In Russian Language
The transformation of the meaning of the adjective "krasnyi" (red or beautiful) in Russian language has an interesting history. The proverbs "A house is red judging by its corners", "A debt is red by its payment", "Red girl" means "red", "good" as to beautify from the Slavic word "krasa" - beauty. In such a way, when the Western Rus' was also called Red Rus', they meant that it was "beautiful" Rus'. For the color notation proper, the Slavic languages use the word "chervonyi". But in the Russian language, the word "chervonyi" for the red color has been lost, although one can still see the link in the word "chervontsy" (bank notes worth of 10 roubles of red colour). Many linguists consider that through Russians' use of the word for the banknote, the initial sense of the term was permanently altered.
Read more about this topic: Chervona Ruta, Etymology
Famous quotes containing the words russian and/or language:
“Other centuries had their driving forces. What will ours have been when men look far back to it one day? Maybe it won’t be the American Century, after all. Or the Russian Century or the Atomic Century. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, Phil, if it turned out to be everybody’s century, when people all over the world—free people—found a way to live together? I’d like to be around to see some of that, even the beginning.”
—Moss Hart (1904–1961)
“You can’t write about people out of textbooks, and you can’t use jargon. You have to speak clearly and simply and purely in a language that a six-year-old child can understand; and yet have the meanings and the overtones of language, and the implications, that appeal to the highest intelligence.”
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)