words are a means that allows you to diversify speech, add emotionality to it, express the author's attitude to reality.

Depending on the reasons why a particular word belongs to the category of obsolete, historicisms and archaisms are distinguished.

historicisms

- these are words that have fallen into disuse because the objects and phenomena that they denoted have disappeared from life.
Historicisms do not have synonyms, since this is the only designation of the disappeared concept and the object or phenomenon behind it.
Historicisms are quite diverse thematic groups words:
1) Names vintage clothes: zipun, camisole, caftan, kokoshnik, zhupan, shushun, etc.;
2) Names monetary units: altyn, grosh, polushka, hryvnia, etc.;
3) Names of titles: boyar, nobleman, king, count, prince, duke, etc.;
4) Names officials: policeman at the governor, clerk, officer, etc .;
5) Names of weapons: pishchal, shestoper, unicorn (cannon), etc.;
6) Administrative names: volost, county, district, etc.
For polysemantic words, one of the meanings can become historicism. For example, the word people has the following meanings:
1) Plural of the noun man;
2) Other, strangers to someone;
3) Persons used in any case, personnel;
4) Servant, worker in a manor house.
The word people in the first three meanings is included in the active dictionary. The fourth meaning given word outdated, therefore, we have semantic historicism, which forms the lexeme human in the meaning of "the room in which the servant lives."

Archaisms

- these are words denoting concepts, objects, phenomena that exist at the present time; for various (primarily extralinguistic) reasons, archaisms were forced out of active use by other words.
Consequently, archaisms have synonyms in modern Russian, for example: sail (n.) - sail., Psyche (n.) - soul; Overseas (adj.) - foreign; Koi (pronoun) - which; This (pronoun) - this one; Poelku (union) - because, etc.
Depending on whether the whole word, the meaning of the word, the phonetic design of the word or a separate word-forming morpheme becomes obsolete, archaisms are divided into several groups:
1) Proper lexical archaisms are words that have completely fallen out of use and passed into a passive vocabulary: lzya - it is possible; thief - thief; aki—how; piit - a poet; maiden - teenager, etc.
2) Lexico-semantic archaisms are words that have one or more meanings obsolete:
Belly - “life” (not on the stomach, but to beat to death); Itukan - "statue";
Scoundrels - "unfit for military service"; Shelter - "port, pier", etc.
3) Lexico-phonetic archaisms are words in which, as a result of historical development, the sound design (sound shell) has changed, but the meaning of the word has been preserved in full:
Mirror - mirror;
Iroism - heroism;
Eighteen - eighteen;
Passport - passport;
Calm - style (poetic), etc.
A special group is made up of accentological archaisms - that is, words whose stress has changed (from Latin Accentum - emphasis, stress):
Muses "ka-mu" language;
Suffi "ks - su" ffix; Philoso "f ~ filo" sof and others.
4) Lexical and derivational archaisms are words in which individual morphemes or a word-formation model are obsolete:
Dol - valley; Friendship - friendship; Shepherd - shepherd; Fisherman - fisherman; Phantasm - fantasy, etc.
The archaization of words is not related to their origin. The following types of catches can become obsolete:
1) Originally Russian words: labs, outcast, lie, endova, etc.;
2) Old Slavonicisms: smooth, one, green, cold, child, etc.
3) Borrowed words: satisfaction - satisfaction (about a duel); Sikurs - help; Fortecia (fortress), etc.

The role of obsolete words in the Russian language is varied. Historicisms in the specialized scientific literature are used for the most accurate description era. In works of fiction on historical themes historicisms and archaisms help to recreate the color of the era, and are also a means speech characteristics characters.
Examples of such use of obsolete vocabulary are the novels “Razin Stepan” by A.P. Chapygin, "Peter I" A.H. Tolstoy, "Emelyan Pugachev" V.Ya. Shishkov, "Ivan the Terrible" by V.I. Kostyleva and others.
In the text of any of these works of art, you can find various types of archaisms:
This is what I found out: according to Tatya Fomka, thieves were caught outside the Nikitsky Gate (Chapygin).
Archaisms can be used to create solemnity of style, which is especially true for poetry. late XVIII - early XIX centuries. Examples are the works of A.N. Radishcheva, G.R. Derzhavin, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Pushkin and others.
Archaisms can also be used to create comic and satirical effects: Finally, look at your own person - and there you will first of all meet the chapter, and then you will not leave the belly and other parts unmarked (S. Shch.)

At old words, as well as dialectal, can be divided into two different groups: archaisms and historicisms .

Archaisms- these are words that, due to the emergence of new words, have fallen into disuse. But their synonyms are in modern Russian.

For example:

right hand- right hand, cheeks- cheeks, ramen- shoulders, loins- waist and so on.

But it is worth noting that archaisms, nevertheless, may differ from modern synonymous words. These differences may be in the morphemic composition ( fisherman- fisherman, friendship - friendship), in their lexical meaning ( stomach- a life, the guest- merchant,), in grammatical design ( at the ball- at the ball fulfill- perform) and phonetic features ( mirror- mirror, Guishpanese- Spanish). Many words are completely obsolete, but still they have modern synonyms. For example: ruin- death or injury hope- to hope and firmly believe, so that- to. And in order to avoid possible errors in the interpretation of these words, when working with works of art, it is strongly recommended to use a dictionary of obsolete words and dialect phrases, or explanatory dictionary.

historicisms- these are words that denote such phenomena or objects that have completely disappeared or ceased to exist as a result of further development society.

Many words that denoted various household items of our ancestors, phenomena and things that were somehow connected with the economy of the past, became historicisms. old culture, which once existed, the socio-political system. Many historicisms are found among words that are somehow connected with military theme.

For example:

Redoubt, chain mail, visor, squeaker etc.

Most obsolete words refer to clothing items and household items: prosak, svetets, valley, camisole, armyak.

Also, historicisms include words that denote titles, professions, positions, estates that once existed in Russia: tsar, lackey, boyar, stolnik, equestrian, barge hauler,tinker etc. Manufacturing activities such as Konka and manufactory. The phenomena of patriarchal life: purchase, dues, corvée and others. Lost technologies such as mead and tinning.

Words that arose in the Soviet era also became historicisms. These include words such as: food detachment, NEP, Makhnovist, educational program, Budenovets and many others.

Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish between archaisms and historicisms. It has to do with rebirth. cultural traditions Russia, and with the frequent use of these words in proverbs and sayings, as well as other works of folk art. Such words include words denoting measures of length or measurements of weight, naming Christian and religious holidays, and others and others.

Dictionary of obsolete words by letters of the alphabet:

Vocabulary is the totality of all the words that we use. Old words can be considered a separate group in the vocabulary. There are many of them in the Russian language, and they belong to different historical eras.

What are old words

Since the language is an integral part of the history of the people, the words that are used in this language are of 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 had great importance. Old, or obsolete, words are not actively used in our time, but are present in the vocabulary of the people, recorded in dictionaries and reference books. Often they can be found in works of art.

For example, in the poem by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin we read the following passage:

"In the crowd of mighty sons,

With friends, in a high grid

Vladimir the sun feasted,

He gave away his younger daughter

For the brave prince Ruslan."

There is a word "gridnitsa" here. Now it is not used, but in the era of Prince Vladimir it meant a large room in which the prince, along with his warriors, arranged festivities and feasts.

historicisms

Ancient words and their designation are of various kinds. According to scientists, they are divided into two large groups.

Historicisms are words that are not actively used now for the reason that the concepts they designate have fallen out of use. For example, "caftan", "chain mail", armor, etc. Archaisms are words that denote concepts familiar to us in other words. For example, mouth - lips, cheeks - cheeks, neck - neck.

In modern speech, as a rule, they are not used. which are incomprehensible to many, are not typical for our everyday speech. But they are not completely out of use. Historicisms and archaisms are used by writers in order to truthfully tell about the past of the people, with the help of these words they convey the flavor of the era. Historicisms can truthfully tell us about what happened at one time in other epochs in our homeland.

Archaisms

Unlike historicisms, archaisms designate those phenomena that we encounter in modern life. These are clever words, and their meanings do not differ from the meanings of words familiar to us, only they 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. There were many such words in the 19th century. This is a club (club), a store (curtain).

There is a group of archaisms with obsolete suffixes, for example, museum (museum), assistance (assistance), fisherman (fisherman). Most often we meet lexical archaisms, for example, eye - eye, right hand - right hand, shuytsa - left hand.

Like historicisms, archaisms are used to create special world in fiction. So, Alexander Sergeevich 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 gave a lot contemporary culture. But then there was a special lexical environment, some words from which were preserved and in A some are no longer used at all. Old obsolete Russian words from that era give us an idea of ​​the origin

For example, old curses. Some of them very accurately reflect the negative qualities of a person. Hollow-breech is a talker, Ryuma is a crybaby, Tolokon forehead is a fool, Zakhukhrya is a disheveled person.

The meaning of old Russian words sometimes differed from the meanings of the same root in the modern language. We all know the words "jump" and "jump", they mean rapid movement in space. The old Russian word "sig" meant the smallest unit of time. One moment contained 160 whitefish. The largest measurement value was considered "far distance", which was equal to 1.4

Ancient words and their meanings are discussed by scholars. The names of the coins that were used in Ancient Russia are considered ancient. For coins that appeared in the eighth and ninth centuries in Russia and were brought from there, the names “kuna”, “nogata” and “reza” were used. Then the first Russian coins appeared - these are golden coins and silver coins.

Obsolete words from the 12th and 13th centuries

The pre-Mongol period in Russia, 12-13 centuries, is characterized by the development of architecture, which was then called architecture. Accordingly, then a layer of vocabulary appeared, associated with the construction and erection of buildings. Some of the words that appeared then have remained in the modern language, but the meaning of the old Russian words has changed over all this 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 at that time also meant the city. The word "kremlin" can be an example of how old obsolete Russian words are changing. If now there is only one Kremlin, it is the residence of the head of state, then there were many Kremlins.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, cities and fortresses were built in Russia from wood. But they could not resist the onslaught of the Mongol-Tatars. The Mongols, having come to conquer the lands, simply swept away the wooden fortresses. Novgorod and Pskov resisted. For the first time the word "Kremlin" appears in the chronicle of Tver in 1317. Its synonym is the old word "silicon". Then the Kremlin was built in Moscow, Tula and Kolomna.

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 their speech artwork more expressive. Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin in his article described the process of creating "Boris Godunov" as follows: "I tried to guess the language of that time."

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov also used ancient words in his works, and their meaning exactly corresponded to the realities of the time, where they were taken from. Most of the old words appear in his work “The Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich”. This, for example, is “you know”, “oh you are a goy”, Ali”. Also, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky writes works in which there are many ancient words. These are "Dmitry the Pretender", "Voevoda", "Kozma Zakharyich Minin-Sukhoruk".

The role of words from past eras in modern literature

Archaisms remained popular in the literature of the 20th century. Let us recall the famous work of Ilf and Petrov "The Twelve Chairs". Here, the old 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 "The one-eyed man did not take his only eye off the grandmaster's shoes" is found. Archaisms with Church Slavonic overtones are also used in another episode: “Father Fyodor was hungry. He wanted to be rich."

when using historicisms and archaisms

Historicisms and archaisms can greatly decorate fiction, but their inept use causes laughter. Old words, the discussion of which often becomes very lively, as a rule, should not be used in everyday speech. If you start asking a passer-by: “Why is your neck open in winter?”, then he will not understand you (meaning the neck).

In newspaper speech, too, there is an inappropriate use of historicisms and archaisms. For example: "The principal of the school welcomed young teachers who came to practice." The word "greeted" is synonymous with the word "greeted". Sometimes schoolchildren insert archaisms into their writings and thereby make sentences not very clear and even ridiculous. For example: "Olya ran in tears and told Tatyana Ivanovna about her offense." Therefore, if you want to use old words, their meaning, interpretation, meaning should be absolutely clear to you.

Obsolete words in fantasy and science fiction

Everyone knows that such genres as fantasy and science fiction have gained immense popularity in our time. It turns out that ancient words are widely used in fantasy works, 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 publishing houses do not always approve of the excessive use of archaisms. But there are works in which the authors successfully find application for historicism and archaism. These are works from the "Slavic fantasy" series. For example, the novels of Maria Stepanova "Valkyrie", Tatyana Korostyshevskaya "Mother of the Four Winds", Maria Semenova "Wolfhound", Denis Novozhilov "Far Far Away. Throne War.

Obsolete words are a special group of words that, for one reason or another, are not used in modern speech. They are divided into two categories - historicisms and archaisms. Both of these groups are similar to each other, but still have several significant differences.

historicisms

These include words denoting special things, positions, phenomena that ceased to exist in modern world but have taken place before. An example of such words is boyar, governor, petitioner, estate. They do not have synonyms in the modern language, and you can find out their meaning only from the explanatory dictionary. Basically, such obsolete words refer to the description of life, culture, economy, hierarchy, military and political relations of ancient years.

So, for example, a petition is: 1) a bow with a forehead touching the ground; or 2) a written request. Stolnik - a courtier who is one degree lower than a boyar, usually serving at a boyar or royal table.

Most of all, outdated historicism words are found among the names associated with military themes, as well as those related to household items and clothing: chain mail, visor, redoubt, squeaker, valley, prosak, armyak, seed coat, camisole.

Here are some examples of sentences containing obsolete words. Petitioners came to the tsar and complained about the governor, and said that they were taking their estates away from them, and then giving them away; the nobles, stewards and boyar children also complained that the governors were taking away their palace villages. Cossacks with archers came to the tsar, carried petitions , asked for bread and money wages.

At present, one of the numerous groups of historicisms are those that arose during the formation of the USSR: food detachment, Budyonnovets, educational program, kombed, NEP, deprived, Nepman, Makhnovist, surplus appraisal.

Archaisms

Obsolete languages ​​are divided into another large group - archaisms. They, in fact, are a subgroup of historicisms - they also include words that are out of use. But their main difference is that they can be replaced by synonyms, which are common and used today words. Here are the cheeks, the right hand, the loins, the verses, the tightness, the ramen. Accordingly, their modern counterparts are cheeks, right hand, lower back, poetry, sadness, shoulders.

There are several basic differences between archaism and its synonym. They may differ:

a) lexical meaning(belly - life, guest - merchant);

b) grammatical design (at the ball - at the ball, perform - perform);

c) (fisherman - fisherman, friendship - friendship);

In order to correctly use archaism in a sentence and avoid confusion, use an explanatory dictionary or a dictionary of obsolete words.

And here are examples of sentences containing archaisms: “In Moscow, there lived okolnichi, boyars, clerks, whom Bolotnikov threatened to turn into commoners or kill, and put nameless people in their place; there were also industrialists and wealthy merchants, courts, money, whose shops “Everything was given to the poor.”

In this passage, the following words are archaisms: commoner, yard (in the meaning of the economy), shop (commercial enterprise), nameless. It is easy to see that there are also historicisms here: okolnichiy, boyar.

Obsolete words perfectly convey the characteristic historicity, make literary text colorful and bright. But for correct and appropriate use, you must always check with the explanatory dictionary so that flowery phrases do not eventually turn into nonsense.