(no subject)

[bizatachi.livejournal.com]

Фамилия <<Свайдригэйлов>> имеют специальное значение или слово корня? то есть: Расколников - раскол; Разyмихин - разyм.

Спасибо.

(And if the above posed question is awkwardly worded, or if I spelled "Svidrigaylov" wrong, please give me a good thrashing and correct me.)

Comments

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

Правильно Свидригайлов. Нет, никакого значения, очевидного русскому человеку, у этой фамилии нет.

Фамилии Раскольников и Разумихин разобраны правильно.

[gdt.livejournal.com]

most probably, Раскольников came from "раскольник", not directly from "раскол".

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

Yes, of course. My bad.

[svl.livejournal.com]

It sounds awkwardly, that was the point of the author.

Да, и, конечно, _Свидригайлов_.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Свидригайлов, of course. Russian spelling is quite phonetic ("written as heard", they say - "пишется как слышится"). If even there is a meaningful stem in this last name (which seems to be fictitious, i.e. made up by Dostoevsky - unlike, say, Разумихин, which is rare but does exist in real life,) it must be from ancient Russian or Church Slavonic; for me, there is no clear meaning in this name, it just sounds somehow nasty :))

[med99.livejournal.com]

I think the name is ultimately of Lithuanian origin.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're right. Now I remember that there is some character in Lithuanian history called Svidrigailo. Do we have Lithuanian-speaking members here? Is there any certain meaning of that name in Lithuanian?

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Lithuanian? You do know, do you, that Velikoe Knyazhestvo Litovskoe had very little to do with Lithuania? :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Of course I know. But Prince Svidrigailo (Svidrigello) was Lithuanian. See below. And:
"имя Свидригайло является искаженным произношением прозвища (Свидригелло: от литовск. svitrus – быстрый, ловкий)"

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

He was just about as Lithuanian as I'm Polish. :) But let's not go deep into the history, 'cus we'll end up knee-deep in the old argument about how exactly the former Lithuanians or Russians are (non)related to the modern ones...

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Let's stick with the language-related issues, if you don't mind. I only say that the stem of his nickname is Lithuanian. I don't care of which ethnic origin he was.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Do you have any idea how much the languages changed since then? Do you know how many written documents in Lithuanian were left over from these times? :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Briefly, yes, I do.
I'm not in a mood for flood now, sorry.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

(shrugs) Just for the record - none. The earliest written document in Lithuanian dates to 150 years after Svidrigailo's times. And if you're not interested in history (which you so nicely called a flood), why you're talking about it?

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I do know history.
I also know that any language exists long before any written document in this language.
We do not discuss history here. The question (if you noticed that) was if the last name Svidrigailov had some meaning in Russian. It didn't, but the nickname it was made up from, did have a meaning - or the stem of the nickname had. In other language. Lithuanian language. This was not the question if Svidrigailo Olgerdovich and his brother Jagello were of this or that ethnic origin. This was the question of the meaning of his nickname's stem. That's it.

[noser.livejournal.com]

No need to do that. We all know that Ukrainian historical science is ages ahead of the rest of the world, and the wheel was invented in Ukraine. Even sans checking the books I somehow feel convinced the Svidrigaylo was a mighty Ukrainian.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

There were no Ukrainian then. :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

There we go (http://www.rulex.ru/01180038.htm).

[nemica.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it sounds nasty to me too. Weird word and family name. :rolleyes:

[shellesie.livejournal.com]

He's Свидригайлов.
No, there's no special meaning for this last name. But critics have some suppositions. So, they write that this last name was in use before "Преступление и наказание" - in "Iskra" magazine in July 1861 this name was used like a common noun, "Svidrigailov is a person of a dark origin, with a dirty past, a reppelent person..."
(http://mlis.ru/comment/prestupl/095.html)

[med99.livejournal.com]

I think the effect of this name is in its overall phonetic weirdness to a Russian ear, as well as vague associations with words like свист (whistle or whizz) and дрыгать (to jerk). The image that "Svidrigailov" brings to my mind is the Solovey Razboynik (a monster from epic lore, more on him here (http://www.sunbirds.com/lacquer/readings_printable/1009)), but the particular associations will certainly vary with different people. And, like I said in a comment above, it's probably Lithuanian in origin and might mean something neutral or positive in that language.

[shiro-ki.livejournal.com]

M. S Altman, Альтман М.С. Достоевский по вехам имен. Саратов, 1979, writes, that it can be
a derivative from the name of Lithuanian prince Svidrigaylo, or Svidrigello, 15th century, the person of intricate fate :) (times of Poland-Lithuanian wars, http://www.hi-edu.ru/Brok/01180038.htm )
Then, it was a surname of some real mean person from the newspaper "Iskra"'s feuilleton (1861)
http://mlis.ru/comment/prestupl/095.html
and, then, 'geil' in German is "lustful" - and? of course, it sounds freaky in Russian... smth like a snail between the roots :)

[med99.livejournal.com]

Done some googling... I was right. It's from the Lithuanian word svitrus, which means "swift".

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Yup...me too :)

"имя Свидригайло является искаженным произношением прозвища (Свидригелло: от литовск. svitrus – быстрый, ловкий)"

[med99.livejournal.com]

Google killed the truism that "great minds think alike".

[shiro-ki.livejournal.com]

:)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Or, just built a shortcut for them :) I would prefer this version ;-)