Thread: друг and другой

I am curious about the semantic origin of друг-. I have seen these examples:

друг : friend
друг друга : each other
другой : other

Obviously there is a sense of otherness about these words. My question is whether the word for "friend" came about because a friend is "another person" — meaning that the sense of "other" came first — or if the word for "friend" came first, and the sense of "otherness" logically followed.

As far as I know, "drugi" ("другой") means "second" in Polish. So maybe the Russain "друг" originally meant "the second me" (alter ego). You can continue the logic chain yourself

P.S. By the way, the Latin expression "alter ego" is translated in Russian as "второе я" (not "другое я").

Cool!

And actually Latin alter means "the second," or "the other of two." Очень кул.

I don’t know for sure, but maybe the original meaning was “someone intimate or similar”

WORD: друг

GENERAL: II., род. п. друга, мн. друзья́ (из др.-русск. собир. дружья ж., наряду с им. мн. друзи -- Соболевский, РФВ 22, 303), укр. друг, ст.-слав. дроугъ φίλος (Клоц., Супр.), болг. друг, сербохорв. дру̑г, словен. drȗg, чеш., слвц. druh, др.-польск. drug.

ORIGIN: Родственно лит. draũgas "спутник, товарищ", лтш. dràugs, др.-прусск. draugiwaldūnen вин. п. "сонаследник", др.-исл. draugr (поэт.) "муж" (Хольтхаузен, Awn. Wb. 39), гот. driugan στρατεύειν, англос. dréogan "совершать, добиваться", гот. gadraúhts στρατιώτης, д.-в.-н. trucht "отряд воинов, свита", д.-в.-н. truhti^n "военачальник, князь", лит. sudrugti "присоединиться"; см. Бернекер 1, 230 и сл.; Траутман, Apr. Sprd. 322 и сл.; BSW 59; Торп 214; М. -- Э. 3, 492; Френкель, BSpr. 109. Сюда не относятся непосредственно (вопреки Преобр. 1, 19 лат. drungus "отряд", ср.-греч. δροῦγγος "отряд" из др.-ирл. drong "толпа, отряд"; см. Вальде -- Гофм. 1, 374 и сл.

TRUBACHEV: [См. еще Трубачев, Терм. родства, стр. 172. -- Т.]

WORD: друго́й

GENERAL: друг дру́га, укр. дру́гий "второй", блр. другí -- то же, ст.-слав. дроугъ дроуга ἀλλήλους (Мейе 1, 64), дроугъ ἄλλος (Супр.), болг. дру́ги, сербохорв. дру̏гӣ, словен. drȗg "другой", drúgi "второй", чеш. druhý "второй", druh druha "друг друга", польск. drugi "второй", в.-луж. druhi -- то же.

ORIGIN: Первонач. тождественно друг II (Бернекер, 230; Траутман, BSW 59).

Vasmer

I'm afraid I can't read most of that, but thank you anyway!

Sorry, just saw your other post. I didn't realize you were just starting to learn Russian. I probably wouldn't put much guessing into etymology at this point.

Russian У comes from a nasal vowel (I'm not sure if this is always the case), and often you see ON in related languages.

For example, take муж husband. Way back in Indoeuropean it would be smth like mong-. In some contexts /g/ changes to ж zh. My guess here is that the /g/ is a suffix. Take it away and you have mon-, which is similar to Eng. man.

That's fascinating, Чайка! спасибо! It looks as if this nasalized vowel becoming У is also seen in the feminine accusative singular.

по-латински: Annam amō.
по-русски: Анну люблю.


By the way, как "prepositional" падеж по-русски? Нет в словари! (мой словарь: New Oxford Russian-English Dictionary).

Originally Posted by Лука

By the way, как "prepositional" падеж по-русски? Нет в словарях! (мой словарь: New Oxford Russian-English Dictionary).

Предложный падеж

Спасибо! Stress on the -лож- ?

New Oxford Russian-English Dictionary

Хм, у меня Oxford Russian Dictionary (Russian-English, English-Russian), third edition, и там оно есть.

Да, ударение падает на о.

The rhyme to memorize the standard order of Russian cases:
http://masterrussian.net/mforum/viewtop ... 3086#83086