What is a kuren? Meanings of the word

The article tells about what is kuren, what values this word has, and some of its synonyms.

Language

In any language that is alive (people talk on it) and develops, eventually words appear that have several meanings at once. As a rule, they are all quite old, although there are exceptions. For example, the word "language" means both oral speech, and an organ in the person's mouth, and some kind of elongated terrain or dais, and even a prisoner of war who can provide valuable information.

One of such polysemantic words is "kuren".

So what is a kuren, what values does it have and what does it mean? This is what we'll look at in this article.

Definition

The word "kuren" comes from the word "smoke" (that is, drown in a dwelling, heat it, and then smoke smokes in it). So, relatively recently, by historical standards, the dwellings of Russian Cossacks were called. However, this word was spread in the southern part of Ukraine. But first things first.

Initially, the word "kuren" was used to designate a special defense structure and the place where Russian Cossacks lived. True, the Ukrainian Cossacks used it in a similar way. The first settlements of the Cossacks were erected in the marshes (thickets of reeds and sedges near the river), their walls were often constructed of woven rushes of reeds or vines, the roof was also of similar material, in the center of which there was an opening for the exit of smoke from the hearth. But in the period of high water, such dwellings were often flooded, and over time they began to be built on stilts.

This characteristic feature can also be traced in the modern dwelling of the Cossacks. Usually the Cossack kuren is made two-story, and the first floor is built either on stilts or from stone.

On the first floor, stores and tools were usually stored, but they lived on the second floor. (Now we have a general idea of what a kuren is.) He also served this floor as a refrigerator: he did not have windows, but ventilating holes were cut in the walls.

Ukrainian meaning

In the period from the 16th to the 18th century, the Ukrainian Cossacks called the military-administrative unit Zaporozhye Sich. This term was also used in units of the Black Sea Cossack Army. And during the Great Patriotic War, Ukrainian nationalists called their detachments of several hundred fighters.

Zaporozhtsy used this word also to refer to a village in which there were about 100 houses.

Most likely, such names of the division of Cossacks from the times of Zaporizhzhya Sich were given because initially, in their first years, the Cossacks lived in long huts made of vine, cane and rods, and in the Little Russian dialect this word means "hut". So now we have expanded our understanding of what a kuren is.

Over time, instead of flimsy huts were built strong huts, and subsequently they adopted this name. Also they were all named in memory of those places from which the first Zaporozhian Cossacks who founded them were born . And each kuren had its subsidiary farm, which provided the Cossacks attached to it with provisions. At the head of the kuren stood his ataman. He was elected exclusively at the Cossack Council, where all had the same right to vote.

Kuren: synonyms

Synonyms for this word are "hut", "stan", "settlement", "strengthening". Pomors also called a small, heavily dilapidated hut and a strong snowstorm. And in some regions of Russia this word was used to refer to the space in the forest where trees were cut and fired to become charcoal. True, in our time it is outdated and no longer used. There is a word, by the way, in the Mongolian language, and denotes a settlement of nomads, which consists of many yurts.

Well, we figured out what kuren is and what the multiple meanings are for this word.