Кон and пес

[ginny1985.livejournal.com]

OK, I need native speaker help.  In my historical linguistics book, the author used 'кон' and 'пес' for 'horse' and 'dog'.  I've heard of 'пес' for 'dog' before, but my professor didn't elaborate on the difference between 'пес' and 'собака' (my first year prof was kinda bad).  However, I have never heard of 'кон' for 'horse'.  None of my dictionaries even acknowledged that 'кон' was a word, the closest I got was 'horse-chestnut'. 

So, my question is- is the author of my historical linguistics book another linguist who can't be bothered to actually check his Russian, or did he pull a really old word out?  And can someone elaborate for me on the difference between 'пес' and 'собака' please? 

Thanks to everyone!

EDIT-  Thank you to everyone who answered.  You all answered my questions and gave me more information, making me a very happy junior linguist.  :)

Comments

[philena.livejournal.com]

It's not actually, кон, probably, but конь, and it does indeed mean "horse." It's not as common as лошадь, and I think it can only refer to a male horse, whereas лошадь can be both.

Erm. This was just because I saw no one had answered yet. I'm sure a native speaker (y'know, the ones you actually asked for help)can answer in more detail.

[ginny1985.livejournal.com]

It very well could be конь, the textbook had, of course, transliterated it (kinda weird transliterations too, but nevermind that for now). I searched English -> Russian and Russian -> English in my dictionary, and neither side had either of those. And that does make a difference, so thanks for correcting me on that. :) Help is help, and I appreciate all of it.

[bad-zeppelin.livejournal.com]

Конь - a male horse, steed. Not exactly a common word, sometimes it is a proud reference to a male battle horse.
Лошадь - a horse in general, this is a common word.
Пес - a male dog, mainly a watchdog. Also, not truly common and has some aggresive reference.
Собака - a dog in general.

another non-native speaker

[inoctiluci.livejournal.com]

Last week, when I told my friends I'd eaten horse in Mongolia, they corrected my "в Монголии я сьела лошадь" with "сьела коня." So, it seems that if you're eating them, they should be "кони" instead of "лощади."

Here's the lingvo entry for "конь:"
1) (лошадь) horse; steed
боевой конь — warhorse, charger
по коням! (команда) — mount!
2) knight
3) (для прыжков) vaulting horse; (для гимнастических упражнений) pommel [] horse
••
на коне (в выигрышном положении) — high, in the saddle
не в коня корм (разг.) — it's wasted on him; ≈ it is (like) caviar to the general (книжн.)
дареному коню в зубы не смотрят (посл.) — one shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth
(еще) конь не валялся (прост. неодобр.)— ≈ and not a bone in the truck

Re: another non-native speaker

[khathi.livejournal.com]

It's usually not said in Russian that way -- you should name the meat, not the animal: for example, "I've eaten pork", not "pig". And horsemeat is indeed called "конина" in Russian.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

It's "конь", not "кон", which is an almost obsolete stem meaning "side", "end" or "edge". "Конь" is also slightly antiquated (and Slavic in origin) word for horse, usually meaning male horse, steed. Mare is called "кобыла". More common Russian word for horse, "лошадь", is from Turcic "алоша".
"Пёс" is generally same -- slightly outdated original Russian word for dog, generally meaning male (although it has female variant "псица"), and somewhat giving up in popularity to the word "собака".

Re: another non-native speaker

[inoctiluci.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I probably misremembered it as коня instead of конина.

[ex-pelicano906.livejournal.com]

"Собака" is slighltly more common. The word itself has been borrowed from Scythian language at some point in the past.

Re: another non-native speaker

[oryx_and_crake]

You should not say "съела лошадь" - this means "I have eaten an entire (and possibly live) horse".
As people already pointed out, you should use the meat name, and ела instead of съела. So, it will be "я ела конину" (don't forget to decline the noun).

Re: another non-native speaker

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. and it is лоШадь not лоЩадь

[vargtimmen.livejournal.com]

I thought it might interest you to know that Pes/Pies/Pas is still the standard word for dog in Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, and Polish (not sure about Ukrainian and Belarusian).

Re: another non-native speaker

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

the "конь" means "knight" only in chess.

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

it's rather frequent in using. I mean "конь"

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

In ukrainian it sounds like [pэs]

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

Конь - steed

пёс - hound

Both terms commonly found in English literature.

[trummalina.livejournal.com]

like a native speaker, i can tell you that all commentarys are realy good. And if you have another question, you can ask me. So I hope it whould help me with my English

[triogen.livejournal.com]

Male horse is жеребец
Female horse is кобыла

Конь and лошадь can be both sexes.

Military horse is always конь, never лошадь.

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

Military horse is always конь - In English literature military horse is always steed

Therefore, конь = steed

Noun
1. steed - (literary) a spirited horse for state or war
warhorse - horse used in war

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/steed

[helix_a.livejournal.com]

Khathi! ;)

Not "псица", "психа"! "Псица" - it is from old Katrsev/Ilchenko funny story "ставь псицу, найдем". And there it means "bird as sign". ;)

Btw, I would say, that 'пес' is not outdated, here it is used very often - but it has not aggro value, it is rather when you talk about close, informal, family male dog - also there is variant "пёсик" - good/little dog.

WBR - Andrew

[khathi.livejournal.com]

"Психа" mean ungrammatical name of a female psycho forall I know. ^_^ And Ilchenko/Kartsev duo said "пцица", not "псица".