Article

Name: Brownie kuzyutka: the internal form and symbolic meaning of a word in the light of sociological and ethnographic data

Authors: I. V. Yakushevich

Moscow City University, Moscow, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract: The paper is devoted to the analysis of the internal form of the Tula dialect word kuzyutka, meaning brownie. Analysis of the internal form allows detecting a hidden, symbolic meaning of the word (A. N. Afanasyev, A. A. Potebnya, V. N. Toporov). More broadly, the paper addresses the problem of the etymological significance of the semantically syncretic (M. V. Pimenova) root of kuz-, which is the basis of a number of root words and the source of several symbolic meanings of the brownie. The analysis has revealed three variants of the etymology of the word Kuzyutka: 1) from the Russian Kuzma, identified by folk etymology with the blacksmith and ascending to the name of St. Cosmas; 2) from the dialect word kuzyukat (and its variants) with the meaning “to tickle, making ‘horns’ with fingers,” which goes back to the Turkic koza; 3) from Turkic kuzov. All three meanings are united by common symbolic meanings ‘fertility’, ‘prosperity’, ‘children’, ‘marriage’, ‘needlework’ related to the lexical background and have cultural and mythological value. The choice of the most probable version – kuzutka as a diminutive version of Kozma – is justified by sociological statistics and ethnographic data processed using the cartographic method. From ancient times, Dubensky area, where the word was fixed, and its surroundings were famous for blacksmithing. That is why there is a very high concentration of the temple consecrated in honor of St. Cosmas and Damian – the patrons of the blacksmiths.

Keywords: internal form of the word, brownie, symbol, etymological meaning, symbolic meaning, lexical-semantic syncretism

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