words with funny common etymologies

[madrumos.livejournal.com]

What I'm thinking of are words that seem unintuitive when you look at the Russian root and prefix, but that actually are exactly the same in English (usu. for words with Latin or Greek origin, of course). They occur to me every once in a while as epiphanies, like it should have been obvious, but I had just never thought of it that way. I also unfortunately often forget them, so add some if you know of any good ones. There must be a lot!

подписаться - to subscribe (под-under/sub писать-write/script/scribe)

обстоятельство - circumstance (об-around/circle/circum стоять-stand/stance)

впечатление - impression (в-in/im печать-stamp/type/press)

Okay, so I can't think of any more at the moment, but I'll add them as I remember.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

I believe those words were put into use by Russian scientists (like Lomonosov) who had to borrow some Western words and notions. Such translated words are called "калька" (literally, "tracing paper"), because the outline of Russian word repeats the outline of English/Latin word.

Another funny калька that I can think of is "insect"->"насекомое".
(in->на, seco (Latin) -> сечь)

[madrumos.livejournal.com]

That's a good one. And thanks for reminding me of the word калька (En. 'calque'), that was the word I was looking for, but was forced to replace with a long and unwieldy explanation.

random comment

[moa1918.livejournal.com]

It's rather interesting that the Russian word for tracing paper is "калька", because the Swedish word is kalkeringspapper. :-)
Moa

Re: random comment

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

It's French originally, calque.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Подтвердить - confirm,affirm
Сосредоточиться - concentrate
Независимый - independept (висеть, висящий - pendent)
Возгорание - conflagration
Convoke - созывать

[madrumos.livejournal.com]

Great examples, although I was thinking more of words where both the root and the prefix match exactly--as far as I know, под- doesn't calque very well onto con- or af-.

And you're going to have to enlighten me as to the meaning of con-, especially with regards to it being associated with the воз- of возгорание. Or the meaning of -flagration at all, I guess. Does it have something to do with fire?

[gera.livejournal.com]

fla-grant (flay'gruhnt) adj.
1. shockingly noticeable or evident;
obvious; glaring: a flagrant error.
2. notorious; scandalous: a flagrant offender.
3. Archaic. blazing, burning, or glowing.
[1400-50; late ME < L flagrant-, s. of flagrans,
orig. prp. of flagrare to burn; see - ANT]

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

«Влияние» is also a direct calque from Latin influence: "in" «в», "fluere" «лить». As far as I remember, this Russian word was introduced by Karamzin.

Also, Russian is full of borrowings from Church Slavonic, which, in its turn, is full of Greek calques.

OCS

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

Are they really considered "borrowings" from OCS, if Russian simply evolved from it?

Re: OCS

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

I'd rather say Modern Russian is a mix of Church Slavonic and vernacular Old Russian.

Re: OCS

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Russian evoldved not from Church Slavonic, but from Old Russian. The people who spoke Old Russian in the 14th century, not exactly understood the lithurgical texts in Church Slavonic (which was rather Old Bulgarian.) Anyway, a lot of Church Slavonic words were borrowed by Old Russian and then modern Russian, until as late as 19th century. Modern Russian is still full of Church Slavonic lexicon. I't quite easy to tell Church Slavonic words from their Russian counterparts, especially when it comes to the "conglomerate words" we discuss here" CS words simply have fewer vowels in them. A town or a city is город in both Old Russian and modern Russian, but it's градъ in Church Slavonic; and it's CS stem which is used in quite widely used comglomerates, like градостроительный (literally, town-constructing, like in "town-constructing plans of the current mayor") or градообразующий (literally, town-forming, about a single huge industrial facility that is surrounded by a small town.)