What is the smerd - the etymology of the word and the history of its use

Remember the famous quotes from the beloved "Ivan Vasilyevich", who changes his profession: "Did you offend the boyarynyu, the smerd?", "Oh, you tramp, mortal pimple, smerd!"? We are amicably laughing at the bewilderment of Yakin (Mikhail Pugovkin), admiring Grozny (Yuri Yakovlev), but when we take a reread of Bulgakov's immortal comedy, we draw attention to the remarkable language, whose work is written.

Smerd smerdu discord

The modern reader, who quickly forgets lessons on such a school subject as history, for certain will not immediately tell what a smerd is, or rather, who it is. But the curious, of course, it will be interesting to find out that in this way the inhabitants of the ancient Russian state were called, except for the nobility (boyars) and the spiritual estate. Those. This term meant trading people, merchants and artisans, wandering buffoons and townspeople, as well as peasants. So what is a smerd? He is a commoner, a man of different origins. However, over time, the word acquires a different semantics.

The peasant question

Now some clarifications. Peasants in Russia were once free tillers. Then, as they became enslaved, they began to be divided into three categories: "people", "slaves", "smerds". "People" were people who did not have boyar owners who were of low birth. As the "Russian Truth" (test legal document XI-XVI centuries), if someone kills a free person and is caught, he must pay a fine of 40 hryvnia. And what is a smerd, if his life cost no more than the life of a slave (slave) - 5 hryvnia? Also, it turns out, a slave. Whose? Prince, ie. Boyar.

The category of smerds gradually began to include those free farmer peasants who were enslaved as social stratification and the growth of landed estates. This meaning of the word is characteristic precisely for the times of Kievan Rus.

Smerd "in Novgorod"

The Novgorod Republic was a special territory. And the rules there operated their own. What is the smerd according to local laws? It's a farmer dependent on the state, not a private owner. Then all the peasants began to be classified in this category. In Russia it was the tillers who were the most numerous category of citizens. The state gave them land plots, for which the smerds paid taxes to the treasury, and to the princes - the duty "in kind": food, linen, domestic animals, etc. Such peasants had to live in villages (from the word "villages" Ie, "sedentary"). Approximately by the XV century the term "smerdy" is replaced by "peasants". And since the army was being recruited from the common people, at the time of Ivan the Terrible and a little later such a word was called serving people.

In the documents (orders, letters, letters, petitions) of that time, this is an officially adopted form when the king addresses the soldiers. A few centuries later the concept of "smerd" turned into a contemptuous, almost abusive designation of serfs and raznochintsy. By the way, during the reign of princely strife, there was a specific, then out-of-use word "to be dead": to capture the subjects of the enemy-enemy.

And more about etymology and usage

Speaking of the origin of the word, it refers to the Indo-European language group. We examined the lexical transformation. It remains to be said about the additional semantic meaning obtained in the process of use. From the word "smerd", the verb "to become stupefied" was formed. "Foul smells". The fact is that in the cottages, where the poorest peasants and slave-slaves lived, the windows were tightened by a bull's bubble that did not let in the air at all. The furnaces were heated in a "black" way, the smoke hardly came out of the rooms, everything was smoking through and through. And late autumn, winter and early spring, along with people in the cottages kept and poultry with cattle. It is clear that the "fragrance" of the smerd could be smelled for a mile. Therefore, over time, the word "smerd" instead of "serf" began to denote a dirty, untidy, stinking person. The modern synonym is "homeless".