The great Russian poet immortalized this word with a bold stroke of the pen. In the fairy tale of Alexander Sergeevich, the princess acted "like a peahen." Did the poet praise her or laugh at her?
Definition
The meaning of the word is quite everyday, there is nothing grandiloquent in it. Pava is a bird, more precisely, a female, and more precisely, a female peacock. Just like a sparrow has a sparrow, an eagle has an eagle, a rooster has a hen, so a peacock has a peahen.
Meaning of the word "peahen"
There are always comparisons in human speech, including metaphors, when people are assigned signs, qualities, models of animal behavior. Vigilant as an eagle; dirty as a pig; clumsy as an elephant. Even if the animal does not actually possess these qualities, they are only invented by man (pigs are quite clean animals, the elephant can be very fast and agile).
But not with Pavo. Have you seen a female peacock at the zoo? Have you noticed how she carries herself? Watching these wonderful birds, you can see that they themselves give themselves first place in the bird beauty contest. Their movements are always smooth, there is no fussiness, they look proudly, the beak is raised up, as if the peahen is really a queen.among the birds!
Just all these qualities are assigned to a woman, calling her pavoy:
- celebrating her outward beauty;
- proud posture;
- slowness and smoothness of movements;
- calm, reserved manner of communication.
Neither fish nor meat
But, as they say, everything is good in moderation. If in a woman the above qualities are expressed in good self-esteem, restraint and elegance, then, of course, "pava" is a compliment.
When she is arrogant, proud, biased, her behavior is inappropriate, there is nothing to be proud of, although in this case you can call her pavoy. Each stick has two ends.
There is also an expression about a peahen and a crow: they say that the person under discussion cannot be attributed to either this or this detachment of birds. Here, everyone perceives it the way they want. You can be offended by uncertainty, or you can rejoice at the golden mean.
In the true meaning, albeit allegorical, pava is a word with an exclusively positive meaning. Majestic, proud, sedate, stately, slender, beautiful. Do you feel like walking around?
The negative coloring of "pavé" is given by human features that have nothing to do with peacocks. When a woman is attractive, but does not know how to appreciate it, behaves cheekily, arrogantly, inappropriately, disrespectfully with everyone around her, speaks loudly, a lot, not to the point - this, unfortunately, is also a pava. They just say this with irony, mentioning the chicken more in the subtext, because the peacock belongs to the orderChicken.
They were domesticated back in Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Arabia, kept in the palaces of Rome and Greece, sometimes almost like chickens. Some gourmets even ate their eggs. Although, of course, the beauty of their plumage was more appreciated.
From Pushkin to the present day
The word "peahen" is unlikely to be heard in a conversation at a nearby table in a cafe or read in a modern detective story. It has lost its popularity, demand, like many others (basa, parun, row).
Language is like a living organism, it develops, grows, some cells (words) die off (forgotten), new ones appear.
Several hundred years ago, a great poet complimented the heroine of his work. If the word "peahen" was not then popular, widely used, then after the Swan Princess, probably, many proud, self-confident beauties heard it addressed to them.
Although, if you specifically pay attention, it turns out that such a comparison was often used in the literature. Turgenev, Chekhov, Derzhavin, Melnikov-Pechersky, Pasternak, and later - in Yegorov's song have "peahen"
It is possible that this word will return to the active Russian language, and again clouds will float like peacocks, girls will go, roses will bloom…
