Dictionary Essays: Where Does the Word “Peasant” Come From? (From Notebook of Linguist-Archivist)

The article publishes and analyzes Professor S. P. Obnorsky’s 1929 response to the Service Bureau of the Leningrad Regional Information Bureau concerning the origin of the word “peasant” and the development of one of its meanings — “farmer.” This material is published for the first time from the holdings of the St. Petersburg branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences and sheds light on the multifaceted activities of the Vocabulary Commission. The Commission addressed not only purely academic linguistic issues but also practical questions arising from contemporary language use. A key feature of Obnorsky’s response is his detailed examination of the word-concept “peasant.” He traces its etymology, explores its variable word-formation and grammatical forms, and compares its semantics with those in ancient and Slavic languages, thereby revealing its original meanings. The publication is accompanied by an overview of Obnorsky’s lexicographic career, highlighting his adherence to the principles of normativity and historicism in linguistic description — principles established by his mentor, Academician A. A. Shakhmatov. The paper also discusses the challenges and contradictions faced by dictionary compilers in the 1930s. A commentary on Obnorsky’s response compares interpretations of the lexeme “peasant” across various Russian dictionaries. This paper is valuable for historians of language, comparative linguists, etymologists, and semasiologists. It emphasizes the importance of popularizing the historical and cultural context of language and expanding the knowledge base, advocating for more thorough analysis of “ordinary” words whose origins trace back to ancient times. Furthermore, the article contributes to the history of Soviet linguistics by illustrating a notable instance of interaction between academic scholars and the public.