Vocabulary is the totality of all the words 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 were of 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 a poem by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin we read the following passage:
In the crowd of mighty sons, With friends, in a high top
Vladimir the sun feasted, He gave away his younger daughter
For the brave prince Ruslan.
Here is the word "gridnitsa". Now it is not used, but in the era of Prince Vladimir itmeant a large room in which the prince, along with his warriors, arranged festivities and feasts.
Historisms
Old 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 denote have fallen out of use. For example, "caftan", "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. Clever words and their meanings, 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 truly tell us about what happened in other eras in our homeland.
Archaisms
Unlike historicisms, archaisms denote 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 isclob (club), stora (curtain).
There is a group of archaisms with obsolete suffixes, for example, museum (museum), assistance (assistance), fisherman (fisherman). Most often, we encounter lexical archaisms, for example, eye - eye, right hand - right hand, shuytsa - left hand.
Like historicisms, archaisms are used to create a 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 to modern culture. But then there was a special lexical environment, some words from which have been preserved in modern Russian. And some are no longer used at all. Old obsolete Russian words from that era give us an idea of the origin of the East Slavic languages.
For example, old curse words. Some of them very accurately reflect the negative qualities of a person. An empty talker is a talker, Ryuma is a crybaby, an oatmeal forehead is a fool, a 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 to be "far distance", which wasequals 1.4 light years.
Old 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 the Arab Caliphate, the names “kuna”, “nogata” and “reza” were used. Then the first Russian coins appeared - gold coins and silver coins.
Obsolete words from the 12th and 13th centuries
The pre-Mongolian 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. The stone cities of Novgorod and Pskov withstood. 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, Tulaand in Kolomna.
The socio-aesthetic role of archaisms in classical fiction
Old words, the discussion of which is often found in scientific articles, were often used by Russian writers in order to make the speech of their work of art 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 old 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, Voyevoda, 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, there is the phrase "The one-eyed man did not take his only eye off the grandmaster's shoes." Archaisms with Church Slavonic overtones are also used in another episode: “Father Fyodor was hungry. He wanted we alth.”
Stylistic mistakes 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, the meaning, interpretation, meaning of them should be absolutely clear to you.
Obsolete words in fantasy and sci-fi
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 andarchaisms. 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. War for the throne.”
