The verb ‘plakat’ as an example of proto-slavic deetymologization: the development of the meaning of ‘to beat’ to ‘to shed tears’

Abstract

The article is devoted to etymology of the Russian verb ‘plakat’, coming from Proto-Slavic root *plak-, which (judging by the data of other Slavic and related Indo-European languages, as well as non-linguistic facts) had the original meaning ‘to beat, to strike’ (to strike in breast while mourning the dead was a ritual described by many peoples). Back in the Proto-Slavic period this meaning has become wider ‘to mourn somebody; to grieve about somebody; to shed tears’, what is seen in Old-Russian textes. These examples demonstrate how far can the modern meaning of a word deviate from the original one due to changes in its formal and semantic features. But the deetymologization is not at all a spoilage of the language, on the contrary, it is a consequence of its development, thanks to this, the language is enriched with new meanings.