Libmonster ID: SE-512
Author(s) of the publication: A. N. SHUSTOV

Almost half of the total mass of Russian mushrooms is made up of a family that in everyday life has a common name-syroezhki . In the specialized literature, they are often given specific definitions: by color (yellow, green, red...), by taste (peppery, burning...) and other characteristics (brittle, knobby ). For a very long time, the opinion has been established that the name of the mushroom is supposedly "proof" that it can be eaten raw. This is already mentioned in early Russian botanical reference books: "the villagers eat them raw" (Dictionary of Scientific Natural History, Moscow, 1788, vol. 2). The same opinion was shared by our contemporary, a great connoisseur of nature, writer V. A. Soloukhin in the book "The Third Hunt". However, this is

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the interpretation is wrong from a linguistic point of view and unsafe from a medical point of view: "Many of the modifications of these mushrooms are poisonous; and all of them, although sometimes eaten by commoners even in a raw state (which is why they got their common name), are nevertheless harmful to health in this [raw. - A. Sh.] form" (Blank P. Description of useful plants... Edible mushrooms, Moscow, 1862, Issue 1).

Nowadays, certain types of these mushrooms are also not recommended for food (Mushrooms of the USSR, Moscow, 1980), and the sign of their "raw food" is not emphasized; on the contrary, it is specified that there are several species that are considered conditionally edible (Ponomarev A. I., Gribnik. L., 1987). Old botanists testified that these mushrooms were also cooked after all: syroezhka "not bad, but especially boiled in boiling water with salt" (Meyer A. Botanical detailed dictionary. Moscow, 1781. Part 1) - not so much a complex culinary procedure! So the original principle of eating these mushrooms everywhere in raw form looks unconvincing.

V. A. Soloukhin wrote in a book about mushrooms: "Many people are surprised [! - A. Sh.] by the name-syroezhka. For something it is given to the mushroom " (The Third Hunt). At one time, it was noted that "syroezhka refers to a word in which a suffix can be distinguished, but the basis remains unclear"; "The meaning of the word is very uncertain" (Merkulova V. A. Essays on Russian folk nomenclature of plants. Moscow, 1967).

Russula does not belong to the category of endemics: within the borders of the former USSR, there are only about 60 of its 275 known species. This group once included other species: the old "Dictionary of Cooking" (Moscow, 1795. Part 1) noted these mushrooms "several offspring", "among which should be valui". Lexicographers suggest similar original names of syroezhka for the Proto-Slavic era: * syrojeda, * syrojedja, *syroedzka. But is it true? Here, it seems, there is a fitting fit for the established tradition. Here are the forms of the names of this mushroom in related Slavic languages: Russian-syroezhka, syroega, syro (a)vega, syrovezhka, suraveshka, suroeshka, syroednik syroedny; Ukrainian-siroidka, siroidka, siroizhka; Belarusian-syraezhka, suravezhka; Polish-serojeszka, surojadka, syrojadek, syrojezka, syrowinki; Czech - syrovinka (dialect-syrovedka, surovitka, syruvka, syropka); Old Czech - syrojed, syrojedka, syrovedka; Slovenian - sirovojedka, sirovetka, sirotka, sirovka; Slovenian - syroega; Serbo-Croatian - Siro(vo)jedka, sirovka, sirojka, sirnaja, sirnaaga, sirovanka, sirovatka, siroieha (siro(vo)jedka, sirovka, sirojka, sirnjaja, sirnjaga, sirovanjka, sirovatka, sirojeca ).

According to the Czech etymologist V. Mahek, this similarity of names indicates that many Slavs have known this mushroom since ancient times. Interestingly, along with these in almost all languages-

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there are also local folk names for russula: jaundice, rubella, blueberry, etc., which, by the way, are also applied to other species (boulders, volvets, redheads).

Considering the above Slavic names of syroezhki, it is easy to see that some of them consist of two well-known bases (sy [y]r-i-ed[zh] ), and some have only one base (the root sy[y]r-). For our analysis, this "disagreement" is fundamentally important.

In the first case, russula fits into a small group of words constructed according to the model: sweet tooth (sweet-o-hedgehog-k-a), sweet tooth, maloezhka... Recall that according to the old spelling, the name of the mushroom was often written through "yat", as well as all words associated with the root bst -, bda -. M. Fasmer and the " Short Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language "(1971) consider syroezhka to be a "proper Russian" (?) word, a suffix formation from the unsaved * syroezha V. I. Dahl fixed this word in the meaning of "buckwheat batter on kvass or milk" (cf. also: syroeshka-liquid millet porridge on milk), so the semantic connection between syroezha and syroezha is not clear.

In the second case, we can see an ancient etymological relationship between the words raw and harsh (cf. in other languages: suraveshka, syrovinka, sirovka, sirojka, etc.), that is, we are talking only about dampness, and not about food. The adjective raw has several different meanings, including - "(culinary) not processed" and "wet".

Thus, in Russian, it is more correct to call the mushroom syr, mokrushka - after all, even today it often grows in "dampness": in moist forests, on the outskirts of moss swamps, etc. Maybe in the old days such areas were the only place for it to "live". It is no coincidence, apparently, that one of the folk names of syroezhka is priboltnik, i.e. living "in the swamps". In Russia, by the way, there are mokruhi mushrooms, so named for their wet, slimy appearance. Polish lexicographers include the mushroom syrojeszka in the family of "bad" - the genus * ndla, known to the Western Slavs (Etymological Dictionary of Slavic Languages, Moscow, 1976, Issue 3). Here etymologists see a connection with the Prussian *balt swamp. Obviously, in ancient times, this love of the fungus for high humidity served as the basis for its distinctive name. So a raw tooth is not something that is eaten raw, but something that itself "feeds" on dampness, that is, a raw eater (ka): not an object, but a subject of hidden action.

In conclusion, it remains to clarify which form of the name of the mushroom in Russian is the primary one: syroega or syroezhka. "Dictionary of the Russian Academy "(1822, Part VI), " Dictionary of the Church Slavonic and Russian Language "(1847) and V. I. Dahl claim that syroega is primary. In this form, the word is recorded in various reference books

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1780-1790s: Russian written sources mention edible mushrooms in general quite late-from the XIV century (Vasilkov B. P. Study of cap mushrooms in the USSR, Moscow-L., 1953), and their "name names" appear only around the third quarter of the XVIII century. On the contrary, N. M. Shansky (Short Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language), V. A. Merkulova (Op. cit.) and M. Fasmer consider the primary russula. Old lexicographers, in our opinion, were more objective.

Consider the following pairs of words: varega-mitten, cart-cart, odega-odezhka, kenga-kenezhka, denga-denezhka, shanga-shanezhka, seryoga-seryozhka, bekesha-bekeshka, fun-poteshka, etc. As you can see, their diminutive forms are formed by traditional changes in the basics: alternating consonants (g - f, x-w ) and the transition of b to E, followed by the addition of the suffix-k(a). Externally, these "neoplasms" resemble nouns constructed with the help of a non-existent (!) "diminutive suffix" - hedgehog [w]k(a). The name of the mushroom fits into this suffix scheme: syroeg [w]a-syroezh-k-a. In the XIX century, the second half of the word was often written not-ezhka, but-eshka ! By the way, the fact that the surname Syroeg[zh]in is much more common than Syroezhkin also speaks in favor of Syroega.

According to the principle of "folk etymology", the second part of the word, the pseudo-suffix-hedgehog [sh]ka, was reinterpreted as a diminutive form of the noun hedgehog (food), which goes back to the common Slavic verb eat (yasti, isti), which was the reason for the change in the meaning of the word. Its initial history was covered with a centuries-old patina of time; and today, according to the inertia of the language, the name of the mushroom is considered as a kind of permission to eat it raw, although no one has done this for a long time.

Saint-Petersburg


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