(no subject)

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Speaking of etymology, I was wondering how сегодня got to be. I was saying it to myself, and noticed that it can be split into с его дня, so I'm guessing it has to deal something with the Russian Orthodox Church and something about His day. Or am I stretching it?

Comments

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

Is it pronounced like севодня or сегодня?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_virusman_/]

No, actually it's split into
сего дня
сей = этот (it's archaism)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_virusman_/]

севодня

[mangiami.livejournal.com]

I'm not a native speaker or expert, just a student, but my teacher commented specifically on the etymology of this word and said that it should be broken into сего/дня. Сего is an old word form that (I think) only exists now in compounds, but comes from an old adjective meaning "this." Of course, дня means "day" here, so literally "this day."

I also find it interesting that красный used to mean "beautiful." I found that out in a footnote that mentioned that the name of the Red Square (красная площадь) originally meant "beautiful square."

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Ah... oops. Thank you!

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

I thought it came from the word "прекрасный," which means "beautiful," and somewhere along the line it just became "красный."

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

Crap, I've been pronouncing it wrong.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_virusman_/]

красный and красивый have the same roots.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_virusman_/]

The prefix пре- means "very". In time "красный" started to mean "red" and "красивый" took it's original meaning, but the word "прекрасный" remained.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_virusman_/]

It's even pronounced like "сиводня".

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Yup. _virusman was right, прекрасный meant simply "very beautiful" in Old Slavonic, while "красный" meant simply "beautiful" :) "О светло светлая и красно украшенная земля русская!" -- says "Слово о полку Игореве" (11th century) - literally "O ye brightly clear and beautifully adorned Russian land!"

[dr-s.livejournal.com]

The word "сей" (feminine "сия") has mostly disappeared from the modern language but it survives as a part of few words and set phrases. For example, "сейчас" (=now), "сию минуту", "сей момент" (at once, immediately; at this moment, right now), "сиюминутный" (momentary).

[a-garvey.livejournal.com]

сегодня = этого дня
It is not only Russian word with such etymology. Compare:
Спасибо = Спаси бог
Пожалуйста = пожалуй, сударь

[temcat.livejournal.com]

Is пожалуйста really decomposed into пожалуй and сударь?

As far as I remember from the wonderful book "Слово о словах" by Lev Uspensky, "ста" means "старый" here, which was a means of polite addressing.

[a-garvey.livejournal.com]

Yes, you are right.
My conjecture was wrong, thanks for correction