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The Russian Bear Growls

 

During the recent week when Dmitri Medvedev became Russian President, I wrote a column detailing the etymologies of his given names and surname. Since his surname Medvedev means descendant of an ancestor named ‘Bear,’ I had occasion to examine the roots of the Russian word for bear, medved.

Dozens of internet sites, purporting falsely to know Russian etymology, have been telling readers for months that the Russian word for bear, pronounced myedvyed means literally ‘honey-knower.’ No, medved does NOT mean honey-knower.

I received several emails, some polite, some rude, from our usual dear old friends, the e-experts who turn out to know very little indeed about the subject upon which they pontificate so vaticly.

First here is a passage from my column:

Медведь or Medved, a Honey of a Russian Name

The common Russian surname Medved is an apotropaic circumlocution for ‘bear’ meaning literally ‘honey-eater.’ This is an old Slavonic periphrasis for bear. Med is Russian for honey, and the ed root means ‘eat.’ The ed and yed roots are related to eсть [yest’] (Russian ‘to eat’) and are cognate with other Indo-European verbs like Latin edere to eat’ (which gives English the adjective edible) and even with the English verb to eat. Although the Russian word for honey is med, the combining form is medv- which becomes medu, a partitive genitive of med, so the literal meaning is “eater of honey.”

Another Russian word containing this Slavic root is the interesting and racist Samoyed, the name of a people and a breed of dog. Samo-yed means ‘self-eater’ in Russian, a synonym for cannibal! The Samoyed people do not call themselves by that name. They possess their own proper ethnonym, and it does not mean ‘eating people is fun’ or ‘cannibal.’ They call themselves Nenets (ethnonym: ненэця; Russian name: ненцы). They speak the Nenets language.

Russian Мед is Cognate with English Mead

The Russian word for honey ‘med’ is cognate with the name for a drink made from fermented honey, one of the oldest liquors made by humans, namely: mead.

Other Indo-European cognate relatives of mead and med are:

methu Greek ‘intoxicating drink made from honey’

madhu Sanskrit ‘honey, drink made from honey’

But the etymon or root maybe of Middle Eastern origin, because also apparently related are: m-t-q, a Semitic triliteral root, one of whose Hebrew reflexes is mathoq ‘sweetness.’ The m-t-q root also means ‘to suck,’ for mother’s milk is sweet to the nursing babe. One Arabic relative is matqa ‘sweetness.’

 

Now here’s one of the e-letters I received challenging my etymology:

“Dear Mr Casselman,

I noticed that you gave the etymology of medved as med-honey; ved-eat. Please allow me to point out that the meaning of 'ved' is not 'eat' or any cognate. You will find many Slavic words that contain the cognate 'ved'; in all such words that I am familiar with, the meaning of 'ved' is 'know' as in knowledge or 'speak' I presume as in 'speak ones knowledge' possibly similar to 'lay' as story.

 I am not a linguist but my conclusions are drawn from both Russian and the Southern Slavic dialects normally grouped as Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian (the naming of these dialects/languages is politically charged, generating much heat and little light), which I speak as well as from other Slavic languages which I understand and speak to a lesser or greater extent.

As you seem to be a proficient researcher, I would recommend that you verify my statements lest they be 'lay' (no pun intended) etymology, and if they prove to be true alter the entry accordingly.”

 

Kind of a snotty last paragraph, pal.

But, let's see how your bumptious contention stands up to scholarly scrutiny. (Heh-heh-heh)

Apparently I did not explain the etymology clearly enough.

Here’s part of my corrective reply to this walking Slavic encyclopedia:

 

The ed is Medved is indeed eat.

Every Slavic authority agrees with this derivation.

But, as I understand it, all linguists of the world are wrong and you, my little expert, you alone are correct.

Read, pal. Take a course in Russian and then branch out in third or fourth year into Proto-Indo-European comparative linguistics as it relates to Slavic languages.

I will explain why medved means honey-eater.

This word is made up of two roots, but their spelling and their correct division catches up persons with no real knowledge of Slavic etymology.

The first root is medv. Note: the /v/ goes with the med, the 'honey' root.

The second root is ed or better, yed, the 'eat' root.

Hence the usual Russian pronunciation: myedv+yed.

A bear eats honey. It is far too smart to “know” it.

The Proto-Indo-European root is medu ‘sweet’. The /u/ or /v/ is part of the ancient word and that /u/ survives into early Slavic forms.

Yes, the modern Russian nominative is med or myed, but several of the other Russian cases of the word are medu, namely the locative, the dative, and the partitive singular, all medu, from which the compound word was made.

Medved partakes of a very common pattern of Russian compound nouns, namely the partitive genitive of a noun as the first element of the compound (medv, medu) and a verbal root (ed or yed= eat) as the second element of the compound.

The Slavic root ved ‘know’ is nowhere to be found in the Russian word for bear.

Etymology is not what you feel about a word, based on your particular genetic salad. It is what patient study knows. Try some study, before you go parading around the internet blowing a horn which may well turn out to emit not triumphant brass notes but meek and fecal drivel.

Copyright © 2008 William Gordon Casselman