How the word “monkey” appeared in Russian: we called these animals differently
Have you ever wondered why the Russian word “monkey” sounds the way it sounds, and does not matter for other Slavic (and even European) ones? Even if you haven’t thought about it, it’s a pretty interesting story.
In Slavic and European monkeys, they are called completely differently than in Russian, and this is a mystery. For example, in ancient Russia, the monkey was called “opitsa” – as it is now in the Czech Republic (describe). In Russian “monkey” – a monkeyin French – le magotin Spanish – not monoin Ukrainian – mavpain Polish – malpa.
According to the Gramota.ru resource, the word “monkey” has been known in Russian since the 16th century, and it is assumed that it appeared in oral speech thanks to the merchant Afanasy Nikitin, a traveler and writer. Nikitin, the author of travel notes under the general title “Journey beyond the three seas”, in 1466-1474, traveling through Persia, India and Turkey, from where he could bring the Arabic “buzine” – an Arabic phrase Abu Zina, “father of sin”). It falls under the exception of this word, as well as word-formation patterns on -an(a), -yang (a) in Russian, “monkey” came: obuzina – obozina – obizina – obeziya – monkey. And in the end it completely replaced the old Russian “opica”.
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Cover image: Patrick Rolands / Shutterstock / Fotodom