Thread: красная площадь

did this square have a different name before the revolution? Or was it красная in the archaic sense of beautiful?

Yes, I have asked this question before, and I have got the answer that you gave - krasniy meaning beautiful in some older form of Russian

Are krasniy and krasiviy related related etymologically then?

begemot: Красная площадь has had this name for centuries.

and yes, "красная" is used here in its old sense of "beautiful" or "excellent".

to waxwing: I believe that you are correct that the two words are connectedetomologically, although I don't have access to etimological dictionaries at the moment.

I thought it was named for the лобное место, where they chopped off people's heads. You know, blood spilled, blood was rd, etc.

Then again, you're probably right, it's not like public executions in medieval times were anything uncommon.. :P

As I remember from history lessons Red Square use to be a market place... Maybe it was called something else before they started executing people there...

Originally Posted by Harley

As I remember from history lessons Red Square use to be a market place... Maybe it was called something else before they started executing people there...

Before XVII century, it was called "Торг" (Marketplace).
About executions: contrary to popular belief, Лобное место was never used as an execution place. It was just a spot where tsar's heralds read aloud Ukazes.

People were sometimes executed nearby, on a special wooden platform, but I doubt that "Красная" is in any way connected with blood.

Man, I love the word "Торг." It's very appealing-sounding to me. I heard it for the first time in Pskov, when my travelling buddies and I were trying to decipher a passage in our weirdo Soviet-era guidebook, and since then I've been referring to anything that could be construed as remotely tорг-like as a tорг. Tорг tорг tорг.