To the Problem of the East Slavic Derivatives of Proto-Slav. *sočiti / *sakati

Abstract

The paper proves M. Vasmer’s version of possible relation of the Russian dialect verb са́кать, сака́ть [sakat’] ‘to speak’ to the Proto-Slavic word-family *sočiti / *sakati with reconstructed meanings ‘to search’ and ‘to speak’. In addition to this, forms like са́кать [sakat’] ‘to speak’ and their relation to other language lexicon, enable us to give etymologies to some Russian words whose origin are still unclear. These include the dialect forms поса́к [posak] ‘thief, swindler’, паса́к [pasak] ‘tramp, drunk’, поса́ч [posach] ‘tramp’, поса́чить [posachit’] ‘to beg’, поса́чество [posachestvo] ‘begging’ in which the root -сак-/-сач- [-sak-/-sach-] and the prefix по- [po-] are suggested. Their meaning is motivated by the dialect verbs derived from са́кать [sakat’] meaning ‘to receive something using cunning and manipulation’: са́чкать [sachkat’] ‘to defraud something’, вы́сачкать [vasachkat’] ‘id.’, сочи́ть [sochit’] ‘to beg, to defraud something’, ‘to beg, to be beggar’, вы́сочкать [vysochkat’] ‘to beg’. Apart from this, an etymology is provided for the Russian word сачо́к [sachok] ‘lazybones’ which in dialects denotes ‘cunning person’, ‘swindler’, ‘thief’, ‘desperate person’ and ‘suitor’. The meaning ‘cunning person’ and further ‘swindler’ is defined as initial which is also derived from the meaning ‘to defraud something’, initially ‘to speak’. The lazybones name is assumed to be a result of ‘cunning person’ or ‘cunning person who shirks responsibilities’ development. All suggested semantic shifts are proved with analogies of other root derivatives.