Foto: BB.LV / Зима
Let’s recall expressions like "icy heart", "cold response", "feelings have cooled"... These linguistic metaphors clearly show that cold in our consciousness is associated with something not very pleasant. We are quite aware of the figurative meaning of the above expressions. But there are words that were originally such metaphors, only now we do not think about it. **Frost** Currently, the word "frost" is quite neutral. But once it served as the foundation for the formation of an adjective that acquired a bright negative meaning. We are talking about the word "disgusting". Yes, it has the same root as the word "frost", and a "disgusting" person literally means a "frosty", "cold" person. Moreover, from the same root, there are also insults (which I will have to mention for the sake of science) "frostbitten" and "scum". Such variations of the root — frost / disgust / scum — are not surprising, typical for the Russian language. Something similar, for example, can be seen in the roots milk / milk (milk / mammal, Milky Way), voice / sound, shore / bank. And the variants that we perceive as truncated are a legacy of Old Slavic, in which "frost" sounded rather unmelodious to modern ears: "scum". **Darkness** Winter is the time when it gets dark early, so "darkness" and "twilight" are also a kind of "winter" words. And they have quite unexpected relatives! "Darkness", "to dim", "twilight", "to confuse", "to flicker" — a chain of historically related words. The alternation of er/ra/oro should not confuse: we just observed the same in the words "disGUSTing" / "to disGUST" / "SCUM" / "FROST". It turns out that from a linguistic point of view, "to confuse" is nothing but "to darken". And "to flicker" means not so much "to light up constantly", but rather "to go out all the time", "to dim". **Chill** Again, a "winter" word that has an unexpected unpleasant descendant. "Chill" is, of course, from the same root as "to cool down". But once this word sounded somewhat different: "to chill out". Over time, the "d" in this verb has understandably disappeared (try pronouncing "to chill out" — the "d" merges with the "n"), but the sound has been preserved in other related words — for example, in "to cool down" and in that very linguistic bastard. Yes, we are talking about the word "shame". It turns out that shame was originally conceived as a cooling, chilling feeling. In Old Russian, it sounded like "chill", and the alternation of u/y is a common story, as in "DRY / to DRY out". **Shiver** The etymology of this word shows how far apart the meanings of one root can diverge — even to opposites! Strangely enough, the root in the word "shiver" is the same as in the word "heat". But the logic of language is not so paradoxical: after all, shivering often occurs during fever, when one feels both cold and hot. In some dialects, the word "heat" is still preserved, which can mean both "cold" and "hot". Perhaps "shiver" once had the same dual meaning. **To Shiver** This "winter" word has a completely amazing relative. The same root... in the word "tooth"! No, not because when someone shivers, their teeth chatter. The story is much more complicated. Interestingly, the modern meaning of the word "to shiver" appeared only in the 18th century, while before it meant "to grow". And the original meaning of the word "tooth" is something that has grown. But where did the meaning "to feel cold" come from in the word "to shiver"? The most common version is as follows: earlier, teeth were also called the buds of plants, which start to appear in quite cool weather in our latitudes — in early spring. This period was called "shivering" initially due to the appearance of buds, and later the meaning transformed and shifted to denote weather, temperature: shivering — cold. And the migratory bird was named "shiverbird" because it arrives at that very shivering time. And the alternation of ya ['a] / u ("to SHIVER" / "toOTH") is not unique: the same can be seen in the words "to CLINK" / "SOUND", "to BIND" / "bonds", "to GRIND" / "to SINK", "to PULL" / "TIGHT" etc. **Winter** And finally, actually about "winter". This is a very ancient word that traces back to the root of the Proto-Indo-European language, the ancestor of most languages of Europe, Slavic and Baltic, as well as Indo-Iranian languages (Sanskrit, for example). And this Proto-Indo-European root sounded like *gheim (the asterisk indicates that we have a reconstruction made by scholars) and had the same meaning: "winter", "time of snow". It has many descendants, but at first glance, they do not look alike at all: the combination gh has hardly been preserved anywhere. Consonants could merge; thus, both the word "winter" and, for example, "Himalayas" emerged: in Sanskrit, Himalayah literally means "abode of snow". The same combination him can be seen in another seemingly surprising relative — the word "chimera". In fact, in Ancient Greece, this initially referred to just a one-year-old goat — possibly because they considered years to be winters, and winter in Ancient Greek is heima (in simplified spelling). But later, the name was transferred to a mythical creature with the body of a goat, the head of a lion, and the tail of a dragon. Interestingly, the English word winter formed from a completely different Proto-Indo-European root *wed. Its meaning has been preserved unchanged in the Russian descendant — the word "water". Indeed, English winters are more likely not snowy, but wet. But they are not very loved either. Although even children in England can wear shorts in sub-zero temperatures, and the word cool is used there to denote something cool, the British also say freeze (someone's) blood (to scare), literally "to chill the blood". So from the perspective of linguistic memory, winter is not the most pleasant time of the year. Who knows: perhaps global warming can change that?
