Swear words in the Russian language. Who taught Rus' to swear

Psychologists believe that foul language is excellent remedy to relieve stress and restore energy. Some historians consider Russian swearing to be a consequence of the destruction of taboos. In the meantime, while experts are engaged in professional disputes, the people “don’t swear, they speak it.” Today we are talking about the origin of Russian swearing.

There is an opinion that in pre-Tatar Rus' they did not know “strong words”, and when swearing, they compared each other to various domestic animals. However, linguists and philologists do not agree with this statement. Archaeologists claim that the Russian mat was first mentioned in a birch bark document beginning of XII century. It is true that archaeologists will not make public what exactly was written in that document. Let's try to understand the intricacies of profanity, which is an integral part of the Russian language.

As a rule, when speaking about mat and its origin, linguists and philologists distinguish three main derived words. These derivatives include the name of the male genital organ, the name of the female genital organ, and the name of what happens under a successful combination of circumstances between the male and female genital organs. Some linguists add a social derivative to the anatomical and physiological derivatives, namely, the word that is used to call lung woman behavior. Of course, there are other obscene roots, but these four are the most productive and effective among the people.

Delight, surprise, agreement and more

Perhaps the most frequently used word among profanity, the word that is most often written on fences throughout Russia, denotes the male genital organ. Linguists have never agreed on where this word came from. Some experts attribute Old Church Slavonic roots to the word, arguing that in ancient times it meant “to hide” and sounded like “to hove.” And the word “forge” in the imperative mood sounded like “kuy.” Another theory attributes the word to Proto-Indo-European roots. In which the root "hu" meant "shoot".
Today it is extremely difficult to talk about the credibility of each of the theories. What can be stated unequivocally is that this word is very ancient, no matter how people with diosyncratic obscene vocabulary would like it. It is also worth noting that “this very word” of three letters is the most productive root that forms new words in the Russian language. This word can express doubt, surprise, indignation, delight, refusal, threat, agreement, despondency, encouragement, etc., etc. The Wikipedia article of the same name alone lists more than seven dozen idioms and words that are derived from this root.

Theft, fighting and death

The word denoting female genital organs in Russian obscene vocabulary is less productive than the word - representative of the stronger sex. Nevertheless, this word has given the Russian language quite a lot of expressions that perfectly reflect the harshness of Russian reality. Thus, words with the same root from this well-known word often mean: lie, mislead, beat, steal, talk incessantly. Set expressions, as a rule, denote a course of events that does not unfold according to plan, an educational process, a fight, a beating, failure, and even a breakdown or death.
Some particularly ardent linguists attribute the origin of this word to Sanskrit. However, this theory does not stand up to even the most humane criticism. The most convincing theory, researchers believe, is the origin of Proto-Indo-European languages. There, according to scientists, the words with the same root as the second most popular word in Russian language meant “saddle”, “what they sit on”, “garden” and “nest”. It is also worth noting that this word can have both a strictly negative and positive connotation.

About sexual intercourse and not only about it

The word that today in obscene vocabulary denotes sexual intercourse comes from the Proto-Indo-European language (jebh-/oibh- or *ojebh) and in its pure form means “to perform a sexual act.” In the Russian language, this word has given rise to a huge number of very popular idioms. One of the most popular is the phrase “fuck your mother.” Linguists claim that the ancient Slavs used this expression in the context of “Yes, I am fit to be your father!” Other expressions with this verb are also known today, meaning to mislead, express indifference, or make claims.

Devaluation of the mat

To be fair, it is worth noting that many Russian writers were distinguished by their ability to insert a “strong word” into their speech. There was swearing even in some poems. Of course, we are not talking about fairy tales or love lyrics, but about friendly epigrams and satirical works. And it is worth noting that the great Pushkin masters swear words organically and skillfully:

Be quiet, godfather; and you, like me, are sinners,
And you will offend everyone with words;
You see a straw in someone else's pussy,
And you don’t even see a log!
(“From the All-Night Vigil...”)

The trouble with the modern Russian language is that today, due to various circumstances, there is a devaluation of obscenities. It is used so widely that the expression of expressions and the very essence of swearing are lost. As a result, this impoverishes the Russian language and, oddly enough, the culture of speech. The words spoken by another famous poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, are suitable for today’s situation.

In 2013, March 19 State Duma The Russian Federation adopted a bill banning obscene language in the media. Those media outlets that still risk using this or that “strong” word will have to pay a fine of about 200 thousand rubles. It is noteworthy that deputies from the faction “ United Russia", who commented on their actions as a desire to protect the country's population from the immoral information environment. However, most Russians believe that fighting with swearing is useless. Neither campaigning nor fines will help with this. The main thing is internal culture and education.

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ORIGIN OF RUSSIAN MATE

Artem DENIKIN
"Analytical newspaper "Secret Research"

Where did Russian swearing come from? And why do Russians swear?

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 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.

It is also a myth that “in ancient Rus' swore." In Kievan Rus, no one swore - they only swore in Muscovy, but it 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, in late XVIII century, when the general survey of Russia was carried out, drawing up full map 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 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 the Kievan State), but Finnish. 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. It was the Kyiv princes who introduced serfdom (that is, slave ownership) in Muscovy, which was wild in Kyiv in relation to the peasants of their 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 slave-holding power over the local Finnish population: eastern traditions they elevated rulers to the rank of God, which the Europeans never had, including Byzantium and the Russian Orthodox Church of Kyiv, which baptized Rus'.

These two main arguments turned Muscovy away from Rus' and Kyiv forever and created a new eastern type states - 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 Kyiv 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. But in our case we are talking 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 one react to such statements: GALINA ZHEVNOVA, editor-in-chief of the joint editorial office 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 insulting the opponent’s mother in sexual violence from the speaker's side. What animals don't have.

For Finno-Ugric peoples (Russians and Hungarians) this is perhaps their own normal local traditional form 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, the opinion of the editor of a Russian newspaper that swearing seems completely erroneous 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 obscenities to the neighboring peoples it conquered: Belarusians, Ukrainians, Balts, Caucasians, peoples of Central Asia, who speak their own language, but insert Finnish obscenities every other 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 foreign 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.

The history of the appearance of the first curses in Rus' is an old and dark matter. As often happens in such situations, there is no consensus, but there are several most popular versions. For example, they say that the Russians were taught to swear by the Tatars and Mongols, and before the yoke, supposedly, they did not know a single curse word in Rus'. However, there are several facts that refute this.

Firstly, the nomads did not have the custom of swearing. This is confirmed by the records of the Italian traveler Plano Carpini, who visited Central Asia. He noted that they do not have swear words in their dictionary at all.

Secondly, the fact that the Russians actively used mats is evidenced by birch bark letters from the 12th-13th centuries found in Novgorod. Thus, on sample No. 330 (13th century) there is a rhymed teaser written, which is translated as “a tail **** another tail, lifting up your clothes.” On another document from Novgorod No. 955 (12th century) there is a letter from a matchmaker to Marena, a noble lady. Matchmaker Milusha writes that it’s time for Big Braid (apparently Marena’s daughter) to marry a certain Snovid and adds: “Let the vagina and clitoris drink.” A similar text is found in folk ditties, and in the mouth of the matchmaker this is a wish for the wedding to take place.

Thirdly, linguists, having analyzed similar vocabulary in modern Slavic languages, came to the idea of ​​a universal Slavic character of swearing. For example, the dictionary of Serbian swear phraseology prepared by Nedeljko Bogdanovich shows that not only the vocabulary, but also the models of obscene expressions in Serbian and Russian are very close. The same can be said about the models of swear words in the Slovak and Polish languages.

So, swearing is an integral part Slavic culture. Why did these words appear in the language? The variety of swear words is based on the so-called obscene triad - three swear words that mean female and male genitals, as well as sexual intercourse. And this is not without reason. The function of childbirth was given high importance, so the words for the organs and the process of conception itself were sacred. According to one hypothesis, mate goes back to Slavic conspiracies: it was pronounced in difficult times, turning to someone for help magical power, which is contained in the genitals. According to another version, swearing expressed curses and was used by sorcerers.

With the transition to Christianity, the shrines of paganism were destroyed, sign systems changed, and phallus-meaning vocabulary became taboo. But, as they say, you can’t erase a word from a song - the people continued to swear, and the church responded to this by fighting the swearers. It is important to note here that those words that we consider swear words today were not perceived as swear words in those days. Otherwise how to explain that Orthodox priests actively used in their messages and teachings the word meaning light girl behavior?! It is found, for example, in the Message of Archpriest Avvakum to Princess Irina Mikhailovna Romanova (c. 1666) and in his “fifth” petition to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1669).

Only relatively recently - starting from the 18th century - did the current checkmate become a checkmate. Previously, these words denoted either physiological features (or parts) human body, or were even ordinary words. For example, the word that is now used to describe slutty girls is of high Slavic origin. Until the 15th century, it meant “liar, deceiver.” The Russian language has preserved the word bludit, the first meaning of which was “to be mistaken, to stand at a crossroads and not know true path" The second meaning is already physical, literally “to dissipate.” IN direct meaning the word was used until the time of Bironovism, when it was declared obscene. Dictionary of the Russian Language of the 18th Century" gives it with all its derivatives, stipulating that after the 1730s it became unprintable.

The curse word denoting the male genital organ corresponds to the word “dick,” which in ancient Russian meant “cross.” Accordingly, “to fuck” means to cross one another.

In the second half of the 18th century, there was a strict division between literary and colloquial vocabulary; swear words were banned. Use in printed publications obscene vocabulary became impossible. The rule remained until the end of the 20th century, and obscenity remained the lot of the “unofficial” part creative heritage poets and writers: epigrams and satirical poems by Pushkin, Lermontov and other authors, containing shameful words, were not published by them and were generally not subject to publication in Russia (political emigrants from Russia began to publish them in Europe only in the second half of the 19th century).

In modern Russia, the attitude towards obscene vocabulary is twofold. On the one hand, there is an official ban on its use in the media and the press, and swearing in a public place can result in a fine. On the other hand, writers, musicians, and actors actively use swearing as a means of expression.

Changes are coming to Russia! Moreover, significant ones. What about Crimea, Rym and others like them! The matter is much more serious. Very soon, namely from June 1, a bill will come into force that completely prohibits the use of swear words in all means. mass media. Therefore, let's swear to our heart's content in the end? A?
The history of the Russian swear word
Oddly enough, both rednecks and non-rednecks use swear words, and while the former do it reflexively and unconsciously, representatives of the intelligentsia like to swear long and ornately, considering themselves experts in literature. And they are, somewhere, right! To swear well, you need to know Russian, dear sirs and empresses! Cases, declensions, conjugations of a wide variety of verbs. Otherwise, God knows, they won’t understand!

The history of the appearance of swear words in Rus' is unknown for certain. There are various points of view, ranging from the one that swearing appeared during the times Tatar-Mongol yoke, and is a distortion of Mongolian words, ending with versions that swear words are the sacred names of Slavic gods.
Surprisingly, mat is a native Slavic vocabulary, present not only in Russian, but also in all Eastern, Western and South Slavic languages. Modern linguists trace the roots of the most popular words back to the times when all Indo-European languages ​​were not divided into dialects, and were, in fact, the same ancestral language, which is Indo-European (for those who are not in the know).
As historians note, the Slavic tribes, of course, swore, but their swearing was, in comparison with what happened next, sheer innocence, and their swearing was rather in comparison with domestic animals (cow, goat, ram, bull, mare, etc.). d.). But in 1342, Batu Khan attacked the Russian principality. And it is precisely for the swearing that we hear now that we can thank the Tatar-Mongols. Still, three centuries of yoke did not pass without a trace for Russia. What’s interesting is that in countries that have suffered the same fate, they swear in almost the same way. So, for example, the Serbian “ebene sluntse v pichku” is almost identical to our “e...t.” In fact, synonyms of swear words pronounced in Russian are also reflected in Polish language, and in Hungarian - such a distant language of the Finno-Ugric group, and by no means Slavic group languages.
After the Mongol everyone swore. Rich and wealthy nobles considered it beneath them to speak swear words, but the works of Pushkin, Nekrasov, and Gogol, who were not averse to using swear words, have reached us. All of them, in one way or another, learned to correctly express obscene thoughts from the actual founder of obscene poetry - Igor Semenovich Barkov - a classic of Russian obscene literature. though swear language, precisely as a spoken language, was more characteristic of the workers and peasants, who, in the opinion of our beloved party for so long, made the revolution in 1917.
After this incident a large number of These same peasants and workers - uneducated people who were accustomed to expressing almost all their thoughts through “fuck” - fell into power and began to spin. Both Lenin (even though he was from an educated family) and Stalin, who graduated from a church gymnasium, swore. It was during the latter period that mating received particular development.

The constant exile of people who are not guilty of being Jews or born in Russia gave impetus to Russian swearing. In fact, at this time, not only monosyllabic obscene expressions began to form; they began to express their opinions using obscenities. Mat became the language of the zone, understandable both to the prisoners and to the people who guarded them. Half the country, serving time for crimes or nothing at all, gave a very big impetus to the development of swearing. In 1954, the so-called “thaw” began, and samizdat books began to appear with Barkov’s poems or attributed to his work (it was easier to indicate the name of a person who died in the 18th century than to answer for everything said). It was then that most of the obscene ditties appeared, reflecting the changes and inventions of mankind (TV, space flights, the end of the war). Mat has become an integral part of Russian life. “The Gulag Archipelago”, for which Solzhenitsyn received Nobel Prize, is replete with obscene expressions, more expressive of the state of the novel’s heroes than the literary language. In connection with freedom of speech, which has been in Russia for 10 years now, swearing has come out of hiding, and well-designed publications with swear words and dictionaries of swear words have begun to appear. A collector’s edition of “Luka Mudishchev” was recently spotted...

God damn him, Luka. Moreover, he is a fictional character. Let's talk like philologists! Swear words can be used in a variety of contexts and produce a wide range of new words and expressions through the use of prefixes, suffixes, endings, and word compounds. Derived obscene expressions usually do not have a sexual context, but only express emotions.
A whole phrase was recorded with which, allegedly, the foreman of one of the Soviet collective farms once addressed the philology students who were collecting on this collective farm in Soviet times harvest. This phrase consists only of words formed from the word “x...th”: “Whoa...didn’t they...didn’t they f....reli? Oh...ate? Get the fuck out!

Approximate meaning: “Why didn’t they do anything (did little)? Have you become insolent (become obnoxious, lazy)? Start working fast (or work well, produce a lot).” There is also an option with the opposite meaning: “Nah...I'm dead...I'm fucked....rili? Expose it, fuck it! - Why the hell...am I going to waste my time? Fuck...rili - and fuck with him! It is characteristic of expressions with swear words that they do not always have a clearly defined meaning based on the context and the meaning of the swear words themselves. Often, exact value Certain phrases can only be understood by taking into account the emotions of the person uttering them. Such expressions can hide either apathy, boredom, anger, etc., or fun, jokes, connivance, approval. For example, this phrase could, if uttered in a certain emotional state, conditionally have the following meanings - with real anger, threat: “Well, you bastards! I'll arrange it for you! Come on, work quickly!”; or, in boredom: “I’m tired of you, completely tired of you, finally go and work”; or, being said in a cheerful mood: “Well, you are mischievous! Are you still being lazy? We should be more attentive to the performance of our duties, although, in fact, I, just like you, am not very interested in what you are doing there.”

This feature of Russian swearing (different meanings of the same word in different emotional contexts) makes it completely untranslatable for foreigners. Take, for example, this dialogue on the porch of a liquor store:
- Well, h...i? - Yes them...me! Sent it to hell! - Oh, damn! Well, pop...or...
A Russian person absolutely understands the meaning, while a foreign brain fumes from trying to understand what it is about.
Also, there is still a small, but delivering type of words and expressions that can be perceived by ear as both decent and not so good. For example:
The bird fluttered from the bitch./The bird fluttered, bitch!

But, however, enough examples, Let's go back to the quiet backwater of library silence and talk seriously!

About the meaning and origin of swearing in Russian and world culture.



Swearing is a significant and integral part of the Russian language, and individual swear words are a universal heritage, and have long been translated into many foreign languages. It is interesting that full-fledged analogues of Russian swearing in foreign languages no, and they are unlikely to ever appear. It is swearing that makes the Russian language so diverse, strong and expressive. It is no coincidence that not a single great Russian writer has avoided this phenomenon. How and why did swearing appear in the Russian language? Why do other languages ​​do without it? Only a consistent Darwinist can find answers to these most complex questions. The simplicity of swear words and their direct connection with the natural, animal needs of man indicates a very ancient origin mat. Most likely, mating existed in its infancy among all our monkey ancestors. The reason for the occurrence of swearing was difficult working conditions. Fuck, how was it possible not to swear in the absence of basic human amenities? How the fuck could you beat a mammoth with sticks without swearing? Can you imagine this? Me too, not so much. With the further development of civilization, with the improvement of the well-being of citizens in the vast majority of countries on our planet, the need for swearing naturally disappeared. Russia is unique in that these improvements never occurred there, and swearing remained in its virgin, primitive form. However, don't be fooled! Serious structural transformations of the political and economic system of Russia could pose a serious threat to the further preservation of the mat, but we hope that this will not happen. No reforms! Let's keep Russian swearing! Holy shit!

When creating this article, materials from the site © Xeretik were used
Frosya Brockhaus

Swearing has accompanied Rus' since its inception. Authorities, social formations, culture and the Russian language itself change, but swearing remains unchanged.

Native speech

Almost the entire 20th century was dominated by the version that the words that we call swear words came into the Russian language from the Mongol-Tatars. However, this is a misconception. Swearing is already found in Novgorod birch bark documents dating back to the 11th century: that is, long before the birth of Genghis Khan.

Revolt against matriarchy

The concept of “checkmate” is quite late. From time immemorial in Rus' it was called “barking obscene”. It must be said that initially swear language included exclusively the use of the word “mother” in a vulgar, sexual context. The words denoting the genital organs, which we today refer to swearing, did not refer to “swearing.”

There are a dozen versions of the checkmate function. Some scientists suggest that swearing appeared at the turn of society’s transition from matriarchy to patriarchy and initially meant the authoritative assertion of a man who, having undergone the ritual of copulation with the “mother” of the clan, publicly announced this to his fellow tribesmen.

Dog tongue

Is it true, previous version does not in any way explain the use of the word “laya”. On this score, there is another hypothesis, according to which “swearing” had a magical, protective function and was called “dog tongue.” In the Slavic (and Indo-European in general) tradition, dogs were considered animals of the “afterlife” and served the goddess of death Morena. A dog who served an evil witch could turn into a person (even an acquaintance) and come with evil thoughts (to cast the evil eye, damage, or even kill). So, having sensed something was wrong, Morena’s potential victim should have uttered a protective “mantra”, that is, sent him to “mother”. This was the time when the evil demon, the “son of Morena,” was exposed, after which he had to leave the man alone.

It is curious that even in the 20th century, people retained the belief that “swearing” scares away devils and that swearing makes sense even “for the sake of prevention,” without seeing a direct threat.

Calling the good

As already mentioned, ancient Russian words denoting the reproductive organs began to be classified as “foul language” much later. In the pagan era, these lexemes were commonly used and did not have an abusive connotation. Everything changed with the arrival of Christianity in Rus' and the beginning of the displacement of old “filthy” cults. Sexually charged words were replaced with “Church Slavinisms: copulate, childbearing, penis, etc. In fact, there was a serious rational grain in this taboo. The fact is that the use of the previous “terms” was ritualized and associated with pagan fertility cults, special conspiracies, and calls for good. By the way, the word “good” itself (in the old Slavic - “bolgo”) meant “many” and was used at the beginning precisely in the “agricultural” context.

It took the Church many centuries to reduce agrarian rituals to a minimum, but the “fertile” words remained in the form of “relics”: however, already in the status of curses.

Empress censorship

There is one more word that is unfairly classified today as swearing. For the purposes of self-censorship, let’s call it the “B” word. This lexeme quietly existed in the elements of the Russian language (it can even be found in church texts and official state charters), meaning “fornication”, “deception”, “delusion”, “heresy”, “error”. People often used this word to refer to dissolute women. Perhaps during the time of Anna Ioannovna this word began to be used with greater frequency and, probably, in the latter context, because it was this empress who banned it.

"Thief" censorship

As you know, in the criminal, or “thieves”, environment, swearing is strictly taboo. For a carelessly dropped obscene expression, a prisoner can face much more serious responsibility than administrative penalty for public obscene language in freedom. Why do the “urkagans” dislike Russian swearing so much? First of all, swearing can pose a threat to “feni” or “thieves’ music.” The keepers of thieves' traditions understand well that if swearing replaces argot, they will subsequently lose their authority, their “uniqueness” and “exclusivity,” and most importantly, the power in prison, the elite of the criminal world - in other words, “lawlessness” will begin. It is curious that criminals (unlike statesmen) understand well what any language reform and borrowing of other people's words can lead to.

Renaissance mate

Today's times can be called a renaissance of swearing. This is facilitated by the boom social networks, where people got the opportunity to swear in public. With some reservations, we can talk about the legitimization of obscene language. There is even a fashion for swearing: if previously it was the lot of the lower strata of society, now the so-called intelligentsia, the creative class, the bourgeoisie, women and children also resort to “sweet words”. It is difficult to say what is the reason for such a revival of “barking obscenities”. But we can safely say that this will not increase harvests, matriarchy will not win, and will not drive out demons...