{"id":19097,"date":"2020-04-23T14:50:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T14:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=19097"},"modified":"2020-04-23T14:50:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T14:50:51","slug":"life-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=19097","title":{"rendered":"Life Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Russian, a painting or picture is a <strong>\u0436\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043f\u0438\u0441\u044c<\/strong> [\u0290\u0268v\u0259p\u02b2\u026as\u02b2]. This comes from <strong>\u0436\u0438\u0432\u043e\u0439<\/strong> [\u0290\u0268\u02c8voj] (alive, living, live, lively) and <strong>\u043f\u0438\u0441\u0430\u0442\u044c<\/strong> [p\u02b2\u026a\u02c8sat\u02b2] (to write). So you could say that a Russian painter is &#8220;writing life&#8221; and that their paintings are &#8220;life writing&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D0%B6%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%8C\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>An English word with a similar literal meaning, but a different actual meaning, is <strong>biography<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Another Russian word for picture, and also image or scene, is a <strong>\u043a\u0430\u0440\u0442\u0438\u043d\u0430<\/strong> [k\u0250r\u02c8t\u02b2in\u0259], which comes from the Italian <em>cartina<\/em> (fine paper, map), from <em>carta<\/em> (paper, map, menu, card), from the Latin <em>charta<\/em> (papyrus, paper, poem), from the Ancient Greek <em>\u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2<\/em> (kh\u00e1rt\u0113s &#8211; papyrus, paper), from <em>\u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u03c9<\/em> (khar\u00e1ss\u014d &#8211; I scratch, inscribe), from the Proto-Indo-European <em>*\u01f5\u02b0er-<\/em> (to scratch) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>If languages were logical and consistant, you might expect that Russian words for art, artist, painter, picture and to paint might be related to <strong>\u0436\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043f\u0438\u0441\u044c<\/strong>. Most of them aren&#8217;t:<\/p>\n<p>Art is <strong>\u0438\u0441\u043a\u0443\u0441\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e<\/strong> [\u026a\u02c8skustv\u0259], which also means skill, craftsmanship, craft. It comes from the Old Church Slavonic <em>\u0438\u0441\u043a\u0443\u0441\u044c\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e<\/em> (iskus\u012dstvo), from <em>\u0438\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0443\u0441\u044a<\/em> (iskus\u016d &#8211; test, experiment), probably from the Proto-Germanic <em>*kustiz<\/em> (choice, trail), from the Proto-Indo-European <em>*\u01f5ews-<\/em> (to taste, try), which is also the root of the English words choice, cost and gusto [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>An artist or painter is a <strong>\u0445\u0443\u0434\u043e\u0436\u043d\u0438\u043a<\/strong> [x\u028a\u02c8do\u0290n\u02b2\u026ak]. It comes from the Old East Slavic <em>\u0445\u0443\u0434\u043e\u0436\u044c\u043d\u0438\u043a\u044a<\/em> (xudo\u017e\u012dnik\u016d &#8211; artist, painter, master), from <em>\u0445\u0443\u0434\u043e\u0433\u044a<\/em> (xudog\u016d &#8211; skillful, experienced, lucky), from the Proto-Slavic <em>*x\u01ebdog\u044a<\/em>, from the Proto-Germanic <em>*handugaz<\/em> (handy, skilful, dextrous), which is also the root of the English word handy [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D1%85%D1%83%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>There are several Russian words for to paint:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u0440\u0438\u0441\u043e\u0432\u0430\u0442\u044c<\/strong> [r\u02b2\u026as\u0250\u02c8vat\u02b2] means to draw, paint, depict, and comes from the Polish <em>rysowa\u0107<\/em> (to draw, sketch), from the Middle High German <em>r\u012bzen<\/em>, from the Old High German <em>r\u012bzan<\/em> (to scratch) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u043a\u0440\u0430\u0441\u0438\u0442\u044c<\/strong> [\u02c8kras\u02b2\u026at\u02b2] means to paint, dye or adorn. It is related to the word <strong>\u043a\u0440\u0430\u0441\u043a\u0430<\/strong> (paint, dye, ink, colours), which comes from the Old Church Slavoic <em>\u043a\u0440\u0430\u0441\u0430<\/em> (krasa &#8211; decoration) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%8C\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u043f\u0438\u0441\u0430\u0442\u044c<\/strong> [p\u02b2\u026a\u02c8sat\u02b2] means to write or paint (a painting). It comes from the Old East Slavic <em>\u043f\u0438\u0441\u0430\u0442\u0438<\/em> (pisati &#8211; to write, paint), from the Proto-Slavic <em>*pisati<\/em> (to draw depict, write), from the Proto-Indo-European <em>*pey\u1e31-<\/em> (to hew, cut out; stitch, embroider, sting; paint, mark, colour), which is also the root of the English words paint and picture [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%8C\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/omniglot\/49424121198\/in\/album-72157712784539843\/\" title=\"mouse cat\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49424121198_565c410b66_z.jpg\" alt=\"mouse cat\" width=\"511\" height=\"640\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>An example of calligraphic art by <a href=\"https:\/\/margaretshepherd.com\/\">Margaret Shepherd<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/s\/aHsmKUhSeH\">More examples<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Russian, a painting or picture is a \u0436\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043f\u0438\u0441\u044c [\u0290\u0268v\u0259p\u02b2\u026as\u02b2]. This comes from \u0436\u0438\u0432\u043e\u0439 [\u0290\u0268\u02c8voj] (alive, living, live, lively) and \u043f\u0438\u0441\u0430\u0442\u044c [p\u02b2\u026a\u02c8sat\u02b2] (to write). So you could say that a Russian painter is &#8220;writing life&#8221; and that their paintings are &#8220;life writing&#8221; [source]. An English word with a similar literal meaning, but a different actual [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,104,107,10,15,177,175,176,178,44,45,47,52,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-greek-","category-english","category-etymology","category-language","category-latin","category-middle-high-german","category-old-church-slavonic--","category-old-east-slavic","category-old-high-german","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-slavic","category-russian","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19097"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19115,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19097\/revisions\/19115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}