Rough swear words. What did Russian swear words originally mean?

Checkmate is an ambiguous concept. Some find it inappropriate, while others cannot imagine emotional communication without strong language. But it is impossible to argue with the fact that swearing has long become an integral part of the Russian language, and it is used not only by uncultured people, but also by fully educated representatives of society. Historians claim that Pushkin, Mayakovsky, Bunin and Tolstoy swore with pleasure and defended it as an integral part of the Russian language. Where did swear words come from, and what do the most common ones actually mean?

Where did the mat come from?

Many believe that obscene language dates back to the times of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, but historians and linguists have long refuted this fact. Golden Horde and most of the nomadic tribes were Muslims, and representatives of this religion do not defile their mouths with swearing, and the biggest insult for them is to call a person an “unclean” animal - for example, a pig or a donkey. Accordingly, Russian mat has more ancient history and its roots go back to ancient Slavic beliefs and traditions.

By the way, the designation of the male causal place in Turkic dialects sounds absolutely harmless - kutah. The bearers of the fairly common and euphonious surname Kutakhov would be surprised to learn what it really means!

A common three-letter word, according to one version, is the imperative mood of the verb “to hide,” that is, to hide

Most experts in ethnography and linguistics argue that swear words originated from the Proto-Indo-European language, which was spoken by the ancestors of the ancient Slavs, Germanic tribes and many other peoples. The difficulty is that its speakers did not leave any written sources, so the language had to be reconstructed literally bit by bit.

The word “mate” itself has several origins. According to one of them, it once meant a scream or a loud voice - confirmation of this theory is the expression “Yelling obscenities,” which has come down to our times. Other researchers claim that the term comes from the word “mother,” since most obscene constructions send an unwanted person to a certain mother, or imply having sexual relations with her.

The exact origin and etymology of swear words also remains unclear - linguists and ethnologists put forward many versions on this matter. Only three are considered the most likely.

1. Communication with parents. During times Ancient Rus' Old people and parents were treated with great respect and reverence, so all words with sexual overtones regarding the mother were considered a serious insult to the person.
2. Contact with Slavic conspiracies. In the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, the genitals occupied a special place - it was believed that they contained Magic force person, and when addressing her, willy-nilly, one had to remember those very places. In addition, our ancestors believed that devils, witches and other dark entities were extremely shy and could not stand swear words, so they used obscenity as a defense against the unclean.
3. Communication with peoples of other faiths. In some ancient Russian texts there is a mention that swearing has “Jewish” or “dog” origin, but this does not mean that non-Zentsurism came to us from Judaism. The ancient Slavs called any foreign beliefs “dogs,” and words borrowed from representatives of such religions were used as curses.

Some experts believe that swearing was invented as a secret language

Another common misconception is that Russian is the richest language obscene words of all that exist. In fact, philologists identify from 4 to 7 basic constructions, and all the rest are formed from them with the help of suffixes, prefixes and prepositions.

The most popular obscene expressions

In Serbia, whose language is related to Russian, obscene words are much less taboo

• X**. The most common swear word that can be found on walls and fences around the world. According to Wikipedia, at least 70 are derived from it different words and idioms, ranging from the short and understandable “fuck you” to the more original “fuck you” or “fuck you”. In addition, this word can be called one of the oldest and most respected in the Russian language - many researchers believe that it dates back to the Proto-Nostratic language, formed in the 11th millennium BC. The most common theory of its origin is from the Indo-European skeu-, which meant "shoot" or "shoot". From him came the more harmless and censored word “needles.”
• Fuck. This word was once quite decent and often used - this is what the 23rd letter of the Cyrillic alphabet was called, which after the reform turned into the letter X. Researchers call different reasons its transformation into an obscene statement. According to one theory, the cross was once called x*r, and defenders of paganism cursed the first Christians who actively spread their faith in Rus', telling them “Fuck you,” which meant “die like your God.” The second version says that in the Proto-Indo-European language this word was used to refer to a goat, including an idol of the patron of fertility, which had a large genital organ.

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 derivative 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 severity 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 devaluation of the mat occurs. 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.

Some people don't swear at all. Someone inserts abuse through a word. Most people use strong words at least sometimes. What is Russian swearing and where did it come from?

Russian swearing has a rich history
©Flickr

Attention! The text contains profanity.

The notorious social opinion does not allow you to study the good old mat. This is what most researchers who choose such a difficult path complain about. Therefore, there is very little literature about swearing.

One of the mysteries of Russian profanity is the origin of the word “mat” itself. According to one hypothesis, “mate” originally means “voice.” That is why phrases like “shouting obscenities” have come down to us. However, the generally accepted version reduces the word “mate” to “mother”, therefore - “swear at mother”, “send to hell” and so on.
Another problem with swearing is the inability to form exact list swear words, because some native speakers highlight certain words as obscene, others do not. This is the case, for example, with the word “gondon”. However, typical swear words come from only four to seven roots.

It is known that different peoples have a different “reserve” of mate, which can be raised to different areas. Russian swearing, like the swearing of many other cultures, is tied to the sexual sphere. But this is not the case among all nations, since there are a number of cultures where everything related to sex is not taboo in any way. For example, among the indigenous population of New Zealand - the Maori people. One of the tribes - the ancestor of the Maoritans - quite “officially” bore the name “Ure Vera”, which translated means “hot penises”, or “hot penis”. In European culture, the sphere of swearing, by the way, is also not necessarily associated with sexual relations. If you look at the Germanic languages, it becomes clear that many swear words there are associated with bowel movements.

The basis of Russian obscene vocabulary, as in many other languages, is the so-called “obscene triad”: the male genital organ (“x.y”), the female genital organ (p..da), and the verb describing the process of copulation (“e ..t"). It is interesting that the Russian language is characterized by a complete lack of designation for these words by literary native Russian terms. They are replaced either by bare Latin and medical soulless equivalents, or by emotional ones - swear words.

In addition to the obscene triad, the Russian swear word is also characterized by the word “bl.d” - the only one that does not mean genitals and copulation, but comes from the Slavic damn, which translated into Russian means “fornication – error, error, sin.” In Church Slavonic the word “bl..stvovat” means “to lie, deceive, slander.”

©Flickr

Also popular are “m..de” (male testicles), “man.a” (female genitalia) and “e.da” (male genitalia).

The above seven lexemes, the famous researcher of Russian swearing, Alexey Plutser-Sarno, proposes to take Russian swearing as the basis for the concept, citing, however, another 35 roots that survey participants considered obscene (among them, by the way, such words as “eat” and “vomit” ).

Despite the very limited number of roots, Russian swearing is characterized by a simply gigantic number of derivative words. In addition to existing ones, new ones are constantly emerging. Thus, researcher V. Raskin gives far from full list derivatives from the word “e..t” (verbs only): e..nut, e..tsya, e..tsya, e.izdit, e.nut, e.tsitsya, e.sti, v..bat, you.fuck, you.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck.fuck, forget.fuck, forget.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck.fuck, fuck..fuck, b..fuck, stop..knock, kick..knock, kick..knock, kick..knock, kick.knock, fuck..knock, kick..knock, kick..knock, raz..knock, break up, fuck up, fuck up, fuck up, fuck up, fuck up, etc.

No one knows for sure where the Russian swear word came from. The once popular hypothesis that we got it “from the Mongol-Tatar yoke” (“Tatar version”) was completely refuted with the discovery of Novgorod birch bark letters of the 12th-13th centuries. It was not possible to blame it on the yoke. This is understandable, because obscene language is, in one way or another, characteristic, apparently, of all languages ​​of the world.

But there are other versions. Two of them are basic. First, Russian swearing is associated with erotic pagan rituals who played important role in agricultural magic. Second - swear words in Rus' once had different meaning, for example, double. But over time, one of the meanings was supplanted, or they were merged together, turning the meaning of the word into a negative one.

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.

Everyone knows what Russian swearing is. Someone will be able to reproduce the Cossack swear word by heart, while others will have to turn to the famous “Dictionary of Russian Swearing” by Alexei Plutser-Sarno to clarify the meaning. However, for many, the history of the emergence of Russian swearing remains a mystery behind seven seals. How swearing is connected to Indo-European mythology, who is meant by “mother” in the swear language and why only men used to communicate in it - in the T&P material.

“The mythological aspect of Russian expressive phraseology”

B.A. Uspensky

Works by B.A. Uspensky, shedding light on the origin of Russian swearing, have become classic. Exploring this topic, Uspensky mentions its extreme taboo nature, in connection with which in the literary tradition only “Church Slavonicisms such as copulate, penis, reproductive organ, aphedron, seat” can be considered permissible. Unlike many Western European languages, other “folk” obscene vocabulary in the Russian language is actually taboo. That is why swear words were removed from Dahl’s dictionary, the Russian edition of Vasmer’s “Etymological Dictionary”, and Afanasyev’s fairy tales; even in academic collected works of Pushkin, obscene expressions in works of art and letters are replaced with dots; “Barkov’s Shadow”, known for its abundance of swear words (for example: Already the night with the *** [lustful] moon / Already the *** [fallen woman] was in the downy bed / Falling asleep with the monk) was not published at all in many collections essays. Such a taboo of swearing, which affects even professional philologists, is connected, according to Uspensky, with “the chastity of censors or editors,” and Dostoevsky even speaks of the chastity of everything Russian people, justifying the abundance of swear words in the Russian language by the fact that, in essence, they do not always mean something bad.

Images of peasants from the 12th–14th centuries: a peasant at work; resting peasant; games

Indeed, swearing can serve as a friendly greeting, approval, and expression of love. If it is so polysemantic, then the question arises: where did swearing come from, what are its historical roots? Uspensky's theory suggests that swearing once had cult functions. To prove this, we can cite examples of swear words and expressions from Russian pagan wedding or agricultural rituals, in which swearing could be associated with fertility cults. It is interesting that the Russian philologist Boris Bogaevsky compares Russian swearing with the Greek foul language of farmers. The Christian tradition prohibits swearing in rituals and everyday life, citing the fact that “shameful barking” defiles the soul, and that “Hellenic...words” [verbib] is a demonic game. The ban on Russian “shamoslovya,” that is, obscene language, was directly related to the struggle of Orthodoxy against the pagan cults in which it was used. The meaning of the ban becomes especially clear in view of the fact that swearing “in some cases turns out to be functionally equivalent to prayer.” In pagan thinking, it was possible to find a treasure, get rid of illness or the machinations of the brownie and goblin with the help of swearing. Therefore, in Slavic dual faith one could often find two parallel options: either read a prayer in front of the attacking devil, or swear at him. Finding the roots of Russian swearing in pagan ritual spells and curses, Uspensky connects the so-called main formula of Russian swearing (“*** your mother”) with the archaic cult of the earth.

Only one person will be elected once a day in obscenity, -

The mother of cheese the earth will shake,

The Most Holy Theotokos will be removed from the throne

In connection with the dual-faith Slavic ideas about the “three mothers” - the earth mother, the Mother of God and the native - swearing, aimed at insulting the addressee’s mother, simultaneously conjures sacred mothers, desecrating the maternal principle itself. In this one can find echoes of pagan metaphors about the pregnancy of the earth and copulation with it; at the same time, this can explain the belief that the earth opens up under a swearing word or that swearing can disturb the ancestors (lying in the ground).

Having clarified the object of the obscene formula, Uspensky moves on to the subject: analyzing the forms of the expression “*** your mother,” he comes to the conclusion that previously the phrase was not impersonal. The desecration was carried out by a dog, as evidenced by older and more complete references to the swear formula: for example, “So that the dog takes your mother.” The dog has been the subject of action in this formula since at least the 15th century in many Slavic languages; Thus, “dog barking,” as swearing was called from ancient times, is associated with the mythology of the dog, “given by the dog.” The uncleanness of the dog is an ancient category that preceded Slavic mythology, but also reflected in later Christian ideas (for example, in the stories about the Pseglavians or the transfiguration of the Cynocephalus Christopher). The dog was compared to a Gentile, since both have no soul, both behave inappropriately; It was for the same reason that confessors were not allowed to keep dogs. From an etymological point of view, the dog is also unclean - Uspensky connects the lexeme “dog” with other words of Indo-European languages, including the Russian word “***” [female genital organ].

Thus, Uspensky suggests that the images of the desecrating dog and the earth mother in the phrase “f***ing dog” go back to the mythological marriage of the thunderer and the earth mother. The sacred marriage, during which the earth is fertilized, is desecrated in this formula by the travesty replacement of the Thunderer with a dog, his mythological rival. Therefore, an obscene phrase becomes a blasphemous spell, desecrating the divine cosmogony. In a later folk tradition this myth is reduced, and mother earth becomes the mother of the interlocutor, and the mythological dog becomes an ordinary dog, and then the phrase is completely depersonalized (the verb “***” [enter into sexual relations] can correspond to any singular person).

At a deep (initial) level, the obscene expression is apparently correlated with the myth of the sacred marriage of heaven and earth - a marriage that results in the fertilization of the earth. At this level, the god of the sky, or the thunderer, should be understood as the subject of action in obscene terms, and mother earth as the object. This explains the connection between swearing and the idea of ​​fertilization, which manifests itself in particular in ritual wedding and agrarian foul language.

“About swearing, emotions and facts”

A.A. Belyakov

A.A. Belyakov, referring to the legends of Russian folklore, traces the origin of swearing to the myth of the “Slavic Oedipus”: once a man killed his father and desecrated his mother. Then he gave the “obscene formula” to his descendants - in order to use it to bring curses of the ancestors on opponents or to call on the ancestors for help. Belyakov agrees that more deep roots of this legend are found in early pagan cults associated with the veneration of the “mother damp earth and the idea of ​​its fertilization."

“Obscene joke as a modeling system”

I.G. Yakovenko

I.G. Yakovenko in his article on mate notes that traditional culture, patriarchal in nature, tends to profane the role of women. It is this motive that we see in obscene formulas - they are almost always associated with crude images of violence against women. Yakovenko contrasts the “sign of the highest danger” (“…” [female genital organ], feminine) to the male phallus, the “protector sign”, citing as an example many obscene expressions. As it turns out, there are much fewer women’s obscene formulas than men’s; Moreover, the female paradigm is tinged with something wretched, false, related to misfortune, theft, lies (“..." [end], "..." [steal], "..." [liar]), while the male The swearing paradigm refers to taboo or danger. The harmful nature of a woman, perceived through the female symbol, the vagina, is emphasized in numerous proverbs and sayings, fairy tales and legends: we can recall those cited by V.Ya. Proppom's idea of ​​a "toothy vulva" with which the male hero had to fight.

Russian swearing is a form of existence of pagan consciousness in a monotheistic culture

Subsequently, the tradition of speaking obscene language passed from pagan cults into Russian buffoonery, which the state actively fought against starting from the 17th century. From the almost extinct buffoons, however, the tradition passed on to lubok, tavern songs, parsley theater, to fair barkers and so on. The taboo vocabulary of the patriarchal and pagan period of Russian culture continued to live in slightly different forms.

“Russian swearing as a male obscene code: the problem of origin and evolution of status”

V.Yu. Mikhailin

In the work of V.Yu. Mikhailina’s tradition of linking the genesis of Russian swearing to fertility cults is disputed; Despite the fact that Mikhailin largely agrees with Uspensky, he offers a significant refinement of his theory and examines the history of swearing from pagan cults to modern hazing. The connection between the theory of the “main myth” of Toporov and Ivanov with the mythological enemy of the Thunderer, the dog, does not suit him: “I will allow myself one single question. For what reason is the eternal opponent of the Thunderer, whose traditional iconography presupposes, first of all, not canine, but serpentine hypostases, in this context, takes the form of a dog, and takes it invariably and formulaically?”

Fertile land, according to the author, could not be associated with masculine in archaic: this is a purely female territory. On the contrary, the purely male territory was considered to be that which had to do with hunting and war, a marginal space in which good husband and the family man is ready to shed blood and rob, and the decent young man, who does not dare to look up at the neighbor’s girl, rapes the enemy’s daughters.

Mikhailin suggests that in such territories swearing was once associated with magical practices male military alliances identifying themselves with the "dogs". That is why swearing was also called “dog barking”: symbolically, warriors were the embodiment of wolves or dogs. This can also explain the fact that until recently, swearing was predominantly a male language code.

In Indo-European culture, every man underwent initiation, one way or another accompanied by a period that can be designated as the “dog” stage. A “dog” warrior living outside the home zone, in marginal territory, exists outside the culture of the hearth and Agriculture. He is not full-fledged, not mature, has “combat rage”, part of which can be called the use of unacceptable swear words at home. “Wolves” and “dogs” have no place on human territory, for which their mere presence can be fraught with desecration: the corresponding norms and forms of behavior are strictly taboo, and their carriers, without undergoing purification rites and thereby turning from “wolves” back into people do not have the most basic civil rights. They, by definition, are carriers of the chthonic principle, they are magically dead and as such simply “do not exist.”

Thus, the formula “*** your mother” in male “dog” unions was a spell that magically destroyed the opponent. Such a spell symbolically compared the opponent to the son of a chthonic being, identified his mother with a bitch, and brought him into extremely marginal, non-human territory where such coitus could occur. Consequently, all swear words imply dog ​​genitals and animal coitus, which has nothing in common with human coitus, occurring in the home space and framed by ritual tradition and other signs of culture.

In the future, purely male nature swear words in Russia is transferred to a more general context. Beginning with revolutionary events Since 1917, the language paradigm undergoes great changes. Swearing, along with Newspeak, becomes one of the means of communication of the patriarchal (albeit outwardly anti-sexist) elite. Soviet camps and increased interest in the exploitation of women’s labor also played a role, including in army structures, where mating directly inherited the communication function of archaic male unions. Therefore, soon the taboo of swearing in a female or mixed environment ceased to be strong, and then became a thing of the past. The male obscene code has become universal.