"Well, that's it, the philistine swamp sucked!" - says the heroine of the famous film. In her words, undisguised sarcasm and contempt. The tradesman is a representative of the estate that existed before 1917. A hardworking, law-abiding person who respects family values. Why did this word take on a negative connotation?
Etymology
"The tradesman" is a word of foreign origin. Translated from Polish - a resident of the city. The term came into Russian speech in the seventeenth century. During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, everything Polish was in vogue. "The tradesman" is a concept that has become firmly established in troubled times not only in colloquial speech, but also in political and legal terminology.
City people
In the seventeenth century, a person who was extremely unprotected in the legal and moral sense was a tradesman. He was forbidden to mortgage his own yard. It was he who was called the "black city man." And it was he who was mercilessly flogged at the stable for the slightest offense. However, there were stillpeasants. But that's another story.
If a Russian nobleman in the seventeenth century was asked to choose a synonym for the word "petty bourgeois", he would not hesitate to utter the offensive expression "black city people". There was another option, more euphonious - "townsmen".
The existence of the tradesman in Russia poisoned fees and duties. Some townspeople were so depressed by this state of affairs that they left their craft and went to the village, where they became serfs.
In the Petrine era, two guilds were singled out in the petty-bourgeois class. The first included bankers, merchants, healers, pharmacists, and jewelers. To the second - artisans, owners of taverns and representatives of other less revered professions.
Under Catherine II
The meaning of the word "philistine" was determined by the Empress in one of the documents. Catherine II called this category of Russian residents the middle class. They did not belong to either the farmers or the nobles. In addition, a more detailed classification of the philistines was created. In general, their life under Catherine became tolerable. They even began to be called “correct city dwellers.”
Peculiar philistine societies were created and existed for more than two hundred years. Members of such associations had certain duties and privileges.
In Modern Times
The bourgeois class has a long history. Its decline dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century, when the word "intelligentsia" appeared in the Russian language. More precisely, this term arose much earlier. But the people who belonged to this category,appeared at the beginning of the 20th century.
Intellectuals disliked the burghers, calling them "philistines", "proprietors". There seems to be nothing wrong with these words. However, the Soviet government arrived in time with its utopian idea of universal happiness. The tradesman did not fit into its ideology. A word that once commanded reverence has become almost a curse word.
The tradesman in the nobility
An analogue of the Russian tradesman in Europe is the bourgeois. The representative of this class was also a kind of intermediate link between the lower class and the aristocracy. But if he was in no hurry to write himself down as a peasant, then he strove to join the nobles. Molière wrote a comedy on this subject.
The hero of the French playwright is trying in every possible way to become like an aristocrat. However, ignorance and stupid imitation ruins it. The author calls the disguised tradesman "a crow in peacock feathers."
Molière's comedy is not social. In this dramatic work, first of all, human vices are ridiculed. But the hero of the famous comedy played an important role in the fact that the word "philistine" acquired a negative connotation.
In modern times
What is meant today by the term "philistines"? The definition of such a word can be given as follows: people of low spiritual culture, concerned about the acquisition of things, devoid of a sense of social responsibility.
Philosophy in colloquial speech today is also called bad taste. This understanding of the term arose in connection with the generally accepted opinion thatmany representatives of this class in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had the opportunity to acquire luxury goods, but did not know how to do it right. “Correct” in this context means according to aristocratic taste.
Petishism in the 21st century
Synonyms for the word "philistine" can serve as a literary term "philistine". This word has a contemptuous connotation. The philistine is the opposite of the romantic. This is a layman who is not interested in aesthetic values.
Returning to the negative, almost abusive word "philistine", it should be said that its main meaning in the modern sense is the preference for material values over spiritual ones. The term is used in relation to those who are not interested in literature and art. To those for whom the meaning of life lies in the acquisition of real estate, clothing items. The tradesman is a selfish person, invariably pursuing his base goals.
However, according to this terminology, in modern society, the most common type of personality is the one that should be denoted by this word.
