At the end of June at State Duma supported the bill providing for increased punishment for using swear words in the family and in public places. There have been attempts to tighten liability for obscene language more than once - both under tsarism and after the revolution. About how unprintable words penetrated into social life here and in the West, Lidia Malygina, associate professor of the Department of Stylistics of the Russian Language, Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University, scientific director of the system, spoke about the history and meaning of the obscenity “KP” distance learning
– If there were no problem, there would be no law. The question arises: who originally taught Russian people to swear?
– One of the common versions is the Tatar-Mongols. But in fact, this vocabulary has nothing to do with them. Russian mat of Slavic origin. Four roots known to every Russian person can be found in Macedonian, Slovenian, and others Slavic languages.
Most likely, swearing was an element of pagan cults associated with fertility, for example, with the spell of cattle or the call of rain. The literature describes in detail this custom: a Serbian peasant throws an ax into the air and utters obscene words, trying to make it rain.
– Why did such words become taboo?
– When Christianity came to Rus', the church began an active fight against pagan cults, including swear words as one of the manifestations of the cult. Hence the strong taboo nature of these forms. This is what distinguishes Russian obscenities from obscenities in other languages. Of course, since then the Russian language has actively developed and changed, and with it Russian swearing. New swear words have appeared, but they are based on the same four standard roots. Some previously harmless words have become obscene. For example, the word "dick". “Her” is a letter of the pre-revolutionary alphabet, and the verb “poherit” was used to mean “cross out.” Now this word is not yet included in the category of swear words, but it is already actively approaching this.
– There is a myth about the uniqueness of Russian obscene language. Is it so?
– The comparison with the English language is interesting. Obscene words have always puzzled British philologists with their nature. As early as 1938, the linguist Chase emphasized: “If someone mentions sexual intercourse, it does not shock anyone. But if someone says an ancient Anglo-Saxon four-letter word, most people will freeze in horror.”
The premiere of Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion in 1914 was highly anticipated. A rumor was started that, according to the author's plan, the actress playing the main female role should utter an obscene word from the stage. Answering Freddie's question whether she was going to walk home, Eliza Dolittle had to very emotionally say: “Not bloody likely!” The intrigue remained until the last moment. During the premiere, the actress still uttered an obscene word. The effect was indescribable: noise, laughter, whistling, stomping. Bernard Shaw even decided to leave the hall, deciding that the play was doomed. Now the British are complaining that they have actually lost this favorite curse word, which has already lost its former power, because the word has begun to be used too often.
Lidia MALYGINA - Associate Professor of the Department of Stylistics of the Russian Language, Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University Photo: "KP" Archive
– Probably, after the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the situation changed a lot, and obscene words literally poured onto the pages of the press?
- Certainly. Remember Great Britain late XIX– beginning of the twentieth century. Back then, even the legs of the piano were covered in covers so that they would not evoke random erotic associations! In the second half of the twentieth century, contraception developed rapidly and the pornography industry grew. Marriage for life and fidelity between spouses began to look like old-fashioned prejudices. And heterosexuality in marriage has ceased to be a prerequisite. It is noteworthy that at this time the attitude towards obscene words also changed. Two linguistic collections dedicated to obscene language appear. The first was published in the USA in 1980. The second was published in the United Kingdom and the USA in 1990. These reference books already contain several articles about vulgarisms. Examples of the use of obscene language were given in plain text.
– And yet they were punished for swearing. A well-known case when, at the height of anti-war protests in the United States in 1968, young man, who did not want to serve by conscription, was prosecuted for wearing a jacket with the inscription: “F... the draft!”
- Yes. Another well-known case is the 12-minute radio program “Obscene Words.” Satirist George Carlin listed seven words that should not be said on the radio, and then began to discuss the problem. One of the listeners was driving in a car with a child and accidentally heard the program. He immediately called the show's editor and complained.
Another famous scandal was caused by newspapers in the late 1970s. published an obscene statement that a player uttered to a referee during a sporting competition: “f... cheating cunt.” And even in works of art, the rudest words began to appear without any disguise. In the guide to St. Petersburg, Western authors do not hesitate to explain Russian vulgarisms, for example, b... (whore) – which is usually rendered as simply b... (short version of the word - Ed.) – and plays an equivalent role to 'f ...' in English for those who use it as a verbal stutter.
– Russian journalists also like to use obscene words and expressions, slightly disguising them so as not to formally violate the law banning swearing in the media...
– Yes, softer expressions, instead of rude ones, often cover up in the text easily recognizable obscene expressions, swear words and curses: “Dick Advocate: UEFA for himself!”; “Hugh Hefner and Dasha Astafieva: Hugh knows her...”; “And he stole 2 billion worth of deposits... But he himself ended up in complete “khopra””; or “Russia in CHOP” - the title of a special report about private security companies or the title of a film about weight loss “I’m losing weight, dear editors!”
– Are there other languages, besides Russian, in which obscene vocabulary is divided into ordinary swear words and strictly taboo words, the use of which is prohibited in any situation and in any context?
– In this sense, the Russian language is unique. Although, for example, obscene language Spanish is also associated with the sexual sphere, unlike German (in German this is the sphere of excrement). But in the Spanish language there is no such taboo, therefore the first academic dictionaries of the Spanish language contained similar vocabulary, but the dictionaries of the Russian language did not. In general, the first dictionary fixation of obscenities dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. We are talking about the third edition of Dahl's dictionary, edited by Baudouin de Courtenay. But such activities of dictionary compilers quickly ended, since the Soviet government banned the use of obscenities, and the third edition of Dahl’s dictionary was sharply criticized.
There are a lot of myths around Russian swearing that do not correspond to reality. For example, Russian linguists and historians have spread two myths about swearing: that Russians began to swear in response to the “Tatar-Mongol yoke” and that swearing is supposedly “a product of Slavic paganism.”
Our ancestors divided some words into:
1. Swear words are words from the mother, i.e. her blessing!
2. Swear words are words used on the battlefield to intimidate the enemy!
3. Foul language is the very bad thing you shouldn’t say!
All these points were reduced by the enemies of our Race to one thing and now mean the same thing, that is, bad words!
A lot has been written about the dangers of swearing. A long time ago I read an article by one writer, I no longer remember his name. He attacked the mat with noble anger. For a long time and convincingly he proved how disgusting and disgusting this was. In conclusion, he cited the only case of the usefulness of swearing known to him.
I will retell this incident too. A freight train is traveling, but it is carrying people. I don’t remember why, but there was a man on the other side of the carriage. He is holding on with all his might. It's about to fall off and die. The men in the carriage are trying to open the door and get him in. But the door is jammed and it won’t budge. The men are already exhausted and have mentally come to terms with the loss, but they continue to fiddle around. And then the unexpected happened.
A modest, quiet girl will shout: “Oh, you guys, fuck you! Anu got it!” And a miracle happened. Wild strength was revealed in men. The muscles tensed in one impulse, the door flew off, and the man was saved. Then they asked the girl how she decided to say such a thing. And she blushed, looked down and couldn’t utter a word out of shame.
Here the author hit the nail on the head, without even suspecting it. The point is that the mat is designed for exceptional cases. In Russia, swear words are also called swear words. Here you are standing on the battlefield, wounded, exhausted and, staggering, leaning on your sword. And your enemies are attacking you. For them and even for you, the outcome of the meeting is obvious. But you raise your head, look at them for a long time and say: “Well, come here, damn it, so get over you!!” And a miracle happens. A wild power is revealed in you. And your sword whistled like the blades of a helicopter, and the heads of your enemies rolled with an astonished expression on their faces. Then you yourself are surprised. This is what a mat is, this is why it is needed.
Our ancestors knew and understood the power of swearing very well. They carried it for centuries, and maybe even millennia, but they were not fools. Mat is exactly what is needed in emergency, critical situations. The ban creates a reserve of energy, like a battery, or more precisely, like a capacitor. Because the battery releases energy slowly, and the capacitor discharges instantly. This burst of energy works wonders. Any nation, people and even tribe have forbidden words, words that are tabooed. This is a common property of people, or more precisely, a property of a community of people. Fighting this property is as stupid as creating a new person. Why is Russian swearing so developed? Yes, because our history is difficult. Who knows, maybe thanks to swearing they survived and survived as a people.
To combat swearing, they propose to introduce swear words into everyday use and stop considering them swear words. And that will be? Here's what. You stand on the battlefield, wounded, exhausted and staggeringly leaning on your sword. And your enemies are attacking you. For them and even for you, the outcome of the meeting is obvious. But you raise your head, look at them for a long time and say: “Well, come on, damn it, so get over you. And then do the same again.” But a miracle does not happen. There is no longer any energy in these words. These words sound like: the weather has turned bad. You don't have a hidden reserve. And they take you lukewarm and rape your wife in front of your eyes, and take your children into slavery. Reducing swear words to ordinary ones discharges the people, making them sluggish and flabby.
MYTHS AND TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIAN MATE
There are a lot of myths around Russian swearing that do not correspond to reality. For example, Russian linguists and historians have spread two myths about swearing: that Russians began to swear in response to the “Tatar-Mongol yoke” and that swearing is supposedly “a product of Slavic paganism.”
In fact, the Slavs never swear. Including Belarusians and Ukrainians, as well as Poles, before the Russian occupation of 1795, the worst curses were only “curva” (corrupt girl) and “cholera” (disease). Neither Kievan Rus, nor the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, nor the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth have preserved a single document with obscenities and not a single order from the authorities on the fight against swearing, although in Muscovy there is a huge abundance of such documents.
If it were not for the Russian occupation, then Belarusians (Litvins), Ukrainians and Poles would not be swearing today. Today, however, Poles still hardly swear, and Slovaks and Czechs do not swear at all.
And this is quite normal, because most peoples of the world do not know swear words - just as the Slavs, Balts, Romans, and Germans did not know them. Their sexual vocabulary is extremely poor (compared to Russian), and many languages do not use sexual themes at all when using foul language. For example, the French “con” conveys the name of both the male and female genital organs with different articles, and the limit of foul language in the French is to simply call the opponent with this word. And only in the English language and only at the beginning of the twentieth century, and only in the USA, did the curse “mother fucker” appear, which has no analogue in Europe, and which was a copy of Russian obscenities - it was introduced into the US language by emigrants from Russia (see. V. Butler “The Origin of Jargon in the USA”, 1981, New York).
Thus, swearing is not at all a “product of Slavic paganism,” for the pagan Slavs did not swear.
The statement that “in ancient Rus' they swore” is also a myth. IN Kievan Rus no one swore - they swore only in Muscovy, but that was not Russia.
Historians find the first mention of the strange habit of Muscovites to use obscenities in 1480, when Prince Vasily III, along with Prohibition, demanded that Muscovites stop swearing. Then Ivan the Terrible ordered to “click on the auction” so that the Muscovites “would not swear and would not reproach each other with all sorts of obscene and nasty speeches.”
Then the German traveler Olearius, who arrived in Muscovy, noted with regret the wide prevalence of swearing: “Little children, who do not yet know how to name either God, or mother, or father, already have obscene words on their lips.”
In 1648, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich conceived the idea of “getting rid of the infection” and gave a royal decree so that “they should not sing demonic songs, swear, or use any obscene barking... And if people teach someone to scold someone with swearing and all sorts of barking - and to those people for such opposite Christian law for the fury of being from Us in great disgrace and cruel punishment."
Moscow priest Yakov Krotov notes:
“Throughout the 17th and most of the 18th centuries, Muscovy was calm about swearing. A simple example: near the Savinno-Storozhevsky Zvenigorod Monastery, located three kilometers from Zvenigorod, a stream flows, and in all scribe books, starting from the end of the 16th century, when the first one was compiled, scribes quite normally recorded the name of this stream flowing through the land that belonged to the monastery. The first letter was "p", the second half ended in "omoy". Who came here to wash from Zvenigorod, several kilometers away? Not quite clear. But, one way or another, at the end of the 18th century, when the general survey of Russia was carried out, drawing up full map In the Russian Empire, by decree of Catherine the Great, all names that contain obscene language and obscene roots are replaced with more euphonious ones. Since then this Zvenigorod stream has also been renamed.”
Until now, on the maps of Muscovy-Russia there were thousands of toponyms and hydronyms created on the basis of swear words.
There was nothing like this at that time either in Belarus-Lithuania or in Rus'-Ukraine then - the people there did not know curse words.
This circumstance could seemingly be explained by the fact that the Belarusians and Ukrainians were never under the Horde, and the Muscovites lived in the Horde for three hundred years, and then seized power there, annexing the Horde to Muscovy. After all, Soviet historians used to think so: that the Muscovites’ curses were supposedly their response to the “Tatar-Mongol yoke.”
For example, Vladimir Kantor, fiction writer and member of the editorial board Russian magazine Questions of Philosophy recently wrote:
“But in Russia, during the Tatars, the word “eble” appeared, which is a derivative for us, Russian people, understandably, associated with defamation of the mother and so on, in Turkic it simply meant to get married. The Tatar, capturing the girl, said that he was “eble” her, that is, he was taking her. But for any Russian commoner whose daughter, wife, or sister was taken away, he committed violence against a woman, and as a result, this word absolutely acquired the character of rape. What are swear words? This is the language of the raped, that is, of that lower layer who always feels outside the zone of action of high culture and civilization, humiliated, insulted, raped. And like any raped slave, he is ready to use this violence against his comrade, and if it works out, of course, against a noble one.”
At first glance, the version seems foldable. However, she is wrong.
Firstly, the current Tatars of Kazan (then Bulgars) were just like that “languishing from the Tatar yoke” (for Kazan was equally a vassal of the Tatars, like Moscow), but for some reason they did not give birth to any curses to the world.
Secondly, the Tatars of the Horde were not Turks, but were a mixture of Turkic and Finno-Ugric tribes. For this reason, they annexed the Finns of Suzdal-Muscovy (Mordovians, Moksha, Erzya, Murom, Merya, Chud, Meshchera, Perm) to the Horde and sought to unite all the Finno-Ugric peoples who left the Volga for Europe, including those who reached Hungary, the people which they considered “ours by right.”
Thirdly, there was no “Tatar yoke”. Moscow paid only a tax to the Tatars (half of which it kept for itself for the labor of collecting it - which is how it rose) and sent its Moscow army to serve in the army of the Horde. It never happened that the Tatars captured Muscovy girls as wives - these are modern inventions. They were captured as slaves during wars, but in the same way, hundreds of thousands of Slavs were captured as slaves by the Muscovites themselves (for example, 300 thousand Belarusians were captured by the Muscovites as slaves in the war of 1654-1657). But a slave is not a wife.
Generally speaking, this whole version of Vladimir Kantor is “sucked up” only on two dubious grounds: the presence in the Turkic language of the word “eble” (to marry) and the myth about the notorious “Tatar yoke”. This is very little, especially since other main swear words in the Russian language remain without explanation. How were they formed?
Although I must note that this hypothesis of Cantor is already a kind of breakthrough in the topic, because earlier Soviet historians generally wrote that the Muscovites simply adopted swear words from the Tatar-Mongols, they say they taught the Muscovites to swear. However, there are no obscenities in either the Turkic language or the Mongolian language.
So, there are two serious circumstances that completely refute Cantor’s hypothesis about the origin of one of the Russian mats from the Turkic word “eble” (to marry).
1. Excavations by academician Valentin Yanin in Novgorod led in 2006 to the discovery of birch bark letters with mats. They are much older than the arrival of the Tatars in the Suzdal principality. Which puts a BOLD CROSS on the general attempt of historians to link the obscenities of the Muscovites with the language of the Tatars (Turkic).
Moreover, these mats on the birch bark letters of Novgorod are adjacent to elements of Finnish vocabulary - that is, the people who wrote them were not Slavs (colonists encouraged by Rurik, who sailed from Polabye and built Novgorod here), but local semi-Slavicized colonists of Rurik, Finns (or Sami, or miracle, all, muromoy).
2. There is another people in Europe, besides the Muscovites, who have been swearing for a thousand years - and with the SAME RUSSIAN cuss words.
These are Hungarians.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF RUSSIAN MATES
For the first time, Russian historians learned about the Hungarian mats quite recently - and were extremely surprised: after all, the Hungarians are not Slavs, but Finno-Ugrians. And they were not under any “Tatar-Mongol yoke,” for they left the Volga for Central Europe centuries before the birth of Genghis Khan and Batu. For example, Moscow researcher of the topic Evgeny Petrenko is extremely discouraged by this fact and admits in one of his publications that “this completely confuses the issue of the origin of Russian obscenities.”
In fact, this does not confuse the question, but rather provides a complete answer.
The Hungarians have been using mats absolutely similar to those of Muscovy since the time they came to Europe from the Volga.
It is clear that Cantor’s hypothesis about the origin of one of the Russian mats from the Turkic word “eble” (to marry) is in no way applicable to the Hungarians, because the Turks did not force their girls to marry. And there are no Turks around the Hungarians in Central Europe.
Evgeniy Petrenko notes that the Serbian swear expression “ebene sluntse in pichku” appeared historically recently - only 250 years ago, and was adopted by the Serbs from the Hungarians during the period when Serbia came from the Turkish yoke to the rule of Austria-Hungary under Empress Maria Theresa. The Hungarian chronicles of the Middle Ages are filled with such obscenities that did not exist anywhere else and among no one else around (Slavs, Austrians, Germans, Italians, etc., including Turks). They were then carried to the Serbs by the Hungarian colonial administration, the Hungarian army and the Hungarian aristocracy.
Why are the Hungarians’ swear words absolutely identical to the Muscovite swear words?
There can be only one answer: THESE ARE FINNO-UGRIAN MATS.
Let me remind you that Hungarians, Estonians, Finns and Russians are one and the same Finnish ethnic group. The Russians, however, were partly Slavicized by the priests of Kyiv, who instilled Orthodoxy among them. But studies of the gene pool of the Russian nation, conducted in 2000-2006 by the Russian Academy of Sciences (which we previously described in detail), showed that in terms of genes, Russians are absolutely identical to the Finnish ethnic group: Mordovians, Komi, Estonians, Finns and Hungarians.
Which should not be surprising, since all of Central Russia (historical Muscovy) is the land of the Finnish peoples, and all its toponyms are Finnish: Moscow (of the Moksha people), Ryazan (of the Erzya people), Murom (of the Murom people), Perm (of the Perm people) etc.
The only “blank spot” remains the question of the ancient presence of mats in Estonia and Finland. Judging by the fact that the birch bark letters of Novgorod with mats could most likely be written by the Sami (and not the Chud or Muroma), who also inhabited Estonia and Finland, the Estonians and Finns too must have had mats since ancient times. This nuance needs clarification.
On the other hand, in the Finno-Ugric ethnic groups, it was the Ugrians who could have given birth to mats. That is, the Hungarians and those who remained to live in the lands of the future Muscovy are related peoples to them. The Ugric group of languages today includes only the Hungarian language and the Ob-Ugric Khanty and Mansi. In the past, this group was much more powerful, including, presumably, the Pecheneg people, who went with the Hungarians to Central Europe and along the way settled widely over the Crimea and in the steppes of the Don (they were allegedly exterminated by the Tatars). In Muscovy itself, the main ethnic group was the Mordovian ethnic group Moksha (Moksel in its language), which gave the name to the river Moksva (Moks Moksha + Va water), changed in the Kiev language to the more euphonious “Moscow” for the Slavs. And the Erzya ethnic group (with the capital Erzya and the state Great Erzya, later changed to Ryazan). In the Perm group of Komi and Udmurts, the state of Great Permia stood out. All this is the historical territory of the original distribution of mats.
Thus, the very term “Russian swearing” is absurd. For they are not Russians at all (in the understanding of Rus' as Kyiv State), and Finnish ones. Those who remained in the language of the native Finnish population of Muscovy as subjects of their pre-Slavic language.
ESSENCE OF MATES
What is the essence of Russian obscenities?
It is clear that Russian researchers of the issue have always been confused by the fact that the Russians have mats, while the Slavs and other Indo-Europeans do not have them at all. Therefore, in this matter, Russians have always, under the shadow of some kind of “inferiority complex,” instead of scientific consideration, tried to justify themselves or “make amends.” They tried to drag the Slavs into swearing - they say, this is Slavic paganism. But it didn’t work out - because the Slavs never swear, and the Russians are not Slavs. They tried to show that Russian obscenities were invented for a reason, but in response to the yoke of the Tatars. And it didn’t work out: the Hungarians had exactly the same mats, but they didn’t have any “Tatar yoke”.
In fairness, it should be said that the Russians are truly an unfortunate people of the former Finnish ethnic groups, whose fate over the last thousand years has been simply terrible.
At first, he was conquered as a slave by the younger princes of Kyiv, who simply did not get their principalities in the Rus of Kyiv. Since there were no Slavs here in future Muscovy, the princes and their squads treated the local Finnish population as slaves. Exactly Kyiv princes introduced in Muscovy serfdom(that is, slave ownership), which was wild in Kyiv in relation to the peasants of their own ethnic group. Let me remind you that neither in Ukraine nor in Belarus-Lithuania there was ever serfdom before the Russian occupation of 1795, and besides Muscovy, serfdom existed in Europe only in one place - in Prussia, where, in exactly the same way, the Germans made local foreign Prussians slaves and local Slavs.
Then these Finnish lands enslaved by Kievan Rus fell under the rule of the Horde of Trans-Volga Tatars, whose capital was located near present-day Volgograd. They created the Empire of the Turks and Finno-Ugric peoples, so mentally the Suzdal lands were drawn to the Horde, and not to the Indo-European Rus of Kyiv and Lithuania-Belarus of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the country of the Western Balts). Moreover, the princely elite of the lands of the future Muscovy found in the Horde a very successful justification for their slaveholding power over the local Finnish population: Eastern traditions elevated rulers to the rank of God, which the Europeans never had, including Byzantium and the Russian Orthodox Church of Kiev, which baptized Rus'.
These two main arguments turned Muscovy away from Rus' and Kyiv forever and created a new eastern type of state - a complete satrapy.
Therefore, the Finno-Russians (Muscovites) had every reason to swear at everyone: they lived freely only in their national Finnish states (of which only Finnish place names remained) until the arrival of the Kyiv enslavers. And then came a thousand years of complete slavery: first, slavery as part of Kievan Rus, then the same slavery, but when the Tatar enslavers were sitting on top of the Kiev enslavers, and then the enslavers began to be called “Moscow Sovereigns.” Until 1864 (the abolition of serfdom), the people remained in the state of enslaved natives, that is, slaves, and the aristocracy despised them with the same degree of contempt as the British and French despised the African blacks they conquered in the 19th century.
Yes, from such a thousand-year oppression of Kievan Rus, the Horde and then Muscovy-Russia, there is enough hatred in the Finnish people to give birth to obscenities - like native slang of foul language towards the oppressors.
But... We see that these mats existed among the Finno-Ugrians even before their enslavement by their neighbors from the West and the East. And they exist among the Hungarians, who very successfully escaped from the Volga to Europe, avoiding the fate of their fellow tribesmen.
This means that the mats of the Finno-Ugric peoples did not originate as a response to their enslavers, but as something internal, purely primordial and without any external influence. Because the Finno-Ugric people ALWAYS swore.
Some researchers express the following point of view: swearing is part of some mystical culture, in a series of conspiracies or curses. Including some (A. Filippov, S.S. Drozd) find that a number of obscene curses essentially mean not something offensive, but a wish for death. For example, going to “n...”, as they write, means the desire to go to where you were born, that is, to leave life again into oblivion.
Is it so? I doubt.
Did the Finno-Ugric peoples in the past, during the era of the birth of swearing, have such a mystical culture in which sexual themes of swearing would be used? Personally, it’s hard for me to imagine this. Yes, sexual themes are present among all ancient peoples - but as symbols of fertility. And in our case we're talking about about something completely different. And there is simply no “mystical culture” or “pagan cults” here.
It seems to me that the Moscow priest Yakov Krotov finds the essence of the obscenities most correctly:
“One of the modern Orthodox publicists, Abbot Veniamin Novik, published several articles against foul language, against swearing. In these articles, he emphasizes that swearing is associated with materialism. There is a kind of play on words here, with dialogue. “Why should release, and swearing, foul language, this is often justified as an emotional release, have to happen,” writes Abbot Veniamin, “at the expense of other people? A swearer certainly needs someone to hear him. Swearing is, first of all, a symptom evolutionary underdevelopment. Biologists know that in the animal world there is a pronounced connection between aggressiveness and sexuality, and some “especially gifted” (hegumen Veniamin writes sarcastically) individuals use their genitals to intimidate the enemy. And some no less gifted representatives of the homo sapiens family do this "It's the same verbally. Exhibitionists are just more consistent." This is a refutation of foul language and a rebuff to it from the position of a modern, well-educated person.”
Exactly.
The Indo-Europeans did not swear because their ancestral ethnic group was formed as more progressive and excluded in communication the ape habits of “using your genitals to intimidate the enemy.” But the ancestral ethnic group of the Finno-Ugrians, who are not Indo-Europeans, was formed in a different way - and used monkey habits.
That's the whole difference: Russians and Hungarians swear because they are not Indo-Europeans. And because their ancestors developed differently than the Indo-Europeans - in a completely different cultural environment.
Moreover, the use of swear words in communication necessarily retrospectively means that in the distant past the ancestors of Russians and Hungarians used these swear words as an illustration of ACTIONS - that is, the Finno-Ugric people used to show their genitals to their opponent as a SIGN OF INSULT. And various other indecent ACTIONS.
Does it seem wild? But this is no more savage than the very fact of almost COMPLETE approval of obscenities in Russia - primarily by cultural figures. How, for example, should we relate to such statements: GALINA ZHENVOVA, Chief Editor The joint editorial board of Gubernskie Izvestia shares with readers: “I have a positive attitude towards swearing. Russian people have two ways of letting off steam. The first is vodka, the second is swearing. Let it be better to swear.”
Why don’t other nations have “ways to let off steam” only in the form of vodka and swearing? And why is swearing “better” than vodka?
WHAT IS MAT BETTER THAN VODKA?
In Russia they don’t understand that swearing destroys the foundations of Society. Swearing, being an animal behavior of “using one’s genitals to intimidate the enemy,” is already antisocial. But swearing has evolved compared to animals: the very name “swearing” means an insult to the opponent’s mother in sexual violence on the part of the speaker. What animals don't have.
For Finno-Ugric peoples (Russians and Hungarians), this is perhaps their own normal local traditional form of communication. But for Indo-Europeans this is unacceptable.
Each of us was a child and knows that all sorts of nasty things easily penetrate into children's brains. Likewise, the swear words of the Hungarians and Russians were introduced into Europe not through our adult Europeans, but through children who had contact with the children of these peoples who spoke swear words. This fact alone shows that swearing enters the minds of people through the corruption of our children and, in essence, differs little from child pornography or the corruption of minors.
Let them always use obscenities in Russia. But why should we be like them? Our ancestors did not know these foreign obscenities.
It is very bad when sexual education of children begins with their knowledge of obscenities and their meaning. This is exactly what happened to me: teenagers taught me swear words and explained their meaning - they were the discoverers for me of the mystery of the relationship between a man and a woman - through swear words.
This is fine? This is absolutely abnormal.
Therefore it seems completely erroneous opinion editor Russian newspaper that swearing is better than vodka. Our children don’t drink vodka at the age of 10, but learn swearing. For what?
Russian publicists say with pride and joy that Russian obscenities completely replace any transmission of thoughts and concepts. Olga Kvirkvelia, the head of the Russian educational Christian center “Faith and Thought”, a Catholic, said about swearing in a Radio Liberty program in February 2002: “In principle, swearing is like a good swearing, real, not the street one that we hear today, it’s just a sacred language with which you can really tell absolutely everything. I became interested in swearing when I accidentally heard in the Novgorod region, in a village, how my grandmother explained to my grandfather how to plant cucumbers. There were only non-obscene pretexts, which is understandable perfectly. She didn’t swear, she very kindly, very friendly explained how to plant cucumbers correctly. This is a language that, unfortunately, we have practically lost and turned into something vulgar, disgusting, vile and bad. Actually this is not true. And this reflects very deep layers of consciousness.”
I'm shocked. Why can’t grandma talk normally about planting cucumbers in normal human terms, but replaces them all with sexual terms? Olga Kvirkvelia sees this in “sacred language.” What is “sacred” about it, besides the animal display of its genitals?
She also says that “This is a language that, unfortunately, we have practically lost.” It turns out that the Finno-Ugric language of Russians and Hungarians is the language of complete obscenities, where all concepts are replaced by them?
Unfortunately, everything bad and nasty tends to spread around like a disease. So Russia brought its mats to the neighboring peoples of the Belarusians, Ukrainians, Balts, Caucasians, peoples it conquered Central Asia who speak their own language, but insert Finnish obscenities through each word. So Finnish " sacred words"became the everyday vocabulary of distant Uzbeks. Moreover, they began to swear in the USA - already in English, and it is quite normal in the film “Police Academy” to see a plot, the action of which takes a long time to unfold against the background of an inscription written in Russian on a telephone booth from the familiar three letters “x..”. Who wrote it there? Yankees?
But there is nothing like this anywhere else in the world: writing obscenities on the walls. And even Vysotsky noticed: in public French toilets there are inscriptions in Russian. Writing obscenities on a wall is tantamount to the animal behavior of displaying your genitals. This is what the “sacred” eastern neighbors do, like monkeys. This is the exhibitionism of our eastern neighbor.
Is this the norm of behavior for us Europeans, including Belarusians and Ukrainians? Of course not, because we cannot express anything sacred, that is, sacred, simply because our ancestors did not know curse words. These swear words are foreign and alien to us.
Our European languages have enough means to express any concept without obscenities, just as there are no obscenities in the works of Lev Tolstoy. He did not use the “sacred language”, but created literary masterpieces of world culture and the Russian language. Which already means that the Russian language will not lose anything without these obscenities. But he will only get richer
Date of publication: 05/13/2013Swearing, swearing, obscene expressions are an ambiguous phenomenon. On the one hand, there are poorly educated and uncultured people who cannot even put together two words without swearing, on the other hand, fairly intelligent and well-mannered people sometimes also swear. Sometimes these words themselves fly out of our mouths. After all, there are situations when it is impossible to express your attitude to what is happening in any other way...
So, let's figure out what this phenomenon is and where it came from.
Mat is a type of profanity in Russian and other languages. For the most part, swearing is condemned and perceived negatively by society. And sometimes it can even be regarded as hooliganism. In addition, there are cases when swear words were used in the works of classical authors such as Pushkin (yes, yes! It’s hard to believe, but it’s true), Mayakovsky, etc.
If someone covers someone or something with an endless stream of swear words, and doing it in their own intricate way, then this is called a “three-story obscenity.”
Origin
There is an opinion that swearing was brought to our land by the Tatar-Mongol hordes. And that until this very moment in Rus' they did not know swear words at all. Naturally, this is not so. Because the position in the spirit of “everything nasty was brought to us from outside” is very convenient, and is so characteristic of many of us.
Nomads have nothing to do with this, because... they had no custom of swearing. This fact noted back in the 13th century by the Italian traveler Plano Carpini, who then visited Central Asia. He wrote that the Tatar-Mongols had no swear words at all, and on the contrary, Russian chronicle sources tell us that swear words were widespread in Rus' long before the Horde yoke.
Modern obscene language has its roots in distant linguistic antiquity.
The most important swear word is the word x**, the same one that can be found on walls and fences all over the world :)
If you take this iconic three-letter word, then the word “dick” also corresponds to it. In Old Russian, “pokherit” means to cross out cross by cross. And the word “her” means “cross”. We are accustomed to thinking that this word is used to designate the male genital organ, along with that same three-letter swear word. The fact is that in Christian philosophical symbolism, the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified is viewed not as an instrument of shameful execution, but as the victory of life over death. Thus, the word "her" was used in Rus' to mean the word "cross". The letter “x” in Russian is denoted in the form of intersecting lines, and this is not just so, because Christ, Christianity, temple, kher (cross). There is also an opinion according to which the phrase “Fuck you all!” was invented by defenders of Slavic paganism. They shouted it, swearing at the Christians who had come to instill their faith. Originally this expression meant a curse, to paraphrase we can say that they meant “Go to the cross!”, i.e. let you be crucified like your God.” But in connection with the victory of Orthodoxy in Rus', the term “cross” ceased to have a negative meaning.
In Christianity, for example, foul language is considered a great sin, and the same is true in Islam. Rus' adopted Christianity later than its Western neighbors. By this time, swearing, along with pagan customs, was firmly rooted in Russian society. With the advent of Christianity in Rus', the fight against swear words began. Orthodoxy declared war on swearing. There were cases when Ancient Rus' foul-mouthed people were punished with whips. Swearing was a sign of a slave, a stinker. It was believed that a noble person, and an Orthodox one at that, would never use foul language. A hundred years ago, a person who used bad language in public could be taken to the police station. And the Soviet government waged a war against abusive people. According to Soviet law, foul language in a public place should have been punishable by a fine. In fact, this punishment was used very rarely. Along with vodka, swearing at this time was already considered a certain attribute of brave valor. The police, military, and senior officials were arguing. The top management has a “strong word” and is still in use. If a leader uses swear words in a conversation with someone, this means special trust.
Only in an intelligent environment was swearing a sign of bad taste. But what about Pushkin, you say, and Ranevskaya? According to contemporaries, Pushkin did not use rude expressions in his life. However, in some of his “secret” works you can find swear words. It was just shocking - a slap in the face to the refined society that rejected him. Oh, you are so polished - so here is my “peasant” answer. For Ranevskaya, swearing was an integral part of her bohemian image - image, as they say now. For that time it was original - internally a very subtle nature, outwardly he behaves like a man - he smokes stinking cigarettes, swears. Now, when obscenities are heard at every step, such a trick will no longer work.
In general, linguists believe that the roots of swear words are in many Indo-European languages, but they managed to truly develop only on our land.
So, three main swear words denoting male and female genital organs and the sexual act itself as such. Why did these words, which basically mean things inherent in all living beings, eventually become curse words? Apparently our ancestors attached great importance great importance reproductive function. Words that denoted the reproductive organs were given a magical meaning. It was forbidden to pronounce them in vain, so as not to damage people.
The first violators of this prohibition were sorcerers who were engaged in casting spells on people and doing other charming things. Afterwards, this taboo began to be violated by those who wanted to show that the law was not written to them. Gradually they began to use obscenities just like that, out of fullness of feeling, for example. At the same time, all this developed, and the main words acquired a mass of words derived from them.
There are three main linguistic versions of the introduction of swearing into the Russian language, based on research conducted at different times by various historians and linguists:
1. Russian swearing is a legacy of the Tatar-Mongol yoke (one of the theories, which, as we have already found out, is untenable in itself);
2. Russian swear words once had two meanings, subsequently displacing one of the meanings or merging together and turning the meaning of the word into a negative one;
3. Mat was and is an integral part of occult and pagan rituals existing in different languages from different nationalities.
There is no single point of view where the word mat itself came from. In some reference books you can find a version that “swearing” is a conversation. But why is the word “mate” so similar to the word mother?
There is a version related to the fact that the word “mate” came into the Russian language after the appearance of the expression “send to mother.” In fact, this is one of the first expressions to become obscene. After the appearance of this particular phrase, many words that had previously existed in the language began to be classified as abusive and indecent.
Practically, until the 18th century, those words that we now classify as obscene and abusive were not such at all. Words that have become indecent previously meant or some physiological characteristics(or parts) of the human body, or in general were ordinary words.
Relatively recently (just about a thousand years ago), a word meaning a woman of easy virtue was included in the list of swear words; it comes from the word “vomit”, which was quite common in ancient Rus', which means “to spew out abomination.”
The verb “whore” in the Old Russian language meant “to talk idle talk, to deceive.” In the Old Russian language there was also a verb fornication - “to wander.” There are two meanings of this word: 1) deviation from the straight path and 2) illegal, celibate cohabitation. There is a version that there was a merger of two verbs (blyaditi and fornication).
In the Old Russian language there was a word “mudo”, meaning “male testicle”. This word was rarely used and did not have an obscene connotation. And then, apparently, it came down to our times, turning from rarely used to commonly used.
Addition to the article from Artyom Alenin:
The topic of swearing in Russia is a very fertile and popular topic. At the same time, there are a lot of untrue facts and rumors regarding swearing wandering on the Internet. For example: “Once upon a time, scientists conducted an experiment. They swore at the water and then poured it on the wheat seeds. As a result, of those grains that were watered with water with a curse, only 48% sprouted, and the seeds watered with holy water sprouted by 93%.” Naturally, this is all a lie and fiction. You cannot “charge” water with just one word. As they say, no one has yet canceled the laws of chemistry and physics. By the way, this myth was once perfectly dispelled in the show MythBusters.
They very often try to ban swearing. Various laws are constantly coming out that limit the use of swear words in the media. But you don’t need to do this! The reason lies in the following aspects.
Firstly, swearing is not necessarily an offensive word. Work at a construction site for a week and you will understand that swearing is a great way to communicate. Especially swearing helps to communicate with citizens of the union republics who, apart from swearing, do not understand anything else :)
In addition, without using swear words, you can insult a person and even drive him to murder or suicide. So what needs to be banned is not swearing, but insults and humiliation in the media.
Secondly, mat is a word that reflects a very deep feeling. We associate swearing with sharp negative feelings like rage or anger. Therefore, it is impossible to prohibit swearing - for this you need to change your consciousness. Theoretically, if a child is fenced off from swearing from childhood, then he will not swear. However, he will still come up with words to express his anger.
The sensory background of swearing is also evidenced by the fact that a person with amnesia, even if he does not remember the language, can still swear.
Our legislators are smart people, and therefore there is no article punishing swearing. But there are logical articles about slander and insult. Moreover, these articles were recently canceled because the responsibility for them was too low (public apology). But then these articles were returned again. Apparently the state realized that the absence of at least some kind of punishment would let people off the “chain.” This is especially true for swearing in the media.
Interestingly, in Europe and the USA it is not swearing itself that is prohibited, but insults (which is logical). At the same time, one should not think that there are no swear words in the English language. According to statistics, there are more swear words in English than in Russian. There is also a lot of swearing in Dutch and French (with their famous "curva", which is now in Polish and other languages).
Thank you for your attention!
P.S. The fact that we talk so loyally about swearing does not mean that you need to swear on our website :) So write comments in the usual civilized style.
Latest tips from the People section:
Did this advice help you? You can help the project by donating any amount at your discretion for its development. For example, 20 rubles. Or more:)
As sad as it is to realize, swearing is an integral part of every language, without which it is impossible to imagine it. But for many centuries they actively fought against obscene language, but they could not win this battle. Let's look at the history of the emergence of swearing in general, and also find out how obscenities appeared in the Russian language.
Why do people slander?
No matter what anyone says, absolutely all people without exception use curse words in their speech. Another thing is that someone does this very rarely or uses relatively harmless expressions.
For many years, psychologists have been studying the reasons why we swear, although we know that this not only characterizes us poorly, but can also become offensive to others.
Several main reasons why people swear have been identified.
- Insulting an opponent.
- An attempt to make your own speech more emotional.
- As interjections.
- To relieve psychological or physical stress in the person speaking.
- As a manifestation of rebellion. An example of this behavior can be observed in the movie "Gender: The Secret Material". His main character (whom her father raised in a strict atmosphere, protecting her from everything), having learned that she could swear, began to actively use swear words. And sometimes out of place or in strange combinations, which looked very comical.
- To attract attention. Many musicians, in order to look special, use profanity in their songs.
- In order to successfully adapt to a certain environment in which swear words replace ordinary ones.
- As a tribute to fashion.
I wonder which of these reasons you swear for?
Etymology
Before finding out how swear words appeared, it will be interesting to consider the history of the origin of the noun itself “swearing” or “swearing”.
It is generally accepted that it was derived from the term "mother". Linguists believe that this concept, so respected by everyone, turned into the name of obscene language due to the fact that the Slavs were the first to use curse words to insult their mothers. This is where the expressions “send to mother” and “swear” came from.
By the way, the antiquity of the term is evidenced by its presence in other Slavic languages. In modern Ukrainian it is used similar name"matyuki", and in Belarusian - "mat" and "mataryzna".
Some scholars try to connect this word with its homonym from chess. They claim that it was borrowed from Arabic through the mediation French and means "death of the king." However, this version is very doubtful, since in this sense the word appeared in Russian only in the 18th century.
When considering the question of where mats came from, it is worth finding out what other peoples call their analogues. Thus, the Poles use the expressions plugawy język (dirty language) and wulgaryzmy (vulgarisms), the British - profanity (blasphemy), the French - impiété (disrespect), and the Germans - Gottlosigkeit (godlessness).
Thus, by studying the names of the very concept of “mat” in different languages, you can find out exactly what types of words were considered the first curses.
The most famous versions explaining where the mats came from
Historians have still not come to a consensus regarding the origin of the abuse. Reflecting on where mats came from, they agree that they were originally associated with religion.
Some believe that in ancient times swear words were attributed magical properties. It’s not for nothing that one of the synonyms for swearing is curses. That is why their pronunciation was prohibited, as it could cause someone else’s or one’s own misfortune. Echoes of this belief can still be found today.
Others believe that for their ancestors, swearing was a kind of weapon against enemies. During disputes or battles, it was customary to blaspheme the gods who protected opponents, supposedly this made them weaker.
There is a third theory that tries to explain where the mats came from. According to her, curses associated with the genitals and sex were not curses, but, on the contrary, prayers to the ancient pagan gods of fertility. That is why they were pronounced in difficult times. That is, in fact, they were an analogue of the modern interjection: “Oh, God!”
Despite the apparent delusion of this version, it is worth noting that it may be quite close to the truth, because it explains the appearance of sex-centric profanity.
Unfortunately, none of the above theories gives a clear answer to the question: “Who created swear words?” It is generally accepted that they are the fruit of folk art.
Some believe that the curses were invented by the priests. And their “flock” were memorized like spells to be used as needed.
A Brief History of Obscene Language
Having considered theories about who invented swear words and why, it is worth tracing their evolution in society.
After people came out of the caves, began to build cities and organize states with all their attributes, the attitude towards swearing began to take on a negative connotation. Swear words were prohibited, and persons uttering them were severely punished. Moreover, blasphemy was considered the most terrible. They could be expelled from the community, branded with a hot iron, or even executed.
At the same time, there was much less punishment for sexocentric, animalistic expressions or those related to bodily functions. And sometimes she was completely absent. This is probably why they were used more often and evolved, and their numbers grew.
With the spread of Christianity in Europe, another war was declared on obscene language, which was also lost.
It is interesting that in some countries, as soon as the power of the church began to weaken, the use of obscenities became a symbol of free thought. This happened during French Revolution, when it was fashionable to vehemently criticize the monarchy and religion.
Despite the prohibitions, there were professional detractors in the armies of many European states. Their duties were to swear at enemies during battle and demonstrate their private organs for greater persuasiveness.
Today, obscene language continues to be condemned by most religions, but is not punished as severely as it was centuries ago. Their public use is punishable by small fines.
Despite this, the last few decades have seen another transformation of swearing from taboo to something fashionable. Today they are everywhere - in songs, books, films and television. Moreover, millions of souvenirs with obscene inscriptions and signs are sold every year.
Features of swearing in the languages of different nations
Although the relationship to swearing in different countries has been identical in all centuries, each nation has formed its own list of swear words.
For example, traditional Ukrainian swearing is based on the names of the process of defecation and its product. In addition, the names of animals are used, most often dogs and pigs. The name of the tasty pig became obscene, probably during the Cossack period. The main enemies of the Cossacks were Turks and Tatars - that is, Muslims. And for them, a pig is an unclean animal, comparison with which is very offensive. Therefore, in order to provoke the enemy and throw him off balance, Ukrainian soldiers compared their enemies to pigs.
Many obscenities in English came to it from German. For example, these are the words shit and fuck. Who would have thought!
At the same time, less popular curses were indeed borrowed from Latin - these are defecate (defecate), excrete (excrete), fornicate (fornicate) and copulate (copulate). As you can see, all words of this kind are old words that are not often used today.
But the no less popular noun ass is relatively young and became widely known only in the second half of the 19th century. thanks to sailors who accidentally twisted the pronunciation of the term "ass" (arse).
It is worth noting that in every English-speaking country there are curse words that are specific to its inhabitants. For example, the above word is popular in the USA.
As for other countries, in Germany and France most obscene expressions are associated with dirt or sloppiness.
Among the Arabs, you can go to jail for swearing, especially if you insult Allah or the Koran.
Where do swear words come from in Russian?
Having dealt with other languages, it is worth paying attention to Russian. After all, it is in it that obscene language is actually slang.
So, where did Russian swearing come from?
There is a version that the Mongol-Tatars taught their ancestors to swear. However, today it has already been proven that this theory is wrong. A number of written sources have been found from an earlier period (than the appearance of the horde on the Slavic lands), in which obscene expressions are recorded.
Thus, understanding where swearing came from in Rus', we can conclude that it has existed here since time immemorial.
By the way, in many ancient chronicles there are references to the fact that princes often fought with each other. It does not indicate which words they used.
It is possible that the ban on swearing existed even before the advent of Christianity. Therefore, swear words were not mentioned in the official documentation, which makes it difficult to at least approximately establish where swearing in Rus' came from.
But if we consider that the most popular obscene words are found mainly only in Slavic languages, we can assume that they all originated in Proto-Slavic. Apparently, the ancestors slandered no less than their descendants.
It is difficult to say when they appeared in Russian. After all, the most popular of them were inherited from Proto-Slavic, which means they were in it from the very beginning.
Words that are consonant with some of the curses that are so popular today, which we will not cite for ethical reasons, can be found in birch bark documents of the 12th-13th centuries.
Thus, to the question: “Where did swear words come from in the Russian language?”, we can safely answer that they were present in it already during the period of its formation.
It is interesting that no radical new expressions were subsequently invented. In fact, these words have become the core on which the entire system of Russian obscene language is built.
But on their basis, over the next centuries, hundreds of cognate words and expressions were created, which almost every Russian is so proud of today.
Speaking about where Russian swearing came from, one cannot fail to mention borrowings from other languages. This is especially true for modern times. After the collapse of the USSR, active penetration of Anglicisms and Americanisms into speech began. Among them were obscene ones.
In particular, this is the word “condon”, or “gondon” (linguists are still arguing about its spelling), derived from condom (condom). Interestingly, in English it is not a swear word. But in Russian it’s still the same. Therefore, when answering the question of where the Russian swear word came from, we should not forget that obscene expressions so common on our territory today also have foreign language roots.
Sin or not sin - that is the question!
When interested in the history of obscene language, people most often ask two questions: “Who invented obscenities?” and “Why do they say it’s a sin to use swear words?”
If we have dealt with the first question, then it’s time to move on to the second.
So, those who call the habit of swearing sinful refer to its prohibition in the Bible.
Indeed, in the Old Testament slander is condemned more than once, and in most cases it is precisely this kind of slander that is meant, such as blasphemy - which is truly a sin.
The New Testament also clarifies that the Lord can forgive any blasphemy (slander), except that directed at the Holy Spirit (Gospel of Mark 3:28-29). That is, it is swearing directed against God that is again condemned, while its other types are considered less serious violations.
By the way, one should take into account the fact that not all swear words relate to the Lord and His blasphemy. Moreover, simple phrases-interjections: “My God!”, “God knows him,” “Oh, Lord!”, “Mother of God” and the like can technically also be considered a sin based on the commandment: “Do not pronounce the name of the Lord, God.” yours in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain" (Ex. 20:7).
But similar expressions (which do not carry any negative sentiment and are not curse words) exist in almost any language.
As for other Bible authors who condemn swearing, these are Solomon in Proverbs and the Apostle Paul in the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians. In these cases, it was specifically about swear words, and not blasphemy. However, unlike the Ten Commandments, these passages in the Bible do not present swearing as a sin. It is positioned as a negative phenomenon that should be avoided.
Following this logic, it turns out that from the point of view Holy Scripture Only blasphemous obscenities, as well as those exclamation expressions in which the Almighty is somehow mentioned (including interjections), can be considered a sin. But other curses, even those that contain references to demons and other evil spirits (if they do not blaspheme the Creator in any way), are a negative phenomenon, but technically they cannot be considered a full-fledged sin.
Moreover, the Bible mentions cases when Christ Himself scolded, calling the Pharisees “brood of vipers” (brood of vipers), which was clearly not a compliment. By the way, John the Baptist also used the same curse. In total it appears in the New Testament 4 times. Draw your own conclusions...
Traditions of using obscenities in world literature
Although it was not welcomed either in the past or today, obscene language is often used by writers. Most often this is done in order to create an appropriate atmosphere in your book or to distinguish a character from others.
Today this will not surprise anyone, but in the past it was rare and, as a rule, became the cause of scandals.
Another gem of world literature that is famous for its numerous use of swear words is Jerome Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye.
By the way, the play "Pygmalion" by Bernard Shaw was also criticized at one time for the use of the word bloody, which was considered abusive in British English at that time.
Traditions of using swear words in Russian and Ukrainian literature
As for Russian literature, Pushkin also “dabbled” in obscenities, composing rhymed epigrams, and Mayakovsky actively used them without hesitation.
Modern Ukrainian literary language originates from the poem "Aeneid" by Ivan Kotlyarevsky. She can be considered a champion in the number of obscene expressions of the 19th century.
And although after the publication of this book, swearing continued to be a taboo for writers, this did not stop Les Podereviansky from becoming a classic of Ukrainian literature, which he continues to be to this day. But most of his grotesque plays are not only full of obscenities in which the characters simply talk, but also frankly politically incorrect.
Interesting facts
- In the modern world, swearing continues to be considered a negative phenomenon. At the same time, it is being actively studied and systematized. Therefore, collections of the most famous swear words have been created for almost every language. In the Russian Federation, these are two dictionaries of obscenities written by Alexey Plutser-Sarno.
- As you know, the legislation of many countries prohibits the publication of photographs that depict obscene inscriptions. This was once used by Marilyn Manson, who was pestered by the paparazzi. He simply wrote a curse word on his own face with a marker. And although no one began to publish such photos, they still leaked onto the Internet.
- Anyone who likes to use profanity for no apparent reason should think about their own mental health. The fact is that this may not be a harmless habit, but one of the symptoms of schizophrenia, progressive paralysis or Tourette's syndrome. In medicine, there are even several special terms to designate mental deviations associated with swearing - coprolalia (an irresistible desire to swear for no reason), coprography (the desire to write profanity) and copropraxia (a painful desire to show indecent gestures).
Since both gods and demons posed a danger to people, in everyday life they tried to stay away from them, not to call or name them in vain, unnecessarily.
Among the “sexual” curses, several large blocks can be distinguished.
1. Sending the scolded person to the zone of female genitalia, to the zone of birthing, productive organs, to the bodily underworld (“went to …”) is nothing more than a wish for death. As Mikhail Bakhtin has shown, the female womb is both a symbol of birth and death.
2. A hint that someone sexually possessed the mother of the person being scolded, “... your mother.”
3. The accusation of incest with the mother, widely represented in English curse words like “motherfucker”. 4. Figures of speech with mention of male genitals (such as “fuck…”) place the scolded person in a female sexual position, which is tantamount to deprivation manhood and virility.
Already in Ancient Rus', swearing was assessed as blasphemy, desecrating both the Mother of God and the mythological “Mother damp earth”, and the swearer’s own mother. However, nothing helped, since obscene expressions themselves are of sacred origin and in the past were associated with ritual functions.
According to B.A. Uspensky, at the deepest, initial level, these expressions correlate with the myth of the sacred marriage of Heaven and Earth, the result of which is the fertilization of the Earth. The connection of swearing with the idea of fertilization is manifested in ritual wedding and agrarian foul language, as well as in its association with a thunderclap. At this level, not only did it not have a blasphemous meaning, but it was a magical formula, a sacred spell (similar formulas exist in Buddhism).
At the second, more superficial level, the subject of the action becomes the Dog as the opponent of the Thunderer and the demonic principle. In this case, obscene expressions acquire a blasphemous character, expressing the idea of desecration of the earth by the Dog, and responsibility for this falls on the head of the interlocutor.
At the third, even more superficial level, the woman becomes the object of the implied action, while the dog remains its subject. Swearing is now redirected directly to the interlocutor’s mother and becomes a direct insult, associated with expressions like “son of a bitch.”
Finally, at the most superficial, secular level, the speaker himself becomes the subject of the action, and his object is the mother of the interlocutor. Swearing becomes an indication of debauchery, dubious origin, etc.
There is no single point of view where the word mat itself came from. In some reference books you can find a version that “swearing” is a conversation (as evidence of this assumption, the expression “shout with good obscenities” is given). But why is the word mat so similar to the word mother?
There is another version related to the fact that the word mat came into the Russian language after the appearance of the expression send to mother. In fact, this is one of the first expressions to become obscene. After the appearance of this particular phrase, many words that had previously existed in the language began to be classified as abusive and indecent. In general, it should be noted that, practically, until the 18th century, those words that we now classify as obscene and abusive were not such at all. Words that have become indecent previously denoted either some physiological features (or parts) of the human body, or were generally ordinary words. So, for example, the verb blyaditi in the Old Russian language meant “to talk idle talk, to deceive.” “Many words that are now considered offensive were not so before. Swear words served the function of ordinary words. They can be found in abundance in the works of Archpriest Avvakum and Patriarch Nikon and many other places. But in the letter of the Cossacks to the Sultan, written specifically to insult the addressee, there is not a single swear word.”
But in the Old Russian language there was also a verb fornication - “to wander.” V.I. Dahl’s dictionary identifies two meanings: 1) deviation from the straight path and 2) illegal, celibate cohabitation, “therefore it is better to avoid this word in the community.” There is a version, in our opinion, quite viable, that there was a kind of merging of two verbs (blyaditi and fornication). Maybe they didn’t swear in Rus'? No, they drank, and loved, and fornicated, and cursed. Everything is as it is now. As always. Moreover, swearing already in Ancient Rus' was assessed as blasphemy, desecrating both the Mother of God, the mythological “Mother of the damp earth,” and the swearer’s own mother. (It is possible that the curse words that existed in Rus' did not reach us for this reason). However, nothing helped, since obscene expressions themselves have a sacred origin, and in pagan times they were associated with ritual functions.
Here is the origin story of one well-known word. In Latin there was a pronoun hoc (“this”). At the beginning of the 19th century, this pronoun appeared in the vocabulary of doctors. They prescribed the medicine “for this” (genitive case) or “this” (dative case), which in Latin are huius and huic respectively. Less educated patients Russified learned Latin. At first this word was used quite widely and without restrictions. But then a taboo was placed on him. Most likely, this was due to the imposition of a ban on saying out loud the name of the male genital organ. (Just as at the beginning of the 19th century, the word oud, which was popular in the 18th century, was banned in this sense. By the way, there is a version that the words fishing rod and hoopoe are also related to the word oud: most likely, this version is based on the similarity of the shape of the bird’s beak and hook).
There is a similar version. The difference is that the modern swear word comes from another Latin pronoun: huc (“here”) and the pronominal combination huc-illuc (“here-there”). Regarding the next swear word, existing versions differ slightly. Many linguists believe that it comes from the Proto-Indo-European root pezd- (“spoil the air, fart”). The difference is manifested in the view of linguists on future fate this basis. From what language did it come directly to Russian? Most likely through Latin. There is a point of view that the Latin word pedis (“louse”) is an extension of the Proto-Indo-European word discussed above (meaning “smelly insect”). From a phonetic point of view, this process is quite natural. Already from the Latin language it came to some other languages, including Slavic.
But this point of view is disputed by some scientists: the language process itself (the transformation of a Proto-Indo-European root into a Latin word) and the “stinker” of an insect such as a louse raise doubts. Supporters of this point of view suggest that the distant root temporarily disappeared, becoming obsolete, and then returned to the languages again in an artificial way. But this assumption seems somewhat far-fetched. However, it is indisputable that the modern obscene word has its roots in distant linguistic antiquity.
Here is another gift from the ancients. In the Old Russian language there was a word mudo, meaning “male testicle”. This word was rarely used and did not have an obscene connotation. And then, apparently, it came down to our times, turning from rarely used to commonly used.
Let's look at the history of another fairly popular curse word. In the distant Proto-Indo-European language, the prefix e- denoted an action directed outward. And in Latin you can find the root bat- (“yawn”, “yawn”). It is quite possible that the literal meaning of the word we know is “to open out.” A. Gorokhovsky suggests that “the verb originally referred to the actions of a woman (in ancient times, normal intercourse took place in the “man from behind” position”). He also states that “this Russian word has a very ancient, directly Proto-Indo-European origin, so this verb is a kind of patriarch of Russian swearing.”
