This is a unique case when the same epithet can have both a negative and a positive connotation. This contrast did not arise by chance. But first things first.
"Blessed": meaning of the word
A word can mean:
- extremely happy;
- Saint;
- crazy, holy fool.
The amplitude of human characteristics, which can be denoted by this word, is more than wide. Therefore, one must be careful with the epithet. And to offend, and to make a compliment, you can use the blessed token. The meaning of the word depends on the context. But where did it come from in Russian vocabulary?
Etymology
In the Old Slavonic language was the word "bogo", which meant happiness. Until today, only its short-consonant form “blessing” has survived, which has been preserved in the form of a noun and in separate words (“bless”, “favor”, “thank”). Also in the Old Slavonic vocabulary was the same root verb "bliss", meaning "read," "make happy," "praise." The word under discussion was part of the paradigm of this part of speech as a passive participle. Consequently, the one who was praised was called blessed. To this day, this meaning has been transformed, and the word itself has migrated from one part of speech to another - from the participle it has become an adjective and also a noun.
What does the word "blessed" mean today?
Happy
This word refers to a person not just in a state of happiness, but in its highest degree. He comprehended the meaning of his mission, feels the fullness of life, inner satisfaction with the conditions of his being. The discussed epithet is applied to a person when his sense of happiness has reached its peak and it is impossible even to describe it in words. The noun "bliss" derived from it has approximately the same semantics.
Most often, the word is used in religious literature. For example, in translations of the Bible into Russian, in place of the Greek "Makarios", the Jewish "ashra", and the Latin "beatus" is Russian "blessed". The meaning of the word "holy fool" is more familiar to the modern reader, so he may get confused. Take, for example, even the well-known lines from the Gospel of Matthew, which say that "blessed are the hungry and thirsty for truth, for they will be filled." Although we are talking about happy people, we can conclude that the mentally ill.
The verb "appease" has a slightly different connotation of meaning - "satisfy," "fulfill all desires."
Saint
In this meaning, the word refers to obsolete vocabulary. Blessed is the one whom the church considers already saved and abides in heaven. In Latin, the procedure for ranking saints is called beatification. This means that such a person will be revered as being close to God. The next step is canonization. For example, theologians Augustine and Jerome were awarded this title. Of the contemporaries, the mother of Theresa the Blessed is the most famous. The meaning of the word "holy" can be determined not only by context, but also by the capital letter with which this epithet is written.
Who has not heard of St. Basil, in whose honor the temple in Moscow is named? He was counted among the saints and is very revered in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was born right on the porch in 1469 in the vicinity of Moscow. For most of his life, Vasily went completely naked and spent the night all year in the open. For this they called him Blessed, because they believed that he had received a revelation from above and taught people morality with such behavior. It is believed that he was the only person whom Ivan the Terrible was afraid of. After the death of Basil, he ordered the construction of a cathedral on the site of his burial and named the temple by his name.
Holy fool
In this case, this is a noun. In order to describe a fool, a stupid or insane person, the “blessed” token is used. The meaning of the word has a negative connotation, although it is used mainly not to offend, but when you need to gently emphasize the presence of a mental illness in a person or some kind of strangeness in him.
Most likely, the lexical meaning of the word "blessed" acquired a negative connotation due to the fact that saints were considered mentally abnormal people. They were credited with the gift of divination and higher insight, and their emotional state was explained by the fact that they, they say, communicate with God and are in a prophetic trance. A vivid example of this is the same St. Basil. In the modern world, such people are usually sent to mental hospitals. And before, when such a field of medical science as psychiatry did not yet exist, they thought that this is how a person close to God should behave.
This meaning gave life to the noun "whim." So they call an absurd whim, a crazy undertaking, a fad. Although it does not harm, it is stupid and useless in essence, as well as holy fools walking without clothes.
These are interesting facts about just one polysemic word.