Spew is The meanings of the word and the history of origin

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

To throw away, to throw out, to throw out, and also to throw out of something - such a meaning of the word "spew" is given by Vladimir Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. However, this is not the only meaning. The same author and the same dictionary expands the meaning of this word: to vomit is to exclude, eliminate, recognizing something or someone as unnecessary, worthless, unworthy. As a result, the semantic load of the word acquires new shades and makes it possible to use it in a wide variety of contexts.

Spew is…

Here are simple examples: the sea spews amber, and the bowels of the volcano - lava. Or: general (public) opinion spews (excludes) from society. The last example clearly demonstrates the origin of the derivative from "spew" the word "fiend". Two meanings are currently common.

"Fiend": meanings of the word

First: an outcast is a person cast out of society. Among our ancestors, such punishment for offenses before the community was quite widespread. The castaway was forced to lead a vagabond lifestyle(it is unlikely that another community took him in) and became either a beggar or a criminal. In the recent past, in the times of Tsarist Russia, negligent workers or workers who did not get along with fellow craftsmen were expelled from artels of artisans after a general meeting.

The second meaning of the word "monster", which has taken on a negative meaning (probably due to the consequences to which the alienation of society led a person) is a fierce, evil person, a villain. So, King Herod is a biblical monster, a tormentor, a ruler who became the perpetrator of the “beating of babies”. His name is now a common noun for a treacherous man who committed a heinous crime. Herod was told that Jesus would be born and become king of Judah. Then the king, in order to eliminate competition, orders to kill all the babies in the area and thereby protect himself. But he still cannot destroy Jesus! With this semantic load, this word (monster, Herod) now has the most use.

One more value

But there is also an old church, already forgotten meaning: a miscarriage, a premature baby. This word is borrowed from the Old Slavonic language. In Russian monuments, it appears from the 14th century precisely in the meaning of "outcast". Its origin has not been precisely established. There is an opinion that this is a tracing paper from the Greek "miscarriage". But some researchers consider it more likely that the noun "fiend" owes its origin to the verb "spew". This word formed other nouns - "eruption" (of the same volcano),"exile" or "ejection" (volcanic lava or ash).

In pre-revolutionary Russia

This can also include the "izverzhenets", "izverzhenik", which were used in pre-revolutionary Russia - a person deprived of class, title, rank or throne, expelled from somewhere or expelled. And also a "spewer" - one who overthrows someone, for example, from the throne, exiles, throws away (some unnecessary thing).

One root

As you can see, the root "verg" is the same for both the verb "to vomit" and the noun "fiend". With its help, in the modern language, many other words are formed that are close to each other in meaning. Reject, reject - discard, not accept any point of view, political or social laws. To overthrow - to overthrow, to make fall. Overthrow - deprive of power, throw off the throne.

Related words with the same root can be observed in other languages of the world (etymological dictionary of the Russian language, edited by G. P. Tsyganenko). For example, in Czech - vrhati (throw, throw, throw), in German - werfen (throw, throw), in Latin - vergo (twist, bow). This also includes the Ukrainian "vergun" (twisted flour product) and "verzti" (weaving nonsense, talking nonsense).

But basically in modern Russian "spew out" - this primarily means "delete, throw away, exclude something unnecessary".