What does the word "deck" mean? There are quite a few meanings for this word. Among them are common and dialectal. You will learn about all of them, as well as the spelling of this word, by reading this article.
So, let's list all the meanings of the word. The deck is…
Oldest value
The ancient word "deck" in Ancient Russia denoted an infinite number of something.
As you know, the modern numbering that we are used to using was introduced by Peter I. In Ancient Russia, letters were used to write numbers. Historically, this counting system goes back to the Proto-Slavic roots. It was used until the 17th century. Now it can only be found in Church Slavonic sources, including chronicles.
This number was the largest to calculate anything. It was equal to ten ravens (one hundred million) in the small Cyrillic numeral.
Voron, vran is a number in the old Russian counting system, in turn, equaled ten million.
In the letter, the number "Deck" is the first letter of the Cyrillic alphabet "az", which begins the alphabet and the system of signs. Over her, as overall designations of numbers in Cyrillic, there was a title, and square brackets above and below.
The deck was sometimes called "log". In one of the sources we meet: "And more than this to bear to the human mind to comprehend," that is, it is impossible to imagine something more.
A deck like a wine measure
Dictionary of F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron reports that, talking about the feasts of Prince Vladimir the Great, the chronicle of Pereyaslavl of Suzdal mentions that in the presence of the prince at the court "pepper … came out three decks for a week". The deck contained eight barrels. True, it is not possible to establish the size of this barrel due to lack of information today. It was probably the usual 40 buckets (i.e. about 492 liters) of liquid, but maybe more.
For bulk products such as cereals and flour, not decks and barrels were used, but other measured volumes - bread (for example, kad, pood, basket, etc.).
U Dahl
Vladimir Ivanovich Dal in his famous Dictionary, in addition to the dialectal "decks", also offers a completely traditional, commonly used meaning, which to this day we put into this word.
So, what does the word "deck" mean? According to Dahl, this is -
thick tree, a log or a large and thick cut, felled bare, lying tree in the forest.
In the same dictionary, it was also called a thing made from a log or any wooden stump of great thickness - for example, a rough trough for drinking or feedinglivestock. Or a canoe, beehive, chute, etc., hollowed out from a single log.
In a figurative sense, this can be said about a clumsy, awkward, inactive person. "Through the stump of the deck" - an expression for determining deeds done somehow, hastily, carelessly, very badly. This is a colloquial idiom (phraseologism), said with a touch of disapproval.
There are quite a few sayings with this word in Russian:
"Do not turn the deck if there is no strength" - that is, do not take on a task, not sure that you will do it properly.
"I was going to go around the stump, but ran into the deck" - driven by the desire to avoid minor troubles, it can get big problems.
There are also riddles: "There is a deck across the path. There are twelve nests in it, each with four eggs, an egg with seven embryos." What is it? Answer: year.
In prison
Wooden or iron blocks (blocks) were used in the old days in prisons to immobilize prisoners. They consisted of two boards with holes in which the legs of the arrested person were clamped. Sometimes hands and even the head of a prisoner were inserted into the same decks. In the latter case, they were used both as a device for torture and as a means of punishment.
They said: he was stuffed with stocks. Or: they were sent in stocks along the stage. A prisoner imprisoned in such peculiar fetters was called a convict.
An additional humiliation was the exposure of a prisoner immobilized in this way in a public place.
Decks and padswere abolished in Europe in the first third of the 19th century, and in African countries - only at the beginning of the 20th century.
As you know, the English writer and traveler Daniel Defoe in 1703, for one of his pamphlets, was sentenced by the court to seven years in prison, a fine and a pillory - a place in London's town square, where the condemned stood, shackled in stocks, three days. According to the legend still prevailing, the writer was not ridiculed during this punishment, on the contrary, he achieved his triumph: the townspeople brought him flowers, decorated the pillory with garlands and read his writings aloud.
In a card game
The word "deck" also refers to a deck of playing cards. Card decks can be full or reduced - 36 or 52 cards.
Cards included in the deck can be made of plastic, high quality paper, such as satin.
The most famous deck of playing cards, the drawings on which were made by the academician of painting A. I. Charlemagne. This deck gained circulation and fame by the second half of the 19th century. It is still used today.
The deck made in the so-called "Russian style" - with images of figures and costumes of participants in the court costume ball, which took place in 1903 in the building of the Winter Palace, gained great popularity in Russia.
The "German deck" is known in Germany. It consistsof 32 cards and is used for traditional German card games (eg skat). This deck appeared in the southern regions of Germany in the 15th century. Just like the "French deck", which was used mainly for playing bridge. It consists of 54 cards.
Without delving into the almost endless topic of fortune-telling on cards for knowledge and discussion, we add to the above that during fortune-telling, for example, on Tarot cards, both full classical decks (they are also called "senior") and junior, as well as junior truncated. A complete deck of Tarot cards consists of 22 major arcana (meanings, sacraments), 56 minor and 2 cards called White.
As a rule, tarologists use universal and traditional decks of cards, either author's or specialized - that is, aimed at solving a certain range of issues.
Spelling the word
"Deck" is a dictionary normative word, its spelling is fixed in spelling and explanatory dictionaries. The stress falls on the second syllable with the vowel "o": deck. The first and third syllables are unstressed. And if the vowel "a" at the end of the word usually does not cause difficulties in spelling, then it is impossible to select a test for the first vowel of the word "deck". The spelling of this word should be memorized.
