From the History of Russian Dialect Words I (говéд(т)ник, дохóрь, есáк, жёл, жерсть, жим, дýнда, дóхта, сбрéндить)

In: Izvestija Ural'skogo federalʹnogo universiteta: Ural Federal University journal. Serija 2, Gumanitarnye nauki = *Series 2*Humanities and arts, Band 23, Heft 3, S. 248-263

Abstract

The study of Russian dialectal vocabulary remains one of the most pressing problems of etymology. This article is devoted to the origin and history of a number of Russian dialect words. Namely, the author provides revised explanations for some dialecticisms from the already published issues of the Russian Etymological Dictionary (говéд(т)ник, дохóрь, дóхта, сбрéндить), as well as from its unpublished issues (есáк, жёл, жерсть, жúмы). Most of this material is missing from the Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language by M. Vasmer.The essence of the explanations proposed is as follows:говéд(т)ник, говéдник, говéнник 'fastening (in front of a sleigh)' originates from головéнник 'head, front part of the sleigh' from голова 'head', головной; дохóрь 'marten' supplements the lexical data on Proto-Slavic *dъchor'ь 'ferret'; есáк 'motif, melody', есáчить 'explain with signs' should be linked with Old Russian ясáк 'sign, password' = ясáк 'tribute' < Turkic jasaq 'tribute', 'code, law';жел (жол) 'acorn' is identified with Belorussian dial. жэл and Bulgarian dial. жел 'acorn' < Proto-Slavic *žьlъ 'acorn', cf. Lithuanian gìlė 'acorn';жерсть, etc. 'pole' can be related to *žьrdь > Russian жердь with the suffix -tь, as in Russian ýжасть vs. ýжас 'horror'; жúмы 'pleated boxcalf boots' is correlated with жúмы 'folds, gathers' from жимáть, iterative to *žęti, *žьmǫ 'press' > Rus. жать, жму 'press'. The initial d- in the variant джúмы could appear as a result of rebracketing in combinations вот жимы, под жимы, etc. (of boots); дýнда 'fat man' is explained as a reflex of Proto-Slavic *dunda 'fat woman', an onomatopoetic or descriptive word that cannot be separated from Lithuanian dundà 'rake';дóхта 'peat' may be a relic of the Proto-Slavic *deg- 'burn' (> *žeg-) with preserved d-, cf. Russian дёготь 'tar', etc.; сбрéндить 'go crazy' perhaps comes from *сбрéндить 'break off, about the string of a wool beater' and *брéндить 'beat wool with a wool bow' of onomatopoeic origin, cf. бры́ндить 'to beat the wool' — бры́ндить 'play the balalaika' and so on.