Surprisingly, the attitude to the word "staple" is more than ambiguous. In most cases, it is applied to residents of the Pskov region. Some consider it humiliating, while others are proud of such a self-name. The whole snag is in the origin of this word. There are different versions of why Pskovians are skobari.
Trace of Peter the Great
This is more like a beautiful legend, but they say that such a name appeared with the light hand of the sovereign himself.
The fact is that the Pskov province has long been famous for its skillful masters in the manufacture of ironmongery. Once Peter the Great wanted to unbend a bracket made by local blacksmiths, but did not master it. This surprised him very much, because, being a strong man, he easily coped even with horseshoes. So he praised the Pskov craftsmen, calling them staplers. Therefore, many natives of these lands proudly call themselves that way in memory of their ancestors. Moreover, in 2014 they even erected a monument to the stapler in Pskov. The creators immortalized the masters of blacksmithing and expressed to themyour gratitude. This monument has become an unofficial symbol of the city.
Skobar is an uncouth provincial?
Although the previous version is most likely pure fiction, there is no smoke without fire. It is known that Peter the Great issued a decree in 1714, which obliged about two hundred families of Pskov fishermen to move to the vicinity of St. Petersburg. The city was just being built, but there were no good blacksmiths there. They were given a settlement for a settlement, which, for obvious reasons, later became known as the village of Rybatsky. Their mission - the manufacture of ironmongery - they carried out regularly. Settlers supplied the young city with nails, rods, horseshoes. Therefore, the staples began to denote a narrower specialization of blacksmithing.
But the inhabitants of Rybatsky were distinguished by their provinciality and rude uncouthness, so the name of their profession acquired a negative connotation. So they began to call rustic, narrow-minded, ill-mannered, greedy people. Perhaps at first this word was argotism, but over time it migrated to a wide vocabulary, where it was fixed. Therefore, according to most modern explanatory dictionaries, a scobar is a redneck, a rude and a miser.
Indirect arguments in favor of this version of the origin of the word are similar-sounding lexemes in other languages. First of all, we are talking about those nationalities that lived next door to the Pskovites, for example, about the Latvians. Theoretically, if the word still existed in Russian, but was lost, its traces can be found in other linguistic systems. So, the Latvian skops meaning "greedy" can serve as proof of this. Also in German there is the adjective skeptisch ("incredulous"), as well as the French sceptique with the same meaning. But sometimes, as they say, you don't have to go far, because the Russian "stingy" can also be an echo of that old nickname for immigrants from the Pskov lands.
Skobar is a skilled warrior?
There is another version that blacksmithing has nothing to do with. The Pskovians - the descendants of the Slavic tribe of the Krivichi - were famous for their dexterity and courage in military affairs.
Hence their self-name came from, since the word "staple" denoted a military skirmish, and a participant was called a staple. True, supporters of this version operate with very scarce evidence: the presence of a similar lexeme with such a meaning even in the Serbian and Croatian languages, whose speakers do not live in territorial proximity to the Pskovians. That is, from a scientific point of view, such arguments are sewn with white thread and can only be regarded as an attempt to ennoble the name under discussion and wash it from the touch of negativity that has accumulated over a long time.
Or they suggest that people who lived in a well-protected area from enemies were called staplers. And those lands that the Pskov province later occupied were famous for their fortresses, which reliably protected the inhabitants from attacks.
Again, consonant words from other languages, for example English, are taken to the rescueescape ("to avoid", "to be saved"), Ancient Greek σκεπαω ("to protect", "to shelter"), Italian scappare ("to avoid"), Romanian a scăpa ("to save", "to be saved"). The meanings of these words intersect in the concept of a well-defended place.
Lexical Ghost
Skeptics have vague doubts about whether the name even existed 300 years ago. After all, if so, then it would be found in chronicles or other historical documents. But there is no such evidence. Also, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, who spent almost 3 years in the Pskov province, never mentioned this word in writing. And he uses the adjective "Pskov" 18 times. Also, this word is not in the Explanatory Dictionary of the Great Russian Language, edited by Dahl, published in the 19th century. It looks, at least, strange that such a connoisseur of Russian vocabulary lost sight of it, if it was in wide use at that time, because in this work there are even dialectisms and common words. Everything speaks against the fact that the noun "skobar", whether it was the name of a profession or a catonym, existed in the 18th or 19th century.
Phonetic version
Things could be much simpler. Perhaps the word "Pskov" was transformed into "skopsky" due to such a phonetic phenomenon as assimilation. And from this adjective, over time, a noun also emerged. So the whole process went something like this:Pskov - Skopsky - Skopsky - Skobar. Many linguists agree with this version. If this was so, then skobar is just an ethnonym. And it acquired a negative connotation because of the film "We are from Kronstadt", filmed in the 1930s. It depicts the events of the Civil War. There is a scene in the picture where a cowardly sailor, watching the battle between the Reds and the Whites, either puts on White Guard epaulettes, or rips them off his shoulders, depending on which side has the advantage. At the same time, he pitifully repeats: "We are from Pskov, we are from Skop."
Conclusion
It all depends on how the word is perceived. If as the original name of the sub-ethnos, then any Pskovite can proudly call himself a skobar. But if we take into account the negative connotation of the meaning, then one must be very careful with this anthroponym. After all, you can seriously offend a person by calling him a stapler.
