Vladimir Dahl, explaining the meaning of the word " graveyard " , gave the following example: " they don’t carry the dead to the graveyard. " Being the author of the dictionary of the Great Russian, and most importantly, living language, he included in his multi-volume work the expressions and winged phrases that he heard from ordinary people. The modern person in the phrase above will find some semantic inconsistency. In reality, everything is true. What is a graveyard? This word is derived from the noun " guest " . Therefore, the churchyard is a place where you can stay. Alive, but not dead .
History
What is a graveyard? This is a unit of administrative divisions established by Princess Olga. Kievan Rus was divided into sections. Residents of each of them paid tribute. This event was far from safe. It is enough to recall the fate of the husband of the same Olga. But the princes, in spite of everything, continued to regularly go round Russia and collect taxes. What is a graveyard? This is the place where they stayed with their squad during the collection of tribute. True, then it was called somewhat differently. Namely, "pogost".
We found out what a churchyard is, more precisely, what this word meant in Kievan Rus. But why today is it perceived more often as a synonym for the word "cemetery"?
Village, church, cemetery
What is a graveyard? At first, this word meant the stop of the princes. Then the administrative-territorial unit. Even later - the settlement, which was the center of smaller settlements. For a while, we will forget about what a graveyard is for a modern person, and put ourselves in the place of a resident of one of the villages of Ancient Russia.
After the adoption of Christianity, in every village there was a church. Not immediately, of course, but over time, small temples opened everywhere. Cemeteries of that era had little in common with modern ones. Burials were made only on the territory of the church. Thus, the center of each settlement was a church, and its cemetery was an integral part. Perhaps this is the answer to the question of what a graveyard is.
This word has several definitions, but it has not been used for more than two centuries as a designation of a settlement. At least in colloquial speech.
Archaism
A person can use the word “graveyard” in the meaning of “cemetery” in everyday life in order to decorate his speech with an archaic, atypical noun for a modern language. In some situations, this may sound ridiculous. But if he says, “I don’t like to visit the graveyard, because it’s gloomy and sad,” expressing his dislike for visiting the cemetery, at least they will understand him. But the statement "I live on a small graveyard" can cause bewilderment, and even frighten the interlocutor. Unless, of course, he is not a historian or a philologist.
Semantic transformation
How did it happen that the word, previously denoting a settlement, that is, associated with life, acquired a cemetery meaning over time? Nouns and verbs often change the semantic basis, but not so dramatically. Researchers believe that such a semantic transformation occurred as a result of linguistic taboos.
The inhabitants of ancient Russia were very kind to the word. So, they believed that nouns denoting unpleasant, undesirable phenomena should be avoided. For the inhabitants of a small village located near the forest, a meeting with a bear was not a rarity. But from that she did not become more pleasant. People preferred not to use the name of a formidable animal in vain, so as not to cause trouble. They preferred to be expressed allegorically: "No matter how you can meet a clubfoot in the forest."
What can we say about words directly related to death? The “cemetery” was gradually replaced by the “graveyard”. When a person was dying, they said “left” or “reposed”. In their love of allegories, people did not even notice how individual words lost their former meaning. In the 18th century, only one thing was understood as a graveyard - a rural cemetery.
But, for example, in the Orenburg province, outdated significance also existed in the 19th century. Here, by the graveyard was understood an inn located on the outskirts of the village.
In the dictionary of Ushakov
Another author of the great Russian language claimed that the churchyard is a village or village located in the north. Ushakov, as well as Dahl, said that this word should be understood not only as a cemetery, but also the entire territory on which the church is located. Pogost, as a place of eternal rest, has taken root in Russian speech so much that steady expressions have appeared. For example, "demolish the churchyard", which means "bury".
Many words, which today are part of the literary language, first appeared in folklore. And sometimes the authors of unpretentious songs and ditties gave the existing words a different meaning. Words such as graveyard, lepota, say, eat, finger, include in the active vocabulary is not worth it. But you need to know their meaning. In conclusion, it is worth citing as an example a line from a song written just a few decades ago. There is a word in it, the meaning and origin of which are discussed in this article. "The path from spring to the graveyard is short," which means "human life is short."