The noun "world" is one of the most used in modern speech. This is facilitated by the fact that it has not one, but several meanings at once. Let's get to know them, and also consider the etymology of this term.
Noun origin
Before considering the meaning of the word "peace", it is worth knowing about the origin of this term. The roots of this name go back to the time of the existence of the Proto-Slavic language. It contained the noun "mir", from which the Old Slavonic word "mir" originated.
Subsequently, this term was preserved in most Slavic languages, having undergone minimal changes.
So in Ukrainian today the noun “mir” is actively used, in Belarusian - “mir”, in Polish - mir, in Bulgarian - “mir”, in Czech and Slovenian - mír, in Latvian - mieras, etc..
The lexical meaning of the word "peace"
Despite the fact that the term in question is found in most Slavic languages, only in Russian does it have such a large number of interpretations.
The main meaning of this word (characteristic not only for Russian, but also for Ukrainian,Belarusian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, Slovak and Slovenian) is a state of peace, the absence of enmity or war.
Probably, this was the interpretation of the term in question in the Proto-Slavic language.
Other meanings of the word "peace"
This noun in Russian is often used in a different sense. It is used when talking about the universe, about the planet Earth, about humanity, about society and similar concepts.
Also, the word "peace" is an obsolete, today, the name of a rural community.
In addition to all of the above, this term is used in psychology to name the subjective content of the human psyche. In this sense, the outer and inner worlds are distinguished.
In religion, this concept is also quite widely used, and also not in the same meaning. It is called the abode of the souls of the dead believers. This is the so-called afterlife, or better world. A similar phenomenon exists in the vast majority of world religions.
In addition to this interpretation, the word in question is used to denote the union of a Christian with the Lord - this is the spiritual world or the world with God.
With the improvement of computer technology, another concept has arisen associated with the noun under study. This is the so-called virtual world - a synthetic programmed universe, with its own laws and rules. Every PC user who hasInternet, can join any interactive virtual environment. Moreover, this phenomenon is used not only for entertainment, but also for business.
In most other Slavic languages, in all of the above interpretations, this term is not used. So in Ukrainian, the name “svіt” is used instead, in Polish - świat, in Belarusian - “light”, and Bulgarian - “holy”.
The only exception is the concept of "peace with God". In Ukrainian (peace with God), Belarusian (peace with God), Bulgarian (peace with God), Czech (mír s Bohem), Slovak (mier s Bohom) and Slovenian (mir z Bogom) it looks similar. But in Polish (pokój z Bogiem) - no.
"War and Peace" or "War and Peace"?
Having considered each meaning of the word "peace", it is worth knowing an interesting paradox about the pre-revolutionary spelling of this noun.
So, in the Russian grammar in the old days there were 2 terms "mir" and "mir". They sounded the same, but had different interpretations. The first of them illustrated the meaning of the word "peace" described in paragraph II. At the same time, the second meant several concepts at once, described in paragraph III.
After the Revolution of 1917 (when the spelling was changed) both nouns received the identical spelling "peace". Thus, this term combined several meanings.
In connection with this situation, in the XX century. philologists began to argue about the meaning of the words "War and Peace", which Leo Tolstoy used in the title of histhe most voluminous novel. Some of them argued that the title of the book should not be interpreted as "war and its absence", but "war and society/people".
To deal with this issue, pre-revolutionary editions of Tolstoy's novel were found in the archives. Most of them were labeled "War and Peace". Only one of the books had “War and Peace” printed on the first page, despite the traditional spelling on the cover.
From this we can conclude that the title of the novel "War and Peace" cannot be interpreted as "war and the people", since the use of the noun "peace" is an unfortunate typo by the printers.
Place names called "peace"
This word is not only a common noun, but also its own.
In Soviet times, one of the most common slogans was “Peace. Work. May. . In connection with these, all 3 terms were very often used in the names of settlements, as well as various objects.
For this reason, the meaning of the word "peace" is also a number of toponyms. This was the name of several Soviet villages and urban-type settlements. Today, only one of them has remained in the Russian Federation - in the Kemerovo region, Novokuznetsk district. The other two are the territory of modern Belarus, and another one is located in Kazakhstan.
Moscow metro station "Alekseevskaya" in 50-60s. was called Mir.
It is also worth mentioning the Soviet tradition to call cinemas this term. Some of them still bear this name, although they are located in different countries -Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
What objects and objects were called by this word
In addition to all of the above, the noun in question is the brand of a Soviet refrigerator, camera and lens. As well as a ship, a bathyscaphe and even a space station.
Despite the too frequent use of the term in question as a proper name, the meaning of the word in the modern world has not lost its relevance and, as before, means a lot of positive concepts.
