In the modern Russian literary language, the word littlefinger is used in the usual sense of "the fifth, smallest finger on the hand, on the foot" (Ozhegov S. I. Dictionary of the Russian language): "He grew long white nails and when writing rested on the paper with a little finger with a particularly long and particularly white nail" (Fedin. First joys); "His fingers were very thin; when he took money out of his purse, he held out his little finger" (Panova. Satellites).

Currently, several derivatives of the noun littlefinger are known. Colloquial diminutive formation littlefinger and the adjective littlefinger, used as part of the anatomical term-the phrase little finger joint: "About women's eyelashes or little finger, he could tell you a whole bunch of words" (Chekhov. Strong feelings).

The word littlefinger is common Slavic. It is found in almost all modern Slavic languages. However, in some of them, this noun and its derivatives are used not only to denote the fifth and smallest finger of the hand and foot, but also appear with the meaning "the youngest child (son, less often-daughter) in the family": Ukrainian colloquial mizynets (littlefinger)" [finger] littlefinger", "the youngest son in the family". family", mizinka ("younger daughter "(Ukrainian-Russian dictionary. Kiev, 1984); Belarusian mezenets "littlefinger" (Krapiva K. Russian-Belarusian dictionary. Minsk, 1982. Vol. 1); Bulgarian dialect words littlefinger, mizul "the last child in the family - the youngest son)" and "littlefinger" (in common Bulgarian "littlefinger" - kutre), mizinka -

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"the last child (the last child in the family - the youngest daughter) "(Mladenov S. Етимологически и правописенъ речникъ на българския книжевенъ езикъ. Sofia, 1941; Bernstein S. B. Bulgarian-Russian dictionary. Moscow, 1975); Serbo-Croatian mezinac, mezimac "junior, beloved son", also " littlefinger "( but usually "little finger" - mali pret); Slavonian mezinec, mexinek "younger son", "little finger"; Czech obsolete mezenec (Old Czech mezenec ) "finger between the little finger and the middle finger" ("little finger" - malik); Polish mizynek, mizinec (but more often maty pale) " little finger "(Fasmer M. Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language, Moscow, 1986, Vol. II; Chernykh P. Ya. Historical and Etymological Dictionary of the modern Russian Language, Moscow, 1994, Vol. I).

As the above material shows, the word littlefinger in some Slavic languages (Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian) means "the fifth, smallest finger on the hand, on the foot" acts as a secondary one, since it is non-native, acquired.

The history of this noun in Russian also indicates that the marked meaning is figurative. Only the fifth, smallest finger on a person's hand and foot in modern Russian literature is designated by one word-the little finger. The names for the other fingers are combinations of the adjectives thumb, index finger, middle finger, and ring finger with the noun. Thus, among the linguistic means that serve to denote different fingers, the word little finger stands out. Let's look at how it turned out to be among the marked phrases.

The origin of the noun littlefinger is not entirely clear. According to the most common point of view, this word is related to the Lithuanian ta zaz "small", mazasis "little finger", mat "little"; Latvian mase "less", mass "small, small, low"; Old Prussian massais "less".

The noun * tezin (mezinets, littlefinger) was formed from the Proto-Slavic adjective * tezin or * tezen (Old Russian mezin, meziny, that is, "small, small") and, apparently, originally meant the youngest, smallest child in the family (Goryaev N. V. Comparative Etymological Dictionary of the Russian language. Tiflis, 1896; Preobrazhensky A. G. Etymological dictionary of the Russian language, Moscow, 1914, vol. 1; Fasmer. Edict. soch. vol. II; Chernykh. Edict. soch. Vol. II). And it was the youngest son who was meant. This is evidenced by the first examples of the use of the word littlefinger in the Old Russian writing of the XIV century: mezinets "younger son".

In Russian writing, the adjective mezinyi (miziny, mizinny) begins to be used much earlier than the noun mezinets derived from it. So, examples where the word

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mesiny has the meaning of " younger, smaller (son)" we meet in the Old Russian language since the XIV century: "Bring the wife of ts (a)r Roman to mesiny [variant: menshy] s (s)nu to your Kostyantin" (Dictionary of the Russian language of the XI-XVII centuries. Moscow, 1982. Issue 9; further - Syllable and issue). With the meaning of "smaller", the adjective mesin (mizin) is also recorded in the written language of the XVI century: "[Olga] yavisya... as mizinaya is the new disciple of Christ" (Cf. Issue 9).

In the Old Russian language of the XII century, the adjective mesiny (miseny) could also be used in the figurative meaning of "lesser; not noble": "[1175] So that we do not understand the truth b(o) zh (i)a, correct rostovtsi and sudaltsi, the long-time senior creator, but now people and misenii volodimirstii, who understood yashasya really hard " (Ibid.).

The word mezinets has been used in Russian writing since the 14th century. In the period from the XIV to the XVI centuries, it is found in monuments only with the meaning "younger son": "Si mi firstborn, si mi mezinets in my birth" (Sreznevsky I. I. Materials for the dictionary of the Old Russian language. Moscow, 1989. Vol. II); "[Lev] rodi sedmero otrochyat, from them be mezinets ... [seventh] Konstantin the Philosopher" (Slr. Issue 9).

In the written language of the XVI century, the noun mezinets with the meaning "younger son" is no longer found. However, in the texts of the XVI century with the same meaning, a variable formation is noted for the word mezinets-mizinko. At this time, it even served as a nickname: "The cabal of service to Vasily is written... on Orina on Trofimov's daughter and on his brother-in-law on Ofromeyk, and the nickname Mizinko." (Ibid.).

Since the beginning of the 17th century, the noun mezinets has been recorded in Northern Russian monuments only with a new figurative meaning " littlefinger "and with a changed spelling: instead of the letter" yat", the root is written I - littlefinger or mizenets. In popular speech, this word could also sound like mezenets: "Yakush Sidorov's son, middle-sized ...the mustache sits out, b-both hands have crooked little fingers" (Novgorod notebook bonded books. 1603); "It is fitting to put together three fingers: the great finger and the little finger" (The life of Archpriest Habakkuk, written by himself); "And the finger and what's next to the little finger" (SLRYA Issue 9).

The development of the figurative meaning of the little finger "the fifth, smallest finger of a person's hand and foot", from the meaning of "the youngest son" occurred on the basis of similarity in the sign " the smallest of...". Children in a large family were often compared with fingers. This is evidenced by stable expressions found in folk speech. Some of them are noted in the "Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language" by V. I. Dahl: "Tom thumb. A kid the size of a finger. Malchushka s palchushka ( ... ) Which finger does not bite, all the same (equal, painful), about children "(Moscow, 1990. Vol. III).

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The old meaning of the noun littlefinger ("younger son") in the XVII century was recalled by the derivative adjective mizintsev, which is recorded as part of the personal name: Andrey Gavrilov son of Mizintsev (Slr. Issue 9).

In the 17th century, the fifth, smallest finger on a person's hand and foot could also be designated by the adjective littlefinger ("smaller"). with the nouns palets or finger (miziny palets, littlefinger). "Wounded by an arrow in the right hand in the finger of a mouse" (Materials for the History of Medicine in Russia. 1678); " Two napareki, one larger, and the other smaller, in the little finger "(Slr. Issue 9).

In Russian writing of the XVII century, the noun littlefinger is found with the meaning "the smallest finger, little finger": "It is appropriate to put three fingers together; the great and little finger, and the third next to the little finger, all three ends together."

As noted earlier, in folk speech, the word littlefinger could sound like mezenets (Dal). In the Russian writing of the XVII century, a similar word appears-mezenets (mezentsy), but with a different meaning - "resident of the city of Mezen": "Mezenets Andrey Vavilin came from Mezen. Showed 50 items of salmon fish according to the Mezen legend"; "In the same days, the Mezen family of Siluyans, the Trifanov stall showed 4 magpies of sables to the product, the price is 100 rubles" (Babkin A.M., Levashov E. A. Dictionary of names of residents of the USSR. Moscow, 1975). The word mezenets in these examples is derived from the name of a locality-the city of Mezen, which originated in the 16th century in the Arkhangelsk province. The name of the city is probably given by the name of the river - Mezen.

In the Russian literary language of the XVIII-XIX centuries, the noun littlefinger and its diminutive - affectionate derivative formation littlefinger continue to function only with the meaning "the smallest finger of the hand and foot" (Dictionary of the Academy of Russia, located in the derived order. SPb., 1793. Vol. 3; Dictionary of the Academy of Russia, located in the alphabet order. SPb., 1814. Ch. Z): "Who did this little finger scratch?" (Pushkin. A few words about the little finger of G. Bulgarin).

The adjective littlefinger with the meaning "smaller, younger, youngest" is also marked as an obsolete word in the same dictionaries. In the XIX century, it is considered "old" and the name of people of "simple rank" - little fingers and people (Dal). So with the loss of the ancient meaning of the word littlefinger ("younger son"), the word littlefinger also becomes obsolete, from which the noun littlefinger is formed. However, works of art of the XIX-XX centuries indicate that in folk speech the adjective littlefinger with the meaning "the smallest, youngest" still continued to be used in the phrases littlefinger, littlefinger son: "Now bend your thumb down to the littlefinger and be-

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to the nameless one" (Korolenko. On the Volga); "A heavy artillery wheelbarrow passed through the battered town, taking away the middle son... Only one son remained, the little one's son-Ruba, Reuben" (Gorbatov. My generation).

Very interesting information about the use of the words littlefinger, littlefinger and littlefinger is obtained from Russian folk dialects of the XIX-XX centuries. Thus, in the dialects of the XIX century, the noun littlefinger ("the smallest finger") had various pronunciation variants: mezenets (Arkhangelsk, 1885), mezinets (Vologda, Novgorod, Leningrad, 1897), mizenok (Olonetsk, 1898), mezenok (arch., XIX century) mizimets (vyatsk, arch., Perm., 1897), mizyura (arch., 1885. Dictionary of Russian folk Dialects, Moscow, 1982, Issue 18; further SRNG and issue). The word mezenok in the Arkhangelsk dialects could also be used as an adverb with the meaning "a little, a little": "So you give-to me, brother, at least a mezen of water" (SRNG, Issue 18). With another figurative meaning in the dialects of the XIX century, the word littlefinger was also found "the size of the mesh of a fishing net equal to the little finger" (Volkhov, Ilmen-ibid.). V. Dahl reported that in the Russian folk dialects of the XIX century, the fifth, smallest finger (most likely the hand) could be called not only the word littlefinger (in his variants), but also with the words perstin, perstok. However, in his dictionary there is no indication of the wrong place to use these nouns.

The diminutive-affectionate formation littlefinger and the adjective littlefinger in dialects of the XIX century also appeared in various pronouncing variants: mezenchik (from mezenets; arch. Dal. Vol. II), mezenochek (from mezenets; Arkhangelsk.), mezenyshek (from mezenok; Arkhangelsk.), mizymchik (from mizimets; vyatsk., 1897); mezen (mezen palchik; Smolensk., 1890), mizimy ("small"; Vyatsk., 1895-96-SRNG. Issue .18).

Different pronunciation of the words mizine, mizinchik and mizinny is preserved in the dialects of the XX century; mezenets (zap. - bryask., 1973), mezenok (Medvezhyegor. KASR, 1937^0), mizinok (KASSR, 1966), mizenits (Oryol., 1940), mizenets (Tver., Kursk., 1930), mizunets (Ryazan., 1960-63), mizenchik (from mizenets, LitSSR., 1968), mizenyshek (from mizenits, pechorsk., 1963mizunchik (from mizun, riazyansk., 1960-63), mizunchik (donsk., 1976), mezennyi ("junior", mezennyi son, zap. - Bryansk., 1976; SRNG. Issue 18).

In the XIX-XX centuries, the word littlefinger is part of a fairly common stable expression not worth someone's little finger, meaning "to be unworthy of someone, too insignificant, insignificant in comparison with someone"; "You're not worth his little finger, brother" (Dahl); "[Chugunov:] That Murzavetsky! They're not worth your little finger." Ostrovsky. Wolves and sheep).

In the Russian language of the XIX-XX centuries, the word littlefinger is also known with another speech turnover - from littlefinger, to littlefinger, which means-

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nie "very little, very little": "[Armatortsev:] But there are other kinds of people, the so-called loaches. Their talents are the size of a pinky finger, but their dexterity is colossal" (Nevezhin. Restless); "Deliberate violence (...) it is less dangerous for the hostel than that stupid stupidity in which a person, having power on the little finger, considers himself already legally entitled to do what he pleases... "(Shelgunov. Essays on Russian Life).

Thus, the word littlefinger, recorded in Russian writing since the XIV century, originally meant "lesser son". Since the 16th century, it has ceased to be used in this sense and functions to this day with a different meaning:"the fifth, smallest finger on the hand and foot." The history of the noun littlefinger in Russian shows that the word does not always reach the present with its original meaning. Often it is replaced by another, portable one.

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