The belief is widespread that obscene words are borrowings that have penetrated the Russian language during the Horde. We checked whether there are confirmations of this version.

About such etymology of obscene roots tells, for example, Yuri Kanygin in the book “Milestones of the Holy History: Rus'-Ukraine”. In 2012, this theory in its “live magazine” Put it The designer Artemy Lebedev is called into question (but did not refute). The version of the Horde origin has become a popular topic for jokes as on thematic sites, and on the air KVN.

There are different terms to designate “bad” words: mat, obscene vocabulary, non -normative vocabulary, obscene words - and all of them have A little different meaning. Mat is considered the narrowest of these categories, and in 2013 Roskomnadzor explainedthat refers to her only four roots. We are talking about a word on “x” to refer to the male genital organ, a word on “P” to designate the female genital organ, the word “E” to designate sexual intercourse and the word “B” to refer to a girl with reduced social responsibility, as well as about all derivatives from their roots. With this classification in general agree and philologists.

Professor of St. Petersburg State University, philologist Valery Mokienko in the article “Russian swearing vocabulary: censorship and obscene” reportsthat, contrary to the common misconception about the Horde origin of the Russian mat, its main roots have Slavic origin. So, euphemism for the male genital organ comes from the same root as the “needles”, that is, it is something coat, and euphemism for the female is related to the verb “to hide”. In turn, an obscene word for the process of copulation Related With the Pre -Slavic root, with the meaning of “beat, blow”, and to designate a slutty girl - with words like “fornication, error”. Similar roots with the same values There is And in the languages of the Slavic peoples who did not experience the Tatar-Mongol invasion, which also puts a version of their Ordynsk origin under serious doubts.

Evidence that the roots, now known as obscene, were known long before the arrival of the Horde, can serve birch bark letters. For example, the word "n *** a" Found In literacy No. 955, found during excavations in Novgorod and dated the second half of the 12th century. Her text is an outstanding linguist Andrei Zaliznyak “transferred” to a modern Russian like this: “From Milusha to Marena. Big Spit - to marry her dream. Marenka! Let the giving birth to a bosom get drunk! ” Scientist assertedthat such phrases existed in the local folklore of that time: “it is clearly connected with“ shameful ”songs that make up an important part of the folk wedding ritual, the original function of which is to contribute to fertility, the continuation of the genus. In this case, the cherished vocabulary does not have any swearing: it acts within the framework of its original sphere, where it still clearly retains its original sacred and ritual character. ”

The version of the ritual character of vocabulary, now recognized as obscene, is supported by other scientists. Linguist Anatoly Baranov He thinksthat in many Slavic peoples, obscene words were associated, for example, with a call of rain, requests for a good harvest and other rituals with a similar goal. At the end of the 10th century, Christianity came to Rus', and with similar words and expressions they began to fight-not because of the dissociation, but because of the connection with paganism. The taboo of such vocabulary led to the fact that it began to use it with the manifestation of maximum emotionality - it was this exceptional “strength” of obscene expressions that allowed them to live more than a thousand years.

Photo: Artifex.ru