What is hut? Meaning of the word

From the earliest times of mankind's existence, when primitive man built the first shelter in the weather from bad weather, and then he thought of covering a pit where he slept with branches and built a hut that protected him from rain and snow, people were already constantly striving for comfort.

The appearance of the first dwelling

People learned to protect themselves from bad weather in any way, and, having learned this, they did not stop only on providing security, gradually surrounding themselves with various amenities. During the glacial period, they looked for the cave warmer, semi-sedentary Paleolithic hunters built durable houses on trees, learning from birds, like bird nests. The variety of dwellings is amazing.

Types of temporary dwellings

Here are just some of them. Yurt - an easy dwelling at the Mongol, which was transported behind the herds from one pasture to another. Round shape, 6 meters in diameter, the yurt divided into 12 parts, each of which was given the sign of the eastern zodiac. In each yurt there was a sundial, with the help of which the nomads recognized time by the ray of sun, penetrating through the hole in the roof.

And in Greenland and Alaska and in our time still use a snowy house - an igloo. The house is simple in construction, it perfectly protects from the Arctic cold. From a dense layer of snow, large plates are cut down and stacked on each other in a domed shape. In the snow a narrow long tunnel is pulled out - the entrance to the dwelling. Inside, the oil lamp is lit and when the walls are moistened with heat, the frosty air is started, thus chilling the walls and making them sturdy. Inside, people sleep on snow beds with several layers of skins, prepare food and eat, using for heating and heating the lamp-grease.

Special mobile housing is the yaranga of the nomadic peoples of the north. The backbone of the yaranga was the poles, the roofs were inclined poles. The whole building was covered with deer skins, the floor was also covered with skins.

Cottage as a permanent residence

With the transition to a sedentary way of life, people began to build permanent monasteries - huts. What is hut? In this need to understand. In the annals from the 10th century, an Old Russian dwelling is described - a stucco, a stump, an istba, a hut. Lexical meaning - Russian felled house.

Previously, the cottage was the main dwelling of Russian villages and towns, but from the 17th and 18th centuries it was replaced by a rural house. It was built from logs fastened in a wreath, the roof was made of wood or straw. Special ornaments were a carved horse and a porch; The facade was adorned with decks, towels, carved platbands. Many of the cottages were decorated with paintings. The view of the hut is varied: with four walls, five-walled, with three, five, and more windows, with wooden or earthen floors. But everyone close to the square form - so it's easier to heat the room. To the warm hut adjoin household premises in which get, not leaving on street that is very actual in bad weather. For a long time the layout of the hut was kept constant: cold walls, from them in one direction was a living room - a heated log house, on the other side - a place for household utensils and lodging in the summer.

Black and white hut

It is difficult to imagine a hut without a chimney above the roof, but in the old days it simply was not there, the smoke was leaving through the doorway or a special window above it. It was called a hut - black or black. The windows were elongated small openings (height as the thickness of a log), if necessary covered with a plate. A detailed overview of the interior of the home will help to understand what a hut is. The main thing in the hut, of course, was to bake.

In the north and center of Russia, the oven was at the back wall, near her there was a place to sleep - a shop. From the oven upstairs to the wall, the place was occupied by the floor. In each hut there was the brightest place of honor - the sacred red corner, where there was an iconostasis, the Gospel, holy water. The corner was always kept clean, most of the rituals related to birth, wedding, funeral were performed here.

Along the rest of the walls there were long benches, in the corner opposite there was a table. It would seem that in a black hut all the time should be dark and dirty from soot and smoke. But the peasant huts of the peasants surprised with their cleanliness: a white tablecloth on the table, embroidered towels on the walls, in the red corner - sparkling salaries of icons. This is the striking cunning of the houses. According to the laws of construction and physics, a little higher than the height of a person is the limit, behind which the upper logs and ceiling are covered with soot. Smoke, rising upwards, never falls below this boundary.

What is hut white? Unlike the hut, white has a chimney. Above the pole of bricks is placed a branch pipe, it collects smoke coming from the furnace. Then the smoke gets into a horizontal deckchair from the burnt brick in the attic, and through the pipe is out. Unlike the hut, in the white hut there were frames on the windows that were closed with a bubble or mica, and from the 18th and 19th centuries glass was inserted and shutters were locked outside.

The meaning of the word "hut"

The term "hut" ("yzba", "whisk", "ystba", "source", "source") is used in Russian annals from the oldest times. Its relation to the verbs "to heat", "to stoke" is defined. The house designates the heated dwelling. By the way, all the Slavic peoples have the word "source" and it means a structure that is heated, necessarily with an oven. The first residential buildings of our ancestors, before the ovens appeared, were not called the cottages. The name came exactly when these dwellings began to be heated. Then they began to be called "source", or "istba". And from isbi gradually became a hut.

What is hut, will help to understand the analysis of the word itself. Literally, the word "hut" is divided into two parts: outside (of) protecting (ba). Etymologists support the version that the word "isbi" has gradually become a "hut". The meaning of the word according to syllables: separate (is), firmly fortified (t), protecting (ba). Therefore, the terms "istba" and "hut" have one meaning. The meaning of the word hut in the explanatory dictionary of Efremova: "The hut is a log-house in the village or the interior of such a house".

Believing in the construction of a hut

The construction of a dwelling for the owner was a special, almost magical event. Was the hut important? Symbolic and mythological significance played a major role in the life and way of the peasants. At the same time it was an important task for them not only to install a roof over their heads for themselves and their families, but also to create a dwelling so that it would be filled with warmth, peace and love.

Such a dwelling can be built only according to the precepts of the ancestors, deviations from the rules of the fathers were unacceptable. The choice of terrain for a new hut was of special significance: the place should be dry, high, light - and its most magical value: it should be happy. Happy was considered a settled place where people's lives passed successfully and safely. Unfavorable for the hut were places of burial of people, on the site of the road or where the bath was before.

Material for building a hut

Scrupulous rules applied to the material for the log house. Russians preferred to build huts made of pine, larch, and spruce. These trees had long and even trunks that densely folded into the frame, perfectly preserved the heat of the house, and did not spoil for a long time. But the choice of trees was limited to a large number of prohibitions, which were strictly forbidden to violate, so that the house that was in trouble did not turn out. So, it was forbidden to cut down the "sacred" trees for the house, they bring death to the house. The taboo was for cutting old trees. It was forbidden to take dry trees for the structure of the house, they were considered dead. A great misfortune will occur if a "riotous" tree appears in the canteen, which grew at the crossroads. It was believed that such a tree can break down the frame and pin down the owners of the house. The construction of the hut was accompanied by a large number of rituals. Under the first lower logs, windows, corners put money, wool, grain - symbols of prosperity and well-being. Upon completion of the work, all the builders were generously treated.

Why can not you take the rubbish out of the hut

"Carrying rubbish out of the hut" - the meaning of phraseology goes back to the belief that the garbage can be put to damage to the owner of the house or to members of his family, relatives. To avoid this, a ritual has developed - you can not take garbage out of the hut, but you should burn it in the oven. According to ancient beliefs, the garbage could get to the hair and various objects, through which the damage was caused by evil people. Over time, the popular phrase "take the dirty linen out of the hut" has become meaningful, as a ban on the dissemination of family information about quarrels and conflicts. Nevertheless, the essence of this expression and in our time remained relevant, because taken out of the house negative information, hitting the intruders, can sometimes do more harm than the hair in the hands of the sorcerer.

Of course, modern wooden huts are very different from those that were built several centuries ago, these are rather cottages for rest and status. Painted and carved, they now represent almost works of art.

This is correct, because people have always striven for comfort, beauty and comfort, the main thing is not to forget at the same time its origins and history, because without the past, as they say, there is no future.